They carpool through the streets of Santa Barbara, they manage our local businesses and they hurry through the aisles at Vons. On Sunday they swam, biked and ran their way through the Gold’s Gym Women’s Sprint Triathlon at East Beach. They are the Moms in Motion, and they truly are unstoppable.

Founded in 2000 by local triathlete and mom Jamie Allison, the group was designed to bring women together in a constructive, meaningful way.

“It’s an awesome, inspiring, eclectic group,” said Allison, who has helped expand Moms in Motion to 10 other teams nationwide, with about 15 more in the works. The foundations of the group are fun, fitness and philanthropy.

In addition to training teams that include triathletes, runners, walkers and hikers, each year the group adopts a different charity. This year’s beneficiary is Domestic Violence Solutions. In addition to donating more than $1,000, Moms in Motion adopted one of the shelters, painting it and buying bed and bath linens and playground equipment, said Allison.

The idea is to pick a different group each session, so participants can learn more about local philanthropic opportunities. Past recipients have included Operation School Bell, the Daniel Bryant Youth & Family Treatment Center, the Barbara Ireland Walk for the Cure, the Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, and the Susan Love M.D. Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

The primary beneficiaries, however, are the participants themselves.

“I love the idea that women need some time for themselves, away from all of their other responsibilities,” said Emma Rollin Moore, who served as head coach for this year’s triathlon team since Allison is pregnant.

Everyone finished the sprint course on Sunday, Moore said.

“It’s a tough duty but somebody’s got to do it,” said Jon Beeson, the group’s only male coach.

While women of all ages and abilities are welcome, including those who aren’t moms, Beeson is the first man to join the team.

“He came as a guest speaker last year,” said Allison. “All the women loved him so much” that she asked him to come on-board as the head swim coach.

“Getting in the ocean is a little frightening for them,” said Beeson.

Even women who are strong swimmers are sometimes intimidated. Beeson said he mostly works with the “back of the pack” people to get their skills and confidence ready to tackle the triathlon.

When Cathy Leyva joined the team last year, she didn’t even know how to swim. Persuasive speakers convinced her to sign up for the triathlon team that night and, “as I was driving home, I realized … I don’t know how to swim!” Days later she was in pool alongside the preschoolers at Wendy Fereday Swim School. By her first team meeting, she had a basic stroke down.

Leyva, who never considered herself an athlete, finished her first triathlon last year.

“It was so exciting, like someone had given me a gift. At that moment I realized why I had joined this group,” said Leyva, who competed again Sunday.

“To these women we were all stars, even if we came in last.”

Fear of coming in last, along with the aforementioned fear of swimming in the ocean, is among the key challenges many of the women on the triathlon team face. Allison helps make at least one of those fears disappear for teammates.

“I always come in last place,” she said.

But clearly, there are no losers in this group.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon