Tag: Motherhood

Your Rules Are Wrong
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Dedicated to the 511 women who qualified for the US Olympic Marathon Trials, and the ones chasing them, and the ones chasing them, and the ones chasing them, and the Boston squeakers, and the ones chasing them, and anyone else chasing a goal or a dream.

Be a lady, they said. Women always retire from competing after having children. It’s a fact that runners don’t get faster after 35. The only reason women pick up running after kids is to lose the baby weight. You have to lose weight to get faster. You’ll never balance it all. Competition is the only thing that matters. Competition is unhealthy. Competition is unseemly for women. You never say you want to win, even if it’s true. Especially not when you have a family to think about. Be a lady, they said.

All your rules are wrong. Read more >>

Running and the Stages of Motherhood
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I was a mother for five and a half years before I became a runner. I survived colic, various illnesses, one round of potty training, daycare, preschool and Kindergarten before I started running. I’ve got a freshman in high school now (how did that happen?) and when I look back over their childhoods – please not over yet! – I see that being a mother-runner, or a mother who runs, is something that develops in stages.

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One Year as a #Motherrunner
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A little over a year ago I became a mom, and along with that came the title of “Mother Runner”. I love being a mom, I love being a runner, and yes, there are times I wear the Mother Runner title proudly.

Before I had Hannah, I had a lot of opinions about the whole #MotherRunner thing. As a childless runner, I had my accomplishments diminished many times because I wasn’t a mom, or because a mom out there did a similar thing but hers was considered more impressive. I always fired back that we ALL have responsibilities and things in life that make it hard to fit things in, doesn’t make one easier or harder than the other. I usually also used the pros as examples saying it would be ridiculous to compare female athletes by their childbearing status. Are Desi and Shalane less accomplished because they don’t have kids?

Now that I have a year of being a mom under my belt (which in some ways feels like a lifetime, yet I also still feel like I’m a pee-wee quarterback lining up with NFL pros) I have reflected a lot on my personal experience with being a mom, being a runner, and how my beliefs about both have shifted and grown over the last year. Read more >>

When Change Is Needed: An Update from Turmeric
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Being a new mom, having a full-time job, and training is not all butterflies and giggles. Let’s be honest, being a mom is both taxing and wonderful at the same time. I returned to work as an ICU nurse just 12 weeks after William was born last June and was just rolling with the punches. As I wrote in my last post, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis 6 months after William’s birth. I always expected to be tired and that being a mom would be tough sometimes, but the disease was pushing me to a whole new level of exhaustion. Read more >>

Balancing Pregnancy and Post-Injury Comeback
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Runners are creatures of habit. We run our same routes over and over, stick to our training styles and hate having our routines disrupted. But those routines can be upended by a few things: work, family schedules, illness, injury, pregnancy.

If we’re being honest, many of us would admit we ask ourselves how any of those changes will impact our running. Including me. Two months ago, I was that person. Only this time, it was two of those factors: returning to running post-injury while pregnant.

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Running with Older Kids
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The phrase “mother runner” often conjures up an image of a woman with a ponytail pushing a stroller. The struggles (and joys!) of running while also mothering a baby or a toddler can be intense and are frequent topics of discussion at Salty Running and in the running-while-mothering world more generally. But those children don’t stay little forever, as relatives at every holiday gathering will surely remind us. What happens when the little ones are no longer quite so little, and mom is still running?

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The Myth of the #Motherrunner
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Can you really do it all? Can you have a family, a career, go after your running goals, and be healthy and happy?

I think the answer is no. Hear me out.

When you scroll through Facebook or Instagram, you see these perfect photos of people who seem to have it all. And you might think the same about people you know in real life too. But the truth is that many of these people are beyond stressed and probably have some bad days just like you.

So, my question is, why do we think that this is normal? Why do we aspire to be perfect in all things? Is it in our DNA?

Recently I had to take a set back from training as well as writing for Salty Running and prioritize my overall health and well-being. I was doing too much, not taking enough downtime, and putting too much pressure on myself to be a perfect mom, perfect wife, and fast runner. I started becoming stressed about things and overreacting to minor daily problems. My body was telling me to slow down, and I had to listen.

Usually, in times of stress, I cut out running. Then after a few weeks, I end up missing it and just feeling kind of off balance. And of course, I remember that I’ve been through this before, and duh, running is helping me hold things together. I always find more focus and joy in my day when I start off with a run or some type of workout.

Maybe you’ve heard this story before. Maybe you think this is one of those first world problems. But I think there are a few of you out there that can identify with the concept of burning the candle at both ends. I want to tell you that it’s okay to chill out and do fewer things. It’ll be fine. Just give your body a chance to recover, and take some time to meditate and figure out what’s most important to you.

How do you handle the stress of “doing all the things”?

Postpartum Running Mommy Wars
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A few weeks after I started running again after giving birth to my daughter, a few people I know shared this video by a vlogger named Tova Leigh. The TL;DW version is that women are under ridiculous pressure to get their pre-baby body back within an instant of giving birth. I never heard of her before, but after browsing her posts I really liked her style. She’s a no-nonsense straight shooter about things and that appealed to me.

After a little while, though, this particular video about bouncing back got me thinking. While I generally liked the message, it didn’t sit completely right to me. It was like a pair of running shorts that fit great, made my butt look good, but sat a hair too short on my hips and caused some chafing. Read more >>

Running with BOB: A Tribute to Stroller Running
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“Free to a good home,” I typed on my Facebook home page. “One BOB running stroller. Well-loved.” I sniffled a little as I thought about that BOB, and the miles my girls and I had put in it together. Although I spent a lot of time excited for the days I could run without it, now I’d do anything for my kids to be small enough for just one more lap around the block with the BOB.

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Should I Get a Triple Running Stroller?
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Have you ever done something crazy to ensure you can run?

Like head out the door at 3:00 a.m., because you were traveling all day but wanted to get a run in? Or wash off with baby wipes before a business meeting because you had to run but couldn’t shower?

***

My husband is in the military and was recently deployed again. When the military deploys a married soldier, they give them a little extra money each month called “Family Separation Pay”. This is supposed to help ease the burden on the spouse back home. Many hire a lawn service or house cleaner. Others might treat themselves to a spa day or some other luxury to help forget their loneliness. Me? I bought a triple running stroller! Read more >>

Planning for Postpartum Running
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While my number one priority right now is nurturing a healthy and happy baby, I’ve reached the point in pregnancy where I’m starting to think more about postpartum running. Even though I haven’t been running much throughout this pregnancy, I knew at some point my dreams of running further and faster in the future would come back to the forefront of my mind. As a goal-oriented, competitive spirit, it was only a matter of time.

Besides being type-A, I’m also a planner; I like to make lists and charts and set my life up to help myself reach all my goals. I’ve done that for my pregnancy, as I’ve planned and plotted and prepared for everything from labor and delivery to fixing up the baby’s room for her arrival. When it comes to postpartum running, now it’s time to start planning how I’ll get runs in with a baby when she and I are ready to go.  Read more >>

Hollie Hughes: Pushing Her Son to a World Record
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As runners, we can often vividly recall our past races, we can instantly feel the race morning nerves long after the race has passed.

When Hollie Hughes thinks back to the 2016 Wineglass Marathon, she harkens back to race morning, and relives the moments spent getting herself and her six year-old epileptic son to race the 26.2 miles from Bath to downtown Corning, New York.

Little did she know as she pinned on her race number, that a few hours later she would break a Guinness World Record pushing her son in a Team Hoyt Chair to a 3:10 marathon. Their whole story though, began years before and continues to unfold.

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A Longer Term Look at Running After Baby
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I am of the age where many-many-many women in my life are having babies. I think I have had a friend, family member, or acquaintance give birth every month for the last two years. My little spit-fire, Alora is four already and I will say I am very, very-very-very-VERY, content she is past the infant stage.

Since her birth, I have trained consistently, avoided injury, and included my daughter in my running routine. I have also PR’ed at the 10k, half-marathon, and full marathon since her birth.

In four years, I’ve experienced a lot, made mistakes, did some things right, and learned a lot about running, motherhood, and myself.  Read more >>

Even in Hard Times, Running Is Not Selfish
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I was driving home from visiting my mom in the hospital, my mind a flurry of thoughts. I was worrying about my mom, thinking about how much I needed to do when I got home, trying to figure out what to feed the kids while debating the pros and cons of getting on the treadmill that night.

I started thinking about the runs I’d been missing, so naturally I started creating a plan to ensure I got all my workouts in the following week. Then I realized that I am terrible, selfish person. I have so many people that need me right now, and here I am worried because I’m not getting my runs in? Talk about needing to get my priorities straight!

I’ve written before about why it’s so important to keep running even when life has handed you more lemons than you’ll ever be able to make into lemonade. Somehow a year has gone by since I wrote about that and here I am with my proverbial plate overflowing with even more crap that life has thrown at me. I find myself wondering if maybe I wasn’t being naive, unrealistic, and selfish back then.

At times like these is it possible to run and not be selfish?

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Pregnancy, Running, Identity and Purpose
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We’ve talked about changing running identities before. Life changes, we change, our running changes. Sometimes that means change of scenery, and I myself went through this as I transitioned from the track to the roads after college. Maybe it’s the transition from road racing to trails or back to the roads. There are so many ways we adapt our identity throughout our running lives.

Lately, I’ve found myself struggling with my running identity in a way that I never saw coming. Don’t get me wrong. I knew pregnancy would affect my running but failed to predict the degree. Most people would assume I’m talking about slowing down, the break from competition, or the loss of complete control over my body. In reality it’s a little bit of everything.

As I reflect on my running and what I want out of it during pregnancy I’ve come to realize that, throughout every transition I have made, throughout my entire running life thus far, my running identity has always been tied to one thing. Read more >>