From ESPNW authored by Sophie Power as told to Natalie Gingrich Mackenzie:
“I was never sporty growing up. I was second to last in the mile. So my friends find it hilarious that I’m an ultramarathoner now. Perhaps even more so that I’m now famous for breastfeeding my 3-month-old son, Cormac, during a race, which I finished in early September.
I started weight training for the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), a 170-kilometer, nearly 106-mile race around the tallest peak in the Alps and Western Europe, when Cormac, my second child, was 4 weeks old. I kept on the stair climber as well as the treadmill with up to a 15 percent incline. I did a little bit of run training, but the real focus was getting my core back together, getting my arms strong in the gym and then walking uphill.
The experience was completely different from any race I’ve done before. I started at the back of the field because I’d be breastfeeding, and that’s how I could get to feed. I had to take my time and go slowly, hiking the hills and eating at every aid station just to make sure I was getting down enough food to maintain my milk supply. Normally I’m an aid station queen. I’m super-organized and in and out in minutes. I just want to finish the race and get back to my kids.
Here, I couldn’t do that.”
