Founding Stories: Stroller Warriors® Iwakuni

By Katie P.

Stroller Warriors® Iwakuni was born long before I arrived in Japan.  

May 2014, Yuma, Arizona.
I was 35 weeks pregnant with my third child and my twins were about to turn two. I was living in a bubble, mostly at home, surviving with two toddlers and my double BOB stroller, rarely venturing more than a few miles from home and I hadn’t run since my 18th week of pregnancy. I discovered a Stroller Warriors Yuma chapter was founded in January while I was living under my chaotic rock. I joined the Facebook page and promptly received a welcome response explaining they were about to start Summer break because it’s too hot for workouts in the Yuma Summer. As any mom of multiple toddlers with a baby on the way desperate for adult contact would do, I attended the last Spring workout. I didn’t know anyone, I hadn’t run in months, and I wasn’t exactly on the top of my self-esteem game. “Welcome!” “We’re so glad you came!” “Wow, 35 weeks? You look fantastic!” Other military spouses with littles had goals for 5Ks to marathons and we talked about mom life, military life, and our lives. I felt like I had found my people!

I went home and told my husband I needed to get a triple stroller or put our twins in daycare so I could run with these girls. He humored my triple stroller search. If you’re wondering, BOB hasn’t made them in years, and the only used triples I could find were upwards of $800 in San Diego. Six months later, I put my twins in preschool on workout days and hit the ground running. Yes, I scheduled preschool around running. In those first few months, I learned a lot of things. Becoming a mom is amazing, gratifying, and life altering. It also exhausting, humbling, and isolating. From my first workout, I found encouragement from fellow members, and within a few weeks I knew at least one person was counting on me to be at workouts. Even if I didn’t feel like running, I had to show up because my friends were there, and that might well be the only adult interaction I had all week! Stroller Warriors reminded me that I can do something for myself, set goals, and push myself to achieve something I didn’t realize I still needed so badly.

My new support system encouraged me to train for and run my first half marathon since having kids, and they encouraged me to set a goal beyond what I ever would have set for myself. I had been running for 30 years playing soccer and other sports, and it took Stroller Warriors before I began calling myself a runner. For the first time since having kids I was making real connections with other like-minded parents. In this crazy military world where we’re often single parenting for weeks or months at a time, these friendships are golden. While I was discovering a new world, I also had the opportunity to see women grow around me as runners and moms, wives and friends. I saw confidence build in moms who had never run a 5K, and then I watched them finish 10Ks and half marathons. I watched moms riddled with injury get the support and encouragement they needed to get stronger and work to become healthier for themselves and their children.

I spent two years running with Stroller Warriors Yuma. When my husband received our expected OCONUS orders to Iwakuni, Japan, it hit me I had to leave my incredible support system. I didn’t know the inner workings of Stroller Warriors and looked to our Chapter Coordinator, Susanna, for information about a chapter in Iwakuni. I was bummed when she told me there wasn’t one; however, she suggested I start one. We received our orders a full 6 months out, so I had plenty of time to mull this idea over while I mourned the expected loss of my best friends. The friends who watched my baby so I could get a run in, who came home on a lunch break to run with me and push one of my kids in a stroller (because I never did buy a triple!), who babysat for me during dental appointments, and came to the rescue and watched my kids while my sweet old kitty was put down. When you find your sole sisters, they become more than just running buddies.

December 2016, Iwakuni, Japan.
I was cold the moment I stepped off the plane. Four years of 120 degree summers and 75 degree winters will acclimate a girl to warm weather. MCAS Iwakuni was a construction zone and the only place that looked safe for me to run with my 2 year old in tow was the seawall, which was closed except for a half mile stretch. Iwakuni is not the big city Japan you see on TV – it’s an old town with old bumpy sidewalks and tight tiny roads and back alleys. It also has a small town charm that will make you fall in love with suburban-ish Japan. 

I did not want to go running. It was cold. Sub-30 in the mornings. It rained. A lot. My husband kicked me out the door at 5am anyway. “You’ll be happier,” he’d say! I ran alone, and then I connected with an old friend from Yuma who showed me some longer run routes off base, and showed me where she ran with her stroller. We got lost and found incredible views of the ocean from atop hills and hidden shrines tucked into the mountainside. I discovered the lotus fields, the Japanese seawall, the Kintai bridge path, and an entrance to the seawall that would suffice for a stroller. I seeked out runners on base and learned there was a previous stroller group that had disbanded some time before I arrived. I met some of the members and a leader, who shared some great routes with me, including one that became a member favorite known as the ‘pickle path’ because of the green pickle shaped signs that indicate a crosswalk. I wore Stroller Warriors shirts when I went to the commissary and the exchange, in hopes I’d find others who had run with a chapter elsewhere. I met at least one incredible friend this way, as she was also strategically wearing a SW sweatshirt in hopes of making a new friend as well. When I applied to start the chapter, I’d found exactly 6 spouses who wanted to run with Stroller Warriors. I knew they’d be at our inaugural workout. That was all the motivation I needed to get us going. I didn’t expect them to show up with their 40 closest friends and what seemed like at least 50 kids!

Membership in Iwakuni is easy. Volunteers and motivators are plentiful. We explored Iwakuni on foot together. We found hidden shrines and a dozen routes to Iwakuni’s famous Kintai Bridge. By the end of our first year, we had 30 members competing in the Kintai half marathon or 10K, the only local annual race. An annual relay race held by the city and MCAS Iwakuni started up and we put together multiple teams of 4-10 to compete in costumes among the locals. Stroller Warriors Iwakuni may have been born in Yuma, AZ, but it has always belonged in Iwakuni. My personal experience with Stroller Warriors has become a similar experience for dozens of other military spouses living overseas stationed at MCAS Iwakuni. I left Stroller Warriors Iwakuni in the trusted hands of Mallory, who I met wearing a Stroller Warriors sweatshirt in the commissary. Soon, Mallory will pass the torch to a new leader who will continue to share a passion while providing a place for spouses to find encouragement, support, and motivation.

Thank you so much Katie for sharing your founding story with us! We are so grateful that you chose to dedicate your time and talents to founding Stroller Warriors Iwakuni, thus leaving your duty station a better place for future military spouses to PCS to! 

If you’re a Chapter Founder and would like your story featured please email me at Paige.swglobal@gmail.com! If you’re interested in founding a chapter and bringing Stroller Warriors to your location, please follow these instructions.