Last weekend, Canadian trail runner Stephanie Case won Britain’s 62-mile Ultra-Trail Snowdonia race. Had this been sometime between 2010 and 2020 it wouldn't been much of a surprise as she was a highly ranked long distance runner in her 20's and 30's. She had a miscarriage at age 39 and many questioned if it was caused in part by the running. So she stopped.
Stephanie worked with a fertility clinic for several years in order to get pregnant and finally gave birth to a daughter Pepper last November. After not running for years she wanted to try it again. So six weeks after delivery she went for a short jog. "It wasn’t easy. I felt like my uterus was going to fall out" she laughed. "But it still felt great to be running so I pushed through". She kept training and made up her mind that she was going to compete again.
Stephanie signed up for this 62 mile race as a warm-up for July's Hardrock 100km Endurance Race in Colorado. "I had no intention of even placing top 10 in this. I just wanted to compete against some elite runners because I knew they would push me much further than I could ever push myself".
Her qualifying time was not impressive so she was put in the 3rd wave of runners which started 30 minutes behind the elite field. As the race dragged on mile after mile she began passing people in the 2nd wave. Then the first wave! Not only was she passing some of the best in the world after not competing for years and being 42 but she also had to stop to breast feed Pepper! Her husband carried Pepper to meet her at aid stations with for feeding breaks
She completed the ultramarathon in 16 hours, 53 minutes, and 22 seconds, finishing four minutes ahead of the second-place runner!
Stephanie says new moms should ignore the many voices telling them what they should or shouldn't be doing postpartum and listen to your own body. And don't be afraid to push yourself! "Let's be real, when I started dry heaving, I lost all bladder control after 95km".
That's probably more than most of us wanted to know.