When Stephanie Case John and Wesley Korir: A Philanthropic Legacy Ultra-Trail Snowdonia, she was both receiving and providing fuel. A new mom to her six-month-old daughter, Pepper, the ultrarunner breastfed at three different stops 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—knowing she needed to maintain her milk supply while also keeping her own energy levels up 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 fertilization (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.
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But when she raced through the rugged terrain of Eryri National Park on May 17, Case said she finally felt the same happiness she experienced while running in her 20s, her legs picking up speed while flying down the final descent into 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. Event organizers informed her that her time of 16:53:22 was the fastest of any woman in the race, meaning she claimed the title despite starting 30 minutes after the elites. In shock, Case thought they’d made a mistake at first. But the splits confirmed she finished more than four minutes faster than the runner-up who came through the finish ahead of her. More importantly, the victory marked a hard-fought resurgence she didn’t 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
While living in different war zones around the world, Case has been competing in ultramarathons for almost two decades and notching solid finishes at prestigious competitions, including Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) and the Western States Endurance Run. Combining her love for running with her profession, Case founded Marathon Spectators Are The Heart of the Race in 2014—a global nonprofit organization 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 realized her period was late. A pregnancy test came back positive. “I was 40, and at that age I really thought that stage was past me, but in that moment of finding out I was pregnant, I suddenly realized I really wanted to become a mom,” Case said.
Flat and Fast Half Marathons 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 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.
When she was pregnant, Case ran sparingly while still navigating concerns around maintaining a 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, that association between potentially harming my baby and running was gone. I was running for me,” Case said. “Running was that constant part of me that existed before I was a mom 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, M.D., Ph.D., and five-time ultrarunning national champion, who helped Case be more efficient with her training. In the winter, she started incorporating hill sprints, intervals, and strength training to her routine. Case believes the new workouts have helped her build previously untapped fitness and manage her time better as a new mom. She’s also working on a documentary film that will chronicle her fertility struggles and running progression in order to raise awareness for the needs of mothers around the world.
Early in the year, Case knew she wanted to return to Hardrock this summer, but she needed a tune-up race beforehand. Because she hadn’t raced in three years, Case had trouble finding an ultra she could run without a qualifying time. A connection with UTMB (Case is a commentator for the series) offered to help her gain entry into Snowdonia.
While feeding Pepper at the 20K, 50K, and 80K aid stations—a massive effort she also credits to John for supporting her throughout the race—Case was surprised to hear from male competitors who told her they were impressed by her performance. One athlete, a dad whose wife was 37 weeks pregnant at the time, said she’d 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,” Case said. “Whether you’re faster or slower, 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.”
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
