A mother and marathon runner just took multi-tasking to a whole new level!
According to Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Stephanie Case was breastfeeding her 6-month-old baby when she won a 62-mile ultramarathon last weekend.
Despite starting 30 minutes after the other participants and stopping to breastfeed her daughter Pepper, the Canadian trail runner won the Ultra-Trail Snowdonia’s 100K.
In a joint post on Instagram with a French photo and video agency called Peignée Verticale, Case was captured breastfeeding while eating a watermelon at the site of the ultramarathon and breastfeeding mid-race.
“Not only has Stephanie won the 100k race after giving birth to her daughter 6 months ago. 😳Not only has Stephanie breastfed her girl several times along the way at the aid stations. 🤱🏻,” the caption read. “But she has also won the race starting her race from far behind, with no access to an elite bib. Just wow. Kudos for the rest of your life Stephanie 🎩.”
The United Nations human rights lawyer took a pause from racing for three years during her fertility journey, which included miscarriages and multiple rounds of IVF.
Sharing an Instagram carousel of her postpartum marathon journey, Case reflected on her triumph.
“Well that was a surprise 😅,” she wrote. “I went into the @ultratrailsnowdonia 100km this past weekend with no expectations being just six months out from having little Pepper and three years after my last race due to recurrent miscarriages and IVF failures. It was meant to be my warmup to Hardrock 😅.”
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She added, “My goals were to enjoy myself and make sure Pepper was fed at aid stations. As I no longer have a UTMB index, I started in the last wave, 30 min after the leaders. Sure, I had hundreds of runners in front of me, but I could go at my own pace in blissful ignorance of my placing.”
Case described the marathon as being “like riding a bike - every kilometre that passed reminded me that I hadn’t lost a thing over these past three years.”
“I didn’t even know I had won until after I crossed the line. Being 30 min back meant that the race organizers needed to check the chip time. I WON?!? I think I repeated it ten times,” she continued.
Case advised other mothers to never “be afraid to keep setting big goals for yourself.”
