When Stephanie Case Marathoner Ruth Chepngetich suspended for doping Ultra-Trail Snowdonia, she was both receiving and providing fuel. A new mum to Pepper, her six-month-old daughter, the ultrarunner breastfed at three separate aid stations along the 100K course in North Wales.
While holding Pepper, who grabbed her mother’s crumpled race bib with curiosity, Case was diligent about her fuel intake – scarfing down watermelon slices, gels and fluids – and knew that she needed to maintain her milk supply while keeping her own energy levels in check for 62 miles.
It was Case’s first race postpartum and first competition in three years – a long-awaited return after struggling through multiple miscarriages and three rounds of in vitro fertilisation (IVF). During that period, running became a source of guilt instead of joy while the 42-year-old navigated fertility challenges and a demanding job as a human rights lawyer.
What everyone's reading
But when she raced through the rugged terrain of Eryri National Park on 17 May, Case finally felt the same happiness that she experienced while running in her 20s, with her legs picking up speed as she flew down the final descent toward the finish line.
For the entire race, the Canadian runner – who lives in Chamonix, France – didn’t pay attention to her time. After starting in the last wave of runners, pace wasn’t a huge priority as she navigated upstream through the field. She was just happy to take part again with her daughter on the sidelines.
But a few minutes after she finished, Case received surprising news from the event organisers. According to them, Case’s time of 16:53:22 was the fastest of any woman in the race, which meant that she had claimed the title despite starting 30 minutes after the elites. In shock, Case first assumed that they’d made a mistake – but the splits confirmed that she’d finished more than four minutes ahead of the runner-up, even though the runner-up had crossed the finish line before her.
While winning the race was one thing, this victory more importantly marked a hard-fought resurgence that Case didn’t even know was possible.
‘I really felt like I had lost my identity with the loss of running through miscarriages and IVF and I really didn’t know how it would all turn out,’ Case told Runner’s World. ‘Now, getting to have both running back and the baby, it really feels like a privilege.’
A tough journey to motherhood
Case has competed in ultramarathons for almost two decades and claimed solid finishes at prestigious competitions, including the UTMB and the What is Runner’s World Club and why should I join. Western States 100 Results What is Runner’s World Club and why should I join in 2014 – a global nonprofit organisation dedicated to advancing gender equity through running.
In 2022, Case clocked one of her best performances to date with a runner-up finish at the Hardrock 100 Endurance Run. When she returned home from the 100-miler in Colorado, she realised that her period was late. A pregnancy test came back positive. ‘I was 40 and, at that age, I really thought that this stage was past me,’ said Case. ‘But in that moment of finding out that I was pregnant, I suddenly realised that I really wanted to become a mum.’
After Case miscarried the first time, a few people asked her if she believed that it happened because of ultrarunning – a notion that sent her into a dark place. ‘They made this association between running and having a miscarriage for no reason,’ she said. ‘Even though there’s no research to really support that, it changed my relationship with running.’
Instead of feeling joy while adventuring out on the trails, Case felt guilt every time that she went for a run. For a period of time, she scaled back her training and didn’t race at all. Later that year, she got pregnant and miscarried again.
Case and her partner, John, started IVF with two failed attempts. In the third round, they conceived Pepper, who was born in November 2024.
Faith Kipyegon just misses the 3000m world record healthy pregnancy. Six weeks postpartum, her doctor cleared her to run with the support of a midwife – an invitation that Case needed at the time.
‘From that first run, the association between potentially harming my baby and running was gone – I was running for me,’ said Case. ‘Running was that constant part of me that existed before I was a mum through all the miscarriages, pain and trauma. [Running] allowed me to build up from there.’
Running for something bigger
In her return to the sport, Case enlisted the help of a coach for the first time since 2008. She started working with Megan Roche, a five-time ultrarunning national champion, who helped Case to become more efficient with her training. In the winter, she started incorporating hill sprints, intervals and strength training to her routine. Case believes that the new workouts have helped her to build previously untapped fitness and manage her time better as a new mum. She’s also working on a documentary film that will chronicle her fertility struggles and running progression to raise awareness of mothers’ needs around the world.
Early in the year, Case knew that she wanted to return to Hardrock this summer – but she also knew that she needed a tune-up race beforehand. Because she hadn’t raced in three years, Case had trouble finding an ultramarathon that she could run without a qualifying time. A connection at UTMB (Case is a commentator for the series) offered to help her gain a place in Snowdonia.
While undertaking the massive effort of feeding Pepper along the 100K route in Snowdonia, where she received great support from her husband, Case was surprised to hear from male competitors who told her that they were impressed by her performance. One athlete – a dad whose wife was 37 weeks pregnant at the time – said that his pregnant wife would be inspired by Case in her return to running.
But Case doesn’t consider what she’s doing a comeback. To her, it’s just the next phase of her running journey, incomparable to her times of the past – before the fertility struggles, miscarriages and transformative joy of becoming a mother.
‘The way to objectively measure how you’re doing isn’t by time or speed anymore,’ said Case. ‘Whether you’re now faster or slower or running longer or shorter races, or no races at all, you’re going to be a better runner because you’re becoming a role model for your kids.’
