When new mom and ultrarunner Stephanie Case chose to compete in the Snowdonia ultra-trail, she wasn’t expecting to win. Six months before the 100km (62-mile) ultramarathon, the 42-year-old welcomed her daughter, Pepper, after “recurrent miscarriages and IVF failures.” On social media, she explained that her goals for the race were pretty simple: “To enjoy myself and make sure Pepper was fed at aid stations.”
Then, she won. As she celebrated the achievement, she also shared some powerful advice with other moms and moms-to-be.
She knows a lot of people have opinions ‘about what new moms should or shouldn’t be doing.’
Ultrarunning is an important part of Stephanie’s life and something she used to cope with stress. But after she experienced a miscarriage, comments from friends made her give it up, The Guardian reported. Friends with good intentions suggested that running could’ve led to the miscarriage. Because she really wanted to have a child, she stopped running — and then experienced pregnancy loss again.
“When I got pregnant and miscarried the second time, people questioned whether it was the stress of my job that caused the miscarriage,” Stephanie told the publication. “I used to use running to deal with stress so I felt like I couldn’t win.”
Giving up her running routine made her feeling like she “lost [her] identity,” but she also really wanted to be a mom. Then, six weeks postpartum, her doctor said she could run with a midwife’s support. “Now, getting to have both running back and the baby, it really feels like a privilege,” she told the publication.
On Instagram, Stephanie acknowledged that people might make comments that cause new moms to doubt themselves. “Everyone has an opinion about what new moms should or shouldn’t be doing, and that doesn’t open up a lot of space for ‘out there’ ideas like running an ultra,” she wrote.
Stephanie breastfed her daughter during the race.
What makes Stephanie’s achievement even more amazing is that she won even after stopping to nurse her daughter several times. She breastfed Pepper at three different stops during the race, which was no easy feat.
“When you’re out on the trail, you’re in race mode, and the adrenaline is pumping and you’re trying to move as quickly as possible over the trails,” Stephanie explained to ABC News. “But as any mom out there will know, when you’re breastfeeding, your kid can pick up on your own energy, so when I got into the aid station, I needed to try to forget that I was in a race.”
In spite of stopping three times to breastfeed, the new mom placed first in the women’s section.
It’s not a ‘comeback’ though.
In her Instagram post, Stephanie made it clear that her achievement is not a “comeback.” “There is no ‘comeback’ after childbirth,” she wrote. “There is just the next phase. And whatever it looks like, whether on or off the trail, it’ll be right for YOU 😘.”
She also shared some powerful advice with other moms: “Whether you are thinking of being a mom, are pregnant, or are a new mom yourself, don’t be afraid to keep setting big goals for yourself.”
Though leaving her daughter at the aid stations “broke [her] heart,” she felt that what she was doing was important for both her and her daughter. “I have gained way more joy and strength from this sport as a mom than I ever did before,” she explained. “While it broke my heart to leave little Pepper at the aid stations, I wanted to show her — both of us — how amazing mom runners can be.”
At the same time, it definitely wasn’t easy.
Stephanie doesn’t want to romanticize this achievement. She acknowledged that every mom’s postpartum experience is different, and her experience shouldn’t set the standard for all moms. On Instagram, she clarified that she is “lucky to be physically okay after childbirth.”
She doesn’t want any new moms to feel bad or demotivated after hearing her story. “I’m quite open about how hard it is and how much support I have, and the messy parts of it,” she told The Guardian. “At 95K I was done, dry heaving and peeing all over myself. I ran with devices internally. It’s not all rainbows and bunnies and a lot of things have to come together for something like that to happen.”
