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When we talk about running in pregnancy and postpartum, we talk a lot about pauses, about grace, and about bodily changes: pelvic floor trauma, six-week “clearances” that often push new moms onto roads or trails or treadmills too soon with too little guidance. We talk about growing bellies and all that the female body can do, and it’s a good and worthwhile conversation.
But what we don’t talk about as much is just how intimately and intensely motherhood changes our relationship with running; how running and motherhood fundamentally change us at the core of who we are; and how running stays with us as we grow and as our babies grow—yes, even when our mileage is zero.
Some moms, like Lauren Radke, a mother in Los Angeles, empower themselves to train for birth like they’d train for any other race. “I looked at running and walking and getting fresh air as the best way my baby could train for this marathon we were about to face,” she says.
Sam DuFlo, a physiotherapist, running coach, and the founder of Indigo Physio, stopped running at about 17 weeks pregnant after…
