Moms Draw Confidence From Lactation Support at the New York City Marathon
For the last nine years, Stephanie Pennington has maintained a streak that's transformed her fitness journey. Since 2015, the founder of Project Finish—a group of dedicated spectators that cheer on back-of-the-pack runners—has raced the New York City Marathon every year. In 2022, she covered the five boroughs while pregnant.
In July, Pennington gave birth to her daughter and set out to train for the marathon postpartum. Between the physical recovery process and her baby having colic for 10 weeks, preparing for the rigors of 26.2 was far from easy. But once her body healed and the colic improved, Pennington was more driven than ever to maintain her streak.
"It just gave me a bigger motivation to not only overcome how hard it is to train postpartum, but to then look back and show [my daughter] that she could do something hard too," Pennington told &Mother.
On November 5, Pennington and 100 other women utilized supportive infrastructure dedicated to helping mothers reach their running goals. For the second year in a row, &Mother partnered with the New York Road Runners (NYRR) to bring on-course lactation spaces to the New York City Marathon. While competing in the biggest marathon in the world, runners had access to lactation tents at the start line, miles 8, 17, and 22, and near the finish. Runners were able to use hand-held pumps provided by NYRR or have their personal breast pumps transported from the start in Staten Island to the finish line in Central Park. The planning and logistics required to execute the lactation spaces wouldn’t be possible without support from key partners, including Vita Coco and Bobbie.
As several runners attested, the amenities not only made them feel supported, but also empowered them in their desire to set a strong example for their children.
For Rachel Clattenburg, running has always been a source of happiness. When the mom of three gave birth to her daughter in July, the longtime marathoner approached New York City as a unique "maternity leave project," she said.
Throughout the buildup, most of Clattenburg's runs were done on the treadmill while her daughter, Josephine, napped next to her. With little time to complete long runs in one sitting, the bulk of her training was broken up into doubles and triples throughout the day. Heading into the race, she hoped to break the 4-hour barrier.
When she learned &Mother and NYRR would be providing lactation tents during the race, Clattenburg felt relieved as she was still breastfeeding Josephine. While pumping in the tents at the start and finish on race day, Clattenburg said she found a sense of camaraderie in those spaces.
"It's nice to know the race is so welcoming to moms, and also I think it's nice for moms to all see each other using the same service, there are a bunch of us in the same situation," Clattenburg said.
When she reached the finish line to the cheers of her husband and three kids, Clattenburg was elated to crush her goal.
"To see [Josephine], I was so happy because I've never been away from her that long, and I missed her," Clattenburg said. "It was wonderful. New York was a good confidence booster."
Rachel with her daughter, Josephine.
Nina Rohrig experienced similar emotions on race day after training through two cross-country moves and giving birth to her daughter, Aila, in December 2022. Connecting with fellow mothers—who all faced similar challenges during their respective buildups and navigated their own parenting logistics on race day—motivated the marathoner and triathlete.
"[The lactation tents] felt like woman power," Rohrig said. "Moms are unbelievable. It was very moving to see everybody there the morning of the race."
After pumping at the start, Rohrig pumped once more at mile 17 before seeing her daughter around the 22-mile mark. With every stride, Rohrig found encouragement by remembering the lesson she hopes to share with Aila. "I want her to know she's powerful, she's capable, and she can be a badass," Rohrig said.
Nina with Aila on the New York City course.
After an emotional family meeting, Rohrig found another gear and hit her fastest splits with six miles remaining in the race. By the time she reached the finish line in Central Park, she found a new appreciation for her body, the effort it took to cover 26.2, and the supportive infrastructure that helped her get there.
"[Lactation tents] remove a barrier that can stand in the way of people competing and doing these events," Rohrig said. "I'm really grateful."
In 2024, &Mother hopes to bring lactation spaces to more races. We appreciate our community's ongoing support of our efforts.
How Event Organizers Can Partner with &Mother
By partnering with &Mother, event organizers in the sports industry have a major opportunity to provide supportive spaces that not only welcome mothers and caregivers, but enable them to show up as their best selves.
Since 2020, the &Mother staff has dedicated themselves to creating supportive infrastructure and resources that empower women in sports, knowing athletics is a demonstration space for the rest of society. Our work directly addresses the barriers that limit a woman's choice to pursue and thrive in both career and motherhood.
We offer in-person and virtual consulting services to guide event organizers on best practices for race deferral language, lactation spaces, caregiver lounges, and childcare—all components that create a more inclusive experience for mothers and parents.
In the last year, &Mother has coached race organizers at a number of events, including:
The 2022 USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships, where all athletes, coaches, and event staff enjoyed childcare and lactation stations.
The 2022 TCS NYC Marathon, 2023 United Airlines Half Marathon, and 2023 Brooklyn Half Marathon, where runners utilized lactation stations along the course.
The 2023 She.is.beautiful 5k and 10k in Santa Cruz, California, where participants used lactation stations and the first ever caregivers lounge.
In early October, we provided free childcare and lactation spaces to the mothers participating in the Women's Sports Foundation (WSF) Annual Salute—&Mother's first activation at a non-race event. For the moms and caregivers in attendance, these services helped them feel welcome while celebrating the many milestones in women's sports this year.
"It is support like this that helps keep working moms confident that they can stay on the ice, field, and in the boardroom," said Kendall Coyne, a professional hockey player and new mom who used &Mother's lactation spaces at the WSF event.
Thanks in part to the passage of Title IX 51 years ago, the current generation of women who are becoming mothers have participated in sports since childhood. And they do not want to give up their athletic pursuits because they are becoming mothers. In addition, society as a whole recognizes the value of supporting parents and wants to ensure people have access to the resources they need to be parents. Of over 500 people surveyed by &Mother in the last year:
97% of respondents would prefer to support a race that provides lactation support, even if they do not personally need to use the service.
88% of respondents would prefer to support a race that provides childcare options, even if they do not personally need to use the service.
&Mother's in-person or virtual consulting services include a customized event standardization playbook, which provides recommendations for event provisions, including but not limited to, lactation stations, breast milk storage and transportation, caregiver lounges, family support, deferral language (including pregnancy, postpartum, fertility treatment, and adoption), and childcare.
By working with &Mother, our partners are creating inclusive environments that celebrate the accomplishments of mothers and caregivers. As we move forward in this important work, we would love to expand this group to include more industry leaders dedicated to providing this groundbreaking support.
If you are interested in partnering with &Mother for your next event, please reach out to us (hello@andmother.org) to learn more.
See the Change We've Created for Mothers and Caregivers This Year
Since &Mother's inception in 2020, we've dedicated ourselves to breaking the barriers that limit a woman's choice to pursue and thrive in career and motherhood. In partnership with brands and companies that share our vision, we've spearheaded initiatives that allow mothers to fully participate in sports with the goal of demonstrating a supportive path for mothers in all industries.
Now in our third year, we're taking major strides to push the &Mother mission forward through event standardization, education initiatives, grants, and fundraising. Here is an outline of that work and the impact we've made so far this year.
Breastfeeding mothers have full support at major events
Our partnership with New York Road Runners (NYRR) continued this year, building on our inaugural lactation support efforts at the 2022 New York City Marathon. This spring, we enabled NYRR to provide lactation spaces at the United Airlines Half Marathon (March 2023) and the Brooklyn Half Marathon (May 2023). In total, 35 mothers utilized our on-course lactation support spaces in Brooklyn, a number we hope continues to grow as more athletes recognize this service is available to them.
On November 5, we will return to the TCS New York City Marathon, the largest marathon in the world, to once again bring on-course lactation support to runners. Now in our first year as an official charity partner of the marathon, we're bringing an amazing team dedicated to improving the lives of mothers and caregivers everywhere.
This summer, we created a new virtual consulting service that enables us to reach more organizations that want to bring lactation support to their events. This fall, we will provide virtual guidance to the Mover's Collective and The Running Event (TRE). Our event standardization playbook offers recommendations for event provisions, including but not limited to, lactation stations, breast milk storage and transportation, caregiver lounges, family support, deferral language (including pregnancy and postpartum), and childcare.
In 2024, we plan to expand our consulting services to more organizations, creating an inclusive and accessible experience for participants at events nationwide.
Raising awareness about the needs of mothers and caregivers
Led by our founder, Alysia Montaño, we've participated in a number of panels and discussions that seek to educate the community about the stages of motherhood, and how those stages relate to mental health, physical health, and nutrition. In the spring, Alysia moderated a powerful discussion with pelvic floor specialist Dr. Sara Tanza and professional runner Stephanie Bruce that explored the business of motherhood ahead of the Big Sur Marathon.
In May, Alysia and Brennan Grignon, our operations lead, teamed up for a keynote speech at the Child Care Aware Conference in Washington, DC, educating a new audience about &Mother's mission.
In August, Alysia and Board President Correy O'Neal traveled to Washington, DC, to stand with our partner, Bobbie, at the Black Maternal Health Caucus.
A few weeks ago, Brennan participated on a TRE panel alongside other organizations creating change in the running community, including the Low Impact Alliance, Queer Running Society, and the Running Industry Diversity Coalition. Brennan shared the importance of our partnership with TRE, which plans to provide lactation support at this year's conference for the first time ever.
We look forward to more opportunities in the months ahead to share the &Mother story. As Alysia says, "The more we can demonstrate how female athletes can thrive in both their careers and motherhood, the better we will be able to show other industries how it can be done."
Changemakers are leading the way
After supporting a fantastic group of professional athletes last year, we were able to provide three more athletes with Changemaker Grants, providing funds that mothers can use for childcare-related expenses.
This summer, we awarded $4,000 each to Betsi Flint, a five-time medalist for Team USA in beach volleyball; Mallory Weggemann, a five-time Paralympic medalist in swimming; and Jasmine Jones, a brakewoman for the United States bobsled team. We are proud to stand with these fierce advocates for mothers.
In a July Running Insight article, we announced the launch of our Black Maternal Health Grant, offered to any BIPOC athlete at any level of competition. The grant was created in response to the Black maternal mortality crisis in which Black women have the highest maternal mortality rate in the United States—69.9 per 100,000 live births for 2021, almost three times the rate for white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While we are still looking for a grant sponsor, we intend to allow applications to use grant funding to offset the out-of-pocket costs known to improve patient outcomes in the prenatal and postpartum period, including but not limited to, the use of a midwife and/or doula, lactation consultation, and therapy.
More to come in 2024
Just like our team's little ones, &Mother is growing, learning, and moving forward. We know there is much to be done, and we aim to be strong advocates for moms everywhere. Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to sharing more great news about our plans for next year and beyond.
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Lara Vu of Mila's Keeper is Breaking Barriers for Lactating Mothers
Breastfeeding is widely regarded as the best source of nutrition for most babies, but as many moms know, it can be a challenging endeavor at times. While the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for at least the first six months of an infant's life, a lack of support makes this task nearly impossible for many mothers.
For the last six years, Lara Vu has worked tirelessly to combat the difficulties facing lactating moms. In the fall of 2022, the mother of two hit a breakthrough with the launch of Mila’s Keeper, a Long Beach, California-based company dedicated to empowering women with breast milk storage tools, including the first ever insulated cooler designed to keep breast milk cold for up to 20 hours.
Inspired by her previous work advocating for the rights of women and children around the world, the founder and Chief Breast Officer aims to help women meet their breastfeeding goals by providing much-needed support to aid them in their journey. In an interview with the &Mother team, Lara shared the company's origin story, the challenges she faced along the way, and her goals in serving moms while in partnership with &Mother.
"It's a dream of mine to work alongside an organization like &Mother because they represent the same values we have instilled in Mila's Keeper," Lara said. "As moms we have so much stacked against us, but by working together, we are so much stronger in our quest to make an impact and break down barriers."
Before founding Mila’s Keeper, Lara worked at UNICEF for 12 years.
The motivation for creating Mila's Keeper actually came as a result of an unmet goal. For 12 years, Lara worked for UNICEF, the United Nations organization dedicated to addressing the long-term needs of children and women in developing countries around the world. From 2013 to 2015, Lara was stationed in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where she supported thousands of women that worked in factories on the outskirts of the metropolis. As Lara described, one of the shoe factories employed 180,000 people, most of which were women. Lara and the team at UNICEF advocated for the needs of mothers and were even successful in implementing six months of maternity leave for the workers.
But they faced a major roadblock when the women returned to work in the factories. There were no resources that would allow the mothers to continue breastfeeding once they resumed their jobs. While Lara and her team attempted to supply the mothers with medical-grade breast pumps on site, the project fell through because there were no cold storage options available to keep the breast milk at a safe temperature.
At the same time, Lara was also breastfeeding her second child, and the issue deeply resonated with her. "What was happening was near and dear to my heart," she said. "I'm here literally out in the boondocks with them, trying to find a place to pump, I'm in the car having my own issues wondering, where do I keep my milk cold? It really stuck with me."
Lara and her sons.
In 2015, Lara left UNICEF and moved back home to Southern California to be closer to family. On returning to the United States, Lara was shocked to learn the issue of breast milk storage was still prevalent.
"It's just as bad, if not worse here because even more women are working, we don't have maternity leave and women are on-the-go even more so because we have an established female workforce," she said, while explaining the statistics that left her stunned. According to the CDC, 40 percent of mothers in the United States are unmarried, which means many must return to work without partner support. The at-home crisis combined with her past experience ultimately prompted Lara to take action.
In 2017, Lara got to work on making a prototype for a container designed to keep breast milk cold for an extended period of time. Throughout the process, she quickly discovered the lack of research being done on breast milk storage compared to the hundreds of beer coolers available and institutes dedicated to wine making and storage. The disparity only motivated Lara to press forward in her pursuit.
But the journey was anything but easy. After working with several male engineers who gave up on the unprecedented design, she partnered with a female engineer to create the first-of-its-kind breast milk cooler. She encountered the same issues in hiring a patent lawyer until she found a female lawyer who helped her obtain a patent for the new technology. Despite facing production delays during the pandemic, Lara and her team launched Mila's Keeper in September 2022.
"The whole story about female empowerment grew even through the development of the product itself, which was motivating," she said. "I'm super psyched that we've created a product that is helping moms get out there and do whatever they need to do without worrying about their breast milk."
Even the name of the company evokes women's empowerment. As the mother of two sons, Lara always imagined naming a daughter, Mila. Ultimately, the company became almost like a third child to Lara. Someday soon, the founder hopes the same companies who employ thousands of women in the Vietnamese shoe factory will invest in Mila's Keeper, so those mothers who inspired her work years ago can finally have access to safe milk storage. Until then, she's taking major steps to support moms stateside in their breastfeeding goals.
"When we talk about protecting their rights to pump at work and breastfeed wherever they want in public places, all these things are important--protecting women as well as their milk," she said. "Keeper is like a shield.
Meet the Fall 2023 &Mother Changemakers
We are thrilled to announce the next group of &Mother Changemakers!
The Changemaker grant program supports professional athletes and coaches in their motherhood journey. As we've seen, barriers related to motherhood often limit athletes and coaches in their career progression. Dismantling these motherhood-related barriers are key to advancing gender equity in sports. By sharing their experiences and advocating for better systems with caregivers in mind, elite athletes and coaches play an important role in this effort.
The grant program focuses on a central tenet of our organization--enabling and supporting women to become the driving force changing our working world. Funds can be used to cover support related to being a new mother and/or working caregiver, including childcare, family travel, mental health, and lactation support, among other necessities. This fall, we are beyond excited to award grants to three incredible athletes.
Mallory Weggemann is five-time Paralympic medalist in swimming, motivational speaker, and author. She is a new mom to baby, Charlotte.
Betsi Flint is a five-time medalist for Team USA in beach volleyball. She is a seven-time AVP pro beach champion and mother to two year-old daughter, Cora.
Jasmine Jones is part of the U.S. Air Force WCAP program and a brakewoman for the United States bobsled team. She is a mother to daughter, Jade.
In 2022, we awarded grants to an incredible group, including 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials champion Aliphine Tuliamuk, world champion bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, and six-time freestyle wrestling world champion Adeline Gray. In addition to being dominant athletes in their respective sports, they are fierce advocates for mothers and caregivers.
"The Changemaker grant was a crucial step in legitimizing my decision to return to racing," said Olympic triathlete Sarah True. "It felt like a fairy godmother bestowed a gift of childcare, letting me invest in my training."
Join us in supporting these amazing athletes as they pursue their goals this season and beyond!
&Mother Launches Charity Racing Team for New York City Marathon
Last fall, dozens of nursing mothers were able to participate in the TCS New York City Marathon with a new layer of much-needed support. In partnership with New York Road Runners (NYRR), the organization that hosts the world's largest marathon, &Mother provided five on-course lactation spaces that enabled runners to compete at their best while thriving in their motherhood.
For runners like Kseniya Gadh, a health coach and mom of two, that support alleviated her worries around pumping on race day, making for an all-around easier experience. "It was a huge relief not to think about checking [my pump] in and then retrieving it at the end," she told Runner's World. "It was my first marathon so taking that anxiety off was helpful."
In addition to providing the same lactation services, &Mother is returning to the Big Apple this fall as an official charity partner of the New York City Marathon with a racing team that includes 14 fierce advocates of maternal rights.
Led by our founder and CEO Alysia Montaño, who is returning after making her 26.2 debut in New York last year, the charity team includes author and activist Alison Désir, coach and former professional distance runner Lauren Fleshman, and founder Randi Zuckerberg, among other community leaders and &Mother supporters.
"Supporting the NYRR team with lactation support over the past year has been a great learning experience for us all, and I am looking forward to using this experience to expand &Mother's support at other races of all distances, and move our lactation support to other sports," Montaño said. "I am also really looking forward to running the marathon again, especially with such a great team, so we can all build more awareness around &Mother and our mission."
In the weeks leading up to the New York City Marathon on November 5, the charity team will receive training resources and support from a team of experts, including strength and run coach Jess Movold; pelvic and orthopedic physical therapist Dr. Sam DuFlo, PT, DPT; and sports nutritionist Mel Sulaver, MS, RD, CISSN.
Throughout the marathon journey, the charity team aims to raise $200,000 for &Mother with the goal of providing more systemic support to caregivers around the world. The fundraising efforts will directly support our work that seeks to break barriers that limit a woman's choice to pursue and thrive in career and motherhood. Thanks in part to partnerships with companies and organizations aligned with our mission, including Bobbie and Vita Coco, we've expanded our event standardization program so more races have lactation and caregiver support; awarded more maternity and family support grants to professional athletes; and launched a new Black Maternal Health Grant this year.
Follow &Mother on social media to learn more about the charity team's progress, training resources from our support squad, and our latest initiatives.
A Shift in Mindset Helped Neely Spence Gracey Run Faster and Happier After Having Two Kids
Photo: Dane Cronin
For most of her life, Neely Spence Gracey has pushed her body to its limits in pursuit of high level running goals. While competing for Shippensburg University, the 33-year-old earned eight NCAA Division II titles. After graduating in 2012, she turned professional and represented Team USA at the 2011 Pan American Games and 2013 IAAF World Cross-Country Championships before earning two top 10 finishes in the World Marathon Majors series.
But on June 30, Gracey accomplished a running goal that went far beyond personal achievement. While pushing her youngest son, Rome, 2, in a stroller, the elite marathoner broke the Guinness World Record in the mile for women. On a track in Englewood, Colorado, the four-time Olympic Trials qualifier ran 5:24.17, 33 seconds faster than the previous record set by Sally Onn of Great Britain last year. Beyond the time, the mother of two hoped the record would empower all moms and caregivers.
"It's not so much about how fast I run, it's showing other moms that their goals are important, and it's possible to chase them down and find time, even if it means taking your kids with you," Gracey told &Mother. She also used the race as an opportunity to give back. All of the proceeds of the color pack used on the Guava Family stroller she pushed will be donated to &Mother.
The stroller record is the latest accomplishment for Gracey, who has redefined success on her own terms as an elite runner, author, and coach in the last few years. In between giving birth to her sons, Athens, 4, and Rome, 2, Gracey battled various injuries, but through trial and error, honed a new mindset that allowed her to have a resurgence in the sport and beyond. In December 2022, she ran a 4-minute personal best at the California International Marathon (CIM) in Sacramento, where she finished in 2:30:29 and achieved the standard to compete at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Last year, she also co-authored a book with journalist Cindy Kuzma titled, Breakthrough Women's Running: Dream Big and Train Smart.
In a conversation with &Mother, Gracey shared the strategies and mental tools that help her work toward major goals while thriving in her motherhood.
Be flexible
When Gracey gave birth to Athens almost five years ago, the Boulder, Colorado, runner initially thought she shouldn't change the training that worked for her prior to becoming a mother. However, with the demands of caring for a newborn and adjusting to the baby's sleep and feed schedule, she soon realized change was inevitable, but better all around.
For Gracey, that means prioritizing recovery over hard training efforts. After going through a tough learning process with her first kid--her body "rebelled" when she tried to do workouts--Gracey operated with a different mindset during her second pregnancy and through the postpartum period.
She listened to her body more and made a slower return to training. She also reset her expectations in order to be kinder to herself. Every day, she set out to run at least one mile. If her body didn't feel up to a run, she'd walk. In the end, taking a flexible approach allowed her to complete an easy run or walk up to the day she gave birth to Rome.
"My body was just happy," she said. "And I think it was because I was able to listen to it, not stress it and give it what it needed, so that it felt very comfortable and I continued that whole mindset."
Photo: Dane Cronin
Don't force it
Throughout her first pregnancy and postpartum period, Gracey was sponsored by Adidas until her contract with the company ended in 2020. Now running unsponsored, Gracey continues to run for the love of the sport, and it shows in her results.
When Rome was 11 months old, Gracey completed her first race postpartum at the Bolder Boulder 10K, where she finished second. After only completing five or six workouts beforehand, the performance far surpassed her expectations. "It was coming back a lot faster because I wasn't rushing or forcing it," she said.
In the fall of 2022, she continued the same approach heading into CIM. Unlike past marathon buildups, in which she averaged 90-100 miles with two workouts and a long run each week, Gracey completed one workout and one long run coupled with however many miles she could fit in throughout the week. She ended up averaging 80 miles for five weeks straight, which was enough for a massive personal best.
"[CIM] gave me the confidence to know that it's not about what I could do before kids," she said. "I can run faster than I ever have before while training less and doing less intensity, and I think it came down to my body being happy, healthy and not overworked."
It's a big shift compared to her previous mindset while competing as a professional runner, when she often needed to be held back in order to keep overtraining at bay. These days, if something unexpected comes up and she needs to reschedule the hard session, she doesn't overthink it. "It's not failing if I don't go all in," she said.
She also celebrates every success. For example, when she completed her first 10-mile run postpartum, she opened a bottle of champagne afterwards.
"Embrace where you're at with each step of the journey because it's your own, and it's no one else's," she said.
Include the kids
While pursuing her running goals, Gracey brings Athens and Rome along for the journey. Rome often rides in the running stroller and Athens now bikes alongside them. Using running as an example, Gracey hopes her kids learn the importance of setting goals and working hard to achieve them.
With her kids as the top priority, running is also no longer an all-consuming part of her life. It's just one of many things that fulfills her, and she wouldn't have it any other way.
"I can still coach 60 athletes, write a book, and be a really present mom with my kids," she said. "Once I started adding all those things, it gave a lot more meaning to my life."
Embrace the reset
Letting go of comparisons to her past athletic accomplishments, taking the process one day at a time, and focusing on consistent effort helped Gracey find joy in the comeback to the sport she loves.
Looking back, Gracey said the experience of becoming a mom gave her a much-needed reset. While difficult at times, having time off from competitive racing between the pregnancies, pandemic, and injury setbacks ultimately helped Gracey heal her body and her mind. Now she looks back on the period as an experience that saved her running career.
"Some may think my late 20s and early 30s would've been my best years, but I tend to disagree," she said. "I think there's a lot of good years yet to come."
Running Club Empowers Teen Mothers at Hope House Colorado
Ahead of the organization's annual 5K, the center launched a training group that's helped build community for moms and their children.
Courtesy of Hope House Colorado
Every Monday afternoon, mothers, administrators, and kids in running clothes gather outside Hope House Colorado. They arrive with strollers in tow, ready to share miles together around the Arvada, Colorado-based center that's dedicated to empowering teenage mothers. With every group effort, the parents foster community and gain a new sense of strength through the sport.
Club co-founder Emily Foster keeps track of the mileage for each training session. Her favorite part of practice is seeing the moms' reactions when she tells them how far they ran. And they have a lot to be proud of.
The first practice involved the group running for a minute and walking for a minute for a total of 20 minutes. In the span of a few months, the group completed a 5K together with many moms running consecutive miles while pushing their children in strollers.
“It's amazing to see them realize they are capable,” Foster told &Mother. “It's powerful for them because they don't often have opportunities where they can be like, ‘I did that and I'm so proud of myself.’ We didn't realize that was going to happen, but it has been so beautiful to watch.”
Every May for the last 10 years, Hope House has hosted an annual 5K, where sponsors and participants fundraise for the organization. Ahead of this year's race, Foster and club co-founder Alicia Lavy, who both work for the center as a personal growth educator and legal advocate, respectively, created a survey to gauge interest and availability from the moms.
When 12 mothers expressed a desire to participate, Foster and Lavy got to work facilitating the club. Supporters of Hope House donated running shoes, clothing, and strollers for the moms to use. And the pair organized weekly meet-ups, where moms run or walk with their children while staff members cheer them on.
“My favorite thing about running club is exercising with other people who want to walk,” Hope House mom Arin S. said. “[The club] has impacted me as a mom by helping me with my depression—getting me out of the house and being around people I enjoy being around.”
Courtesy of Hope House Colorado
Becoming teen parents during the pandemic resulted in many Hope House mothers being unable to enjoy their high school experience, but the run club provides a much-needed outlet. A handful of mothers ran on their high school track team prior to getting pregnant. Now they're able to resume running postpartum with the group.
Practices are also a collaborative effort with club members sharing the running strollers and staff offering to watch the kids, so the moms can go for a solo run.
After meeting weekly for three months, nine moms in the run club participated in the Hope House 5K on May 6. This year, a record $88,000 was raised for the organization.
About 30 minutes before the race, the club met to stretch, tie dye their socks, and put on matching purple and green tutus, the colors of Hope House. Together, they covered the 3.1-mile course, decorated with posters sharing inspirational stories of the moms, another reminder of the progress each one has made in their journey.
“I love seeing the difference and creating more energy in my body,” Hope House mom Unique R. said. “It made me want to be more active, and I'm definitely doing the 5K next year no question.”
Courtesy of Hope House Colorado
After the Hope House 5K, the mothers wanted to keep meeting up for runs. Now they're trying to decide on the next race, possibly a Tough Mudder in the fall. As Lavy and Foster have witnessed, running together goes far beyond miles and medals. Ultimately, they hope the club can act as a launching pad for the mothers to reach new levels of success in the future.
“My hope is they find a place of safety, community and that they believe in themselves,” Foster said. “And know they're capable of doing hard things.”
If you'd like to make a donation to Hope House Colorado, visit the organization's website.
Adeline Gray is Creating More Space for Mothers in Wrestling
“I think a lot of women fall away from the sport because they feel like there's not a place in it for us anymore, but there is room for us.”
By: Adeline Gray as told to &Mother
I’ve been wrestling since I was 6 years old. I started representing the United States in international competition toward the end of high school. Since 2012, I’ve won six world championship titles and an Olympic silver medal. For years, I didn’t have much free time but thankfully in the middle of that winning streak, I met my husband. In 2017, we got married after years of doing long distance.
Toward the later part of my career, I was feeling a little burnt out. I wanted a family, I wanted to keep progressing with my life, and this felt like the most awesome step I could take. We talked about starting a family after the wedding. Ultimately, we made the decision to wait because we couldn't figure out how to put the pieces together while still being competitive. So, we pushed off having kids for the next quad, the 4-year period in between the Olympics.
Coming up to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, our plan was to try and have a baby right after the Games, and then the postponement happened. My whole world imploded because I had this beautiful plan to have a baby right after the Games. With the Olympics getting pushed back a full year, it was really hard to change that mindset with an additional year of training. I just wanted to start this journey of figuring out motherhood and wrestling.
Fitting in family planning is a huge decision to make. Every person on the men's national team has a full family and they're not going through these decisions like we are. It is what it is. But we have to figure out how to create space for women to be successful, not just in college and on the national team, but also into their 20s, 30s, and then the transition into retirement.
Thankfully, we got pregnant quickly with twins after I won gold at the world championships in 2021. They’re nine months old now. Going from training for the Olympics to having this family of four feels so fast, but it's been wonderful. They're healthy and have brought so much joy to my life.
My goal is to be ready for the 2024 Paris Games, and our Olympic Trials procedures begin now. My timeline for return to competition was based on pelvic floor rehab. I met with my pelvic floor specialist all the way through pregnancy. I have some rectus diastasis, which is when the two abdominal muscles are separated, and it didn't heal as much as we were hoping it would. I'm getting back into the swing of things. We're trying to be patient with how much tissue was stretched and figuring out how much I can push each day without being too sore and also knowing when to pull back when we need to. It was grueling to do the same exact exercises while waiting for the body to heal postpartum. It might take longer than I want it to, and I might need to adjust my plan.
It's a lot of balancing expectations and learning how long it takes for my body to be ready to return to competition at an elite stage. It's still a process, and it's something you have to do. You can't ignore it. It takes a lot of brain power and rehab to get your body back to being competitive again, and I'm still trying to figure out how to use that brain power. The intensity is high in wrestling, but balancing that is a challenge that I'm ready to embrace.
It’s also nice to know that I’m not alone in this. There are four women from my weight class who've competed against each other, and we all had babies right after the Olympics. We've chatted on social media and shared stories about our babies and motherhood. All of us have to create a support system that looks very intimate for our situation, whether that be parents being involved, having a stay-at-home dad, or piecing together daycares and nannies. It can be hard to find the right fit for your family. I have a full-time au pair helping me.
Overall, the wrestling community has been very welcoming. Wrestling in general is a blue collar sport and lots of people have families and get excited about this next step. It's been nice to feel that energy. I usually take a year off in a quad. With pregnancy, it will be a full year of carrying the babies plus a full year of recovering and coming back. I'm fighting some of those questions with people wondering, will I be ready in time to be on top again. But I also want to respect the postpartum experience of healing and give myself the time and grace to have that.
USA Wrestling, our sport's governing body, has kept me involved through my pregnancy. I've been coaching, which is great because sometimes all you feel like you're doing is mom and even in the role of mom, sometimes you feel like you're just milk. There's a great network in going to practices and being part of the team.
I feel like there's still space in this environment for me, which has been very important for my mental health. So many people disappear after having babies and rightfully so. I totally understand the germs and the time needed to figure out what you're doing, but I like to figure out how I'm feeling about things by talking to people.
It's good for these women who look up to me and are my friends and peers to see me through this entire process of coming back. I want to show them that babies can be integrated into the world a little bit, whether it's in the warmup, cool down, or part of the core rehab. I’ve fed a baby in coaches meetings. Having them be here is good. It's important to show people that it's doable to have babies around and it takes support. It's important for me to be there in that realm because I think a lot of women fall away from the sport because they feel like there's not a place in it for us anymore, but there is room for us.
I came back to the U.S. Open in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 28. Before this, my last match was the 2021 world championships. It was 18 months off the mat for me. But I dove right in and finished second.
It feels really good to have such an awesome purpose of being a mom and embracing all the joy my kids give me. It's been really special and I hope it will be rewarding in a different sense when I'm out on the mat and get to show them my hard work. No matter what, win or lose, they're going to be there for me.
Race Director Melissa McConville Wants to Help Caregivers Hone Their Strength in Running and Beyond
When Melissa McConville's first born was 12 weeks old, she went for her first run postpartum. After many sleepless nights and a few stressful moments navigating new motherhood, that run gave the event organizer a much needed exhale while she enjoyed a space that was just for her.
Now as a mom of three living in Santa Cruz, California, McConville continues to prioritize running as a tool that helps her feel powerful and energized in every area of her life.
“It's so important to make that space for yourself so that you can be your best self in all the other roles that you have,” McConville says.
Through the races she founded, McConville hopes to share that message with other women, so they too can feel empowered through the sport. Since 2010, she's hosted the She.is.Beautiful 5K and 10K, a female-focused event open to all runners. At 24 years-old, she organized the event as one of the few women race directors in the country. To date, they’ve raised over $230,000 for local nonprofits. This year, the race is partnering with &Mother to bring critical resources for moms and caregivers, including a caregivers lounge, lactation spaces, and free childcare, so runners with children are able to participate with full support on race day.
Ahead of the 13th annual event on March 18 in Santa Cruz, &Mother caught up with McConville to discuss the inspiration behind the race, how she became a trailblazer in the running industry, and the importance of providing support with mothers and caregivers in mind.
&Mother: Tell us a little bit about your running journey and how you became a race director.
McConville: I started running in high school. Both of my parents ran. They did local races, but they weren't obsessive about it. I always had this idea that running is a tool you can use to feel empowered and strong in your body. I really took onto that idea and used it through high school and college at a recreational level. Running is how I met some of my best friends and my husband.
After college, I worked in marketing at Whole Foods and event management. In my early 20s, I entered a phase where I was searching for my purpose and what I wanted to do with my life. I read the book called, The Secret, and got really into Oprah and vision boards. I've always been very passionate about doing something that excites me and contributes positively to the world on a larger level. When I was in this major search mode, I realized I should combine things that I love to do, and the race just came to me.
This was in January 2010 and I wanted to put on the race in March 2010. It would be a women's race that's fun and inviting. Even though I was paying for this event out of my own pocket and offering my own money for prize money, I still thought it was important. I also wanted my friends who hadn't run before to come out and experience how amazing movement can be and be inspired to incorporate it into their life.
I learned a lot in that first year and there was so much I didn't know. At that point in the running industry, there wasn't a lot of education for race directing and there wasn't a big network, especially for women, to learn from. So, it was kind of a big learning experience on the job. It's been so fun to put on this event and be surrounded by so many incredible women from different walks of life that are all showing up to move together. I get chills when I think about it. There's just something about people who run that feel so connected to the sport, and they have their own personal reason for what inspires them to get out the door. But I think we all share the common feeling of being more connected to ourselves, more connected to the earth, to our community, and just this greater perspective when we move our bodies. And I think it's something that keeps us coming back. I think we can all connect to that greater purpose that running can bring us all together.
Now as a mom of three, how has running and your motherhood journey come together for you?
I had my first kid the year after I quit Whole Foods, and it was the fifth year of She.is.Beautiful. But moms have been top of mind since the beginning of the event. We've had a stroller division from the start. Even though I didn't have a kid myself at the first race, it was something I wanted to bring into that space. I wanted the whole woman or female population to be out there, whether it was the 90-year-old grandma, the new mom with her stroller, or the post-collegiate athlete running their fastest 5K. I wanted it to be a space for everyone. After I had my baby, I was able to be more empathetic to our mother participants. I remember putting on the first event with a baby and it was incredibly stressful. I had to plug my pump into the side of a building at 2 a.m.
Especially as a mom, running is my time, it's my space. It's where I get my power back, so that I can come home and be a great mom. The first run postpartum reminded me that running is a tool that helps me feel strong and powerful and gives me energy and I want to make sure I make this a priority in my motherhood. We've continued to share that message to our participants because so many women, mothers and parents in general forget how important it is to take that time for yourself and how doing so makes you a better parent.
What inspired you to partner with &Mother for this event?
Alysia has such a powerful voice. She's been such a strong role model for women and mothers specifically. I was so excited for her to take on this role with &Mother. I wanted to be connected with her mission because I think she's bringing such powerful change to the running industry. Having this be the standard would be so great as opposed to people coming to our event and being shocked there is a changing table, right?
I ran the Solomon Women's Half Marathon last year and saw the partnership with &Mother, where they had free childcare. I realized there were so many people who could benefit from this, so we found Helping Hand, which does childcare for events.
I remember the first time I trained for a marathon and my husband was gone on a Saturday that I needed to do a long run, and I paid $120 for childcare. It's something you don't think about when you don't have kids, but running isn't actually free. Look at all these different costs behind it. That perspective of being a mom, you realize they've all had to figure out childcare in order to make it to the start line feeling fit.
What do you ultimately hope participants gain from the experience of being at She.is.Beautiful and utilizing the services that support moms and caregivers?
We want every single person to leave reminded of how strong they are. It's something we can all forget. I think there's something really empowering about moving our bodies and when you cross that finish line, you feel so amazing. We want you to take that feeling and bring it into all other aspects of your life, knowing you can do hard things. And we want to celebrate the joy that you feel in that moment, which can create amazing ripple effects. You can spread that in conversations you have with anyone else throughout the day. And there's opportunity, especially with some of these people who are using these services for moms and caregivers. They may not have access to that on an everyday basis. As a mom, if I want to show up as my best self, I need support. I cannot do it on my own. I see the privilege of being able to afford childcare or having a partner that can help me, but even with all of that, it's hard. Without that support, it would feel impossible. And so, I want to give some of these people who may not have that support, an opportunity to experience that. For us to have this moment to support these moms in this way feels really important, and I'm just excited for them to have this day where they can walk away feeling stronger than ever.