Stephanie Case wins 100K race, breastfeeding baby along the way : NPR

In the sport of ultrarunning, athletes often defy human limits. But at a recent 100-kilometer race in Wales, one runner took it to another level.

As seen in photos that quickly went viral, runner — and new mom — Stephanie Case sat down at three points along the demanding race course to breastfeed her six-month-old daughter. Case not only finished the race; she placed first among the female competitors.

“Well that was a surprise,” Case wrote on Instagram, posting photos of herself feeding her daughter while wearing her racing bib and gear. “I WON?!?”

Case had no idea victory awaited her at the Ultra-Trail Snowdonia race in Northern Wales. After a three-year break from competing, she was just happy to be running again. And to have a daughter, Pepper, after a long journey that included two miscarriages.

“I think the response has been overwhelmingly positive,” Case, 42, tells NPR, adding that the reaction “has shown me that we still have these ideas in our head culturally about what a new mom should look like.”

To her, the photos show “an athlete being a mom at the same time, and those things not actually competing with one another.”

“We don’t have to lose ourselves in becoming a mom and we can keep setting big goals for ourselves,” she says.

On a practical level, Case’s feat raises a key question: How did she make sure to get enough calories to power herself and a whole other human during an ultramarathon?

“It’s not just during the race,” she says. “It’s also in training, to make sure that my milk supply wasn’t affected. It’s not easy. I feel like I am eating all the time, but actually becoming a mum has made me a lot more efficient in both my training and in my fueling strategies.”

Case, a Canadian human rights lawyer currently based in Chamonix, France, says her coach, Dr. Megan Roche, helped to hone those strategies.

“During the race I was taking in about 80 to 100 grams of carbohydrates an hour,” she says. “And I kept that up until about 65K, and then I had to pull back a bit because I was getting quite nauseous. After reaching 95K, I decided to slow down and eventually finished the race. There is no scientific or medical evidence to support this connection, but it did raise doubts in my mind.

Once a place of solace, running started to feel like it might not be beneficial for me or my efforts to start a family. I began to distance myself from running. However, after experiencing another miscarriage following my pregnancy, people speculated whether the stress from my job was to blame.

Feeling lost without answers or a clear path forward, I struggled with the grief of pregnancy loss and infertility. It wasn’t until I had a successful pregnancy through IVF that I felt confident enough to start running again in my second trimester.

Even as my pregnancy progressed, I couldn’t fully relax, haunted by the fear of another miscarriage. Despite what the statistics or doctors said, the fear lingered until I held my baby in my arms.

As a new parent, I grappled with questions about my identity. Can I still call myself an athlete? What will happen to my career? It was a joy to rediscover running and reignite a part of my identity that had been dormant.

Starting with a simple goal of finishing a race, my ambitions quickly grew. Setting big goals became the new focus, pushing myself to see what I could achieve.

With those questions answered, I am now gearing up for the Hardrock 100, a race that set me on this journey. This time, I’ll have Pepper by my side. following sentence in a more concise manner:

“Despite the fact that she was feeling unwell, she still managed to finish her work on time.”

“She finished her work on time despite feeling unwell.”