Source : ABC NEWS
Completing a 100-kilometre ultramarathon is hard. Winning is harder.
Winning after starting 30 minutes later than the rest of the field is just about impossible, and doing it all six months postpartum while stopping every few kilometres to breastfeed your baby would be too far-fetched for Hollywood.
And yet, that’s what Stephanie Case did earlier this week.
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Case, a human rights lawyer with the United Nations, lost her trail-running ranking after not racing for three years while on a fertility journey.
After enduring recurrent miscarriages and multiple IVF failures, in November she gave birth to daughter Pepper, encouraging other mothers to “sign up for big things” after going through her toughest challenge yet.
“You’ve already got all the courage you need in you to accomplish impossible challenges,” she wrote on social media.
And, just a few months later, Case did the impossible.
She started 30 minutes after the “elite” field and said not having expectations of a podium finish gave her the freedom to run her own race.
But she wasn’t alone out there in the Welsh mountains.
Case said it broke her heart to leave Pepper after each aid station. (Instagram: peigneeverticale)
Partner John Roberts met her at various aid and refuelling stations with Pepper, who had a feed while her mum did the same.
“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,” the Canadian said.
And, almost 17 hours after starting Britain’s biggest ultramarathon, Case crossed the line and got the surprise of a lifetime.
“Being 30 minutes back meant that the race organisers needed to check the chip time,” she wrote on social media.
“I WON?!? I think I repeated it ten times.”
Case said she could not believe it when she was told she had won. (Instagram: theultrarunnergirl)
The run was supposed to be a warm-up for July’s Hardrock Endurance Run in Colorado, USA but her time of 16 hours, 53 minutes and 22 seconds made her the fastest woman in the field, four minutes ahead of second-placed Brit Lauren Graham.
Case worked with coach Dr Megan Roche, who specialises in female athlete science at Stanford University, to ensure it was safe and healthy for her to compete so soon after giving birth and while breastfeeding.
The 42-year-old also acknowledged that her efforts, “while inspiring to some, can be really demotivating for others”.
Case encouraged other mothers to ignore the many voices telling them what they should or shouldn’t be doing postpartum, and listen to experts and their bodies.
“I’m lucky to be physically okay after childbirth (although it’s taken a lot of pelvic floor work!). Others aren’t so lucky,” she said.
“And let’s be real, when I started dry heaving, I lost all bladder control after 95km.
“There is no ‘comeback’ after childbirth. There is just the next phase. And whatever it looks like, whether on or off the trail, it’ll be right for YOU.”
