How the New York City Marathon Supports New Moms on Race Day
For most of her life, Molly Huddle had a fairly simple routine before the start of a race.
Huddle, an elite runner, packed a bag, ate a pre-race meal, did some exercises and headed to the starting line. She knew what she was doing: Huddle is a two-time Olympian and former American record holder in the 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters and half marathon.
But now, at age 39, she has a little more to think about with a year-and-a-half in tow.
“I never thought I would think about breastfeeding as much as I do now,” says Huddle, who finished third in her debut at the New York City Marathon in 2016. She will run the marathon again on Sunday.
She is in good company and will get a little help.
For the second year in a row, new moms — including two top American marathoners — will start the New York City Marathon with something new speckled along the course: lactation stations.
There will be lactation tents located throughout the course and a service that will allow runners to transport personal nursing pumps from the start area in Staten Island to the finish area in Central Park. Inside the tents, runners have access to private areas and hand pumps.
Many Olympians, including Alysia Montaño, Kara Goucher and Allyson Felix, helped bring a wave of attention to pregnancy issues, resulting in more maternity clauses in contracts and more accommodations for runners returning to the top levels of their sports after giving birth.
“People know they have to demand change,” Montaño said. “I don’t deserve to be punished for being a parent or being postpartum.”
Montaño is co-founder of &Mothera non-profit organization that focuses on mothers in sports and partnered with the New York City Marathon on the lactation stations.
“There have been so many female athletes who have been mothers and succeeded without our advocacy work,” Montaño said. She added: “It was just ten times harder for them.”
There is a rich history of runners returning to elite competition after giving birth, but the accommodations for new mothers are fairly revolutionary.
In 1960, two years after the birth of a daughter, the sprinter Wilma Rudolf won three gold medals at the Olympic Games in Rome.
In 2007, Paula Radcliffe, considered one of the marathon greats, won the New York City Marathon about ten months after giving birth to a daughter. In 2016, Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba finished third in the 10,000 meters at the Rio Olympics, winning her sixth Olympic medal a year and a half after the birth of her son.
“You can do it,” says Kellyn Taylor, an American marathon runner. “You can come back stronger. It has been proven.”
She would know.
Thirteen years ago, Taylor, who is now 37, gave birth to her eldest daughter, Kylyn, and then returned to her track career, only to find herself “pumping in an open field.”
“There was no other way to do it,” she said, laughing. “It is what it is.”
On Sunday, Taylor returns to elite running once again after the birth of a child, this time 10-month-old Keagan. Taylor and her husband, Kyle, have also fostered many young children and adopted two children in the past year, Kaisley and Koen.
(For those wondering, Taylor said she doesn’t nap.)
Taylor and Huddle are joined by a group of marathon moms – including Kenyans Hellen Obiri, Peres Jepchirchir and Brigid Kosgei – who are ready to battle for podium positions.
It is a stacked field. Obiri won the Boston Marathon this spring with a time of 2 hours 21 minutes and 38 seconds. Kosgei broke Radcliffe’s long-standing marathon world record in 2019 by running the Chicago Marathon in 2:14:04. (The record has since been broken again.) Jepchirchir won the marathon gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and the New York City Marathon a few months later.
Family planning has long been a controversial topic for athletes, whose bodies are their business. To some extent, peak childbearing years and peak distance running years overlap, so taking both into account is an ongoing calculation, Huddle said.
She and Taylor will race Sunday as a precursor to the U.S. Marathon Olympic Trials, scheduled for February. The timing is quite calculated.
Huddle reached out to athletes who had already had children and asked for guidance. Some had a quick turnaround. Marathon runner Aliphine Tuliamuk had a child in January 2021 and a ticket for the Olympic Games in August.
Some trained during pregnancy, while others took extended periods of time off. Everyone Huddle spoke to had a different experience returning to competition, and when she sought advice from the medical community, she found no guidance appropriate for an elite athlete.
“Is it one-size-fits-all? No,” says Dr. Abigail Campbell, director of the Center for Women’s Sports Medicine at NYU Langone.
She said more of her patients were tuning into their bodies and finding what worked for them. That may depend on what their birth was like, whether they had pelvic floor problems and how their body responded to hormonal changes.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing back to competition for Huddle. In March, she suffered a femoral stress fracture, which she said could have been partly caused by not getting enough nutrition while breastfeeding. She has since changed her diet.
It’s all part of the process, she said. Her 1.5-year-old Josephine will be on the sidelines on Sunday to cheer her on. Josephine has a habit of imitating her mother while doing exercises.
Before the sun rises on Sunday, Huddle and Taylor will both embark on a new kind of race morning routine.
There will be a pre-race meal and a pre-race pump. They’re not sure when exactly they’ll do it, but they’re glad they have options.
“If you want women to get back out there and thrive in their careers, in the world, these spaces need to be available, not just in running, but everywhere,” Huddle said.