12 Most Inspiring Moms Who Make Us Proud to Be a Runner

Two-time U.S. national champion Stephanie Bruce creates her own balance between marathon training and raising her 3 and 4-year-old sons with husband and fellow professional runner, Ben Bruce. She discussed the balancing act with Runner’s World For former professional runner , being a mom inspired a morning routine. While marathon training, Bruce–who recently won the Health & Injuries in Pittsburgh–wakes up with her kids around 5:30 or 6 a.m. She makes them breakfast and plays with them before dropping them off at daycare and meeting her HOKA NAZ Elite teammates for a workout at 8-8:30 a.m. While challenging at times, Bruce approaches the lifestyle of marathon training and motherhood as a luxury.

“Above all I hope they know this time in my life was important, and shaped who I am as a human and a woman,” she wrote of her sons on Instagram. “I don’t have to choose between being a mom and running professionally. I have the luxury of doing both.”

Since becoming a mother, Bruce has openly shared her experience with the goal of encouraging other moms in the running community. Through her social media and YouTube tempo and fartlek runs 2020 Olympic Trials Other Hearst Subscriptions core postpartum.

For former professional runner Tina Muir, being a mom inspired a tempo and fartlek runs to the sport. In 2017, the British marathoner decided to quit running professionally after suffering from amenorrhea for nine years. The decision was made in part because she wanted to get pregnant, but she also felt mentally and physically burned out while spending way too long “running for the finish line,” as she told Runner’s World in January.

After she became pregnant, Muir started to miss running and incorporated training slowly back into her routine with a more relaxed mindset. In January 2018, her daughter, Bailey Grace, was born, and for the next year Muir continued to build up her training with a new perspective.

“I don’t have that drive to dig down deep in workouts anymore,” she said. “But I’m okay with that. I have other things on my plate. Running is probably third on my list of priorities.”

On January 12, Muir put her new mindset in action when she won the Disney Half Marathon in 1:19:45. More importantly, she enjoyed the experience.

“That run represented so many things for me: that I can come back to the sport after taking a long break, gaining weight, and having a baby. And even better, I can enjoy it,” she said.

Not only is Kellyn Taylor one of the fastest marathoners in U.S. history, but she is a mother to an 8-year-old daughter and foster mom to two boys, a 1- and 2-year-old. The HOKA NAZ Elite standout and her husband, Kyle, began fostering the boys earlier this year, a decision which has transformed their household.

Around the same time the boys arrived, Taylor was preparing for the Prague Marathon on May 5, which she aced with a fourth-place finish in 2:26:27. The performance was her first 26.2 since setting a personal best of 2:24:29 at Grandma’s Marathon last June. While the hectic lifestyle can present challenges, Taylor says that she performs better with a lot on her plate.

“I thrive off chaos,” Taylor told Runner’s World in April. “I thrive off challenges, too. I think I need something else to focus on than just running. When I’m building relationships and doing meaningful things outside the sport, it helps me grow athletically.”

At 41-years-old, Roberta Groner is experiencing her best running years yet. The runner squeezes in 95 to 100 miles per week between her full-time job as an RN office supervisor and raising her three boys, which has led to breakthroughs on the roads over the past few years.

On April 7, she ran a personal best of 2:29:06 at the Rotterdam Marathon, which helped her hit the Olympic qualifying standard. While Groner ran in high school and a few years at St. Francis University in Pennsylvania, she stopped running for a decade after college. She picked up road racing in 2011 with a debut of 3:12:42 at the Chicago Marathon, where she caught the competitive bug and has since shaved 43 minutes from her time. In her running resurgence, Groner has found her motivation in her children.

“I do this for them; they see drive, they see commitment,” she told Runner’s World in April. “It’s showing that you can do whatever you’d like to do or love to do, and as long as you’re working hard, you’ll be happy.”

For three-time Olympian Shannon Rowbury, training through pregnancy meant trusting the cues of her body and drawing confidence from her instincts. Before she gave birth to her daughter, Sienna, Rowbury did tempo and fartlek runs based on feel during the first half of her pregnancy and switched to cross-training later to prevent overstressing her bones and joints.

“Something in your brain switches,” the middle distance specialist told Runner’s World in November 2018. “There’s been a certain level of confidence that I know what’s best and I can trust these instincts that exist more for me than they did before.”

Since giving birth in June, the world bronze medalist made her return to competition with a turkey trot in the fall, an indoor 3K season’s best of 9:03, and a 22nd-place finish at the USATF Cross-Country Championships.

For the past year, professional marathoner Neely Spence Gracey took time away from running to give birth to her son, Athens. As a new mom, Gracey has been in the process of setting new priorities in her life. Instead of balance, the marathoner and coach strives to set personal goals every day while making room for unexpected challenges along the way.

“It’s like a hill workout. Some days I can do it all, and it feels great—focused and strong on the ups, easy coasting on the downhill with nothing in my way as I check off all the priorities on my mental to-do list,” Gracey wrote in February. “And other days, it seems like everything is a never ending uphill grind. But, more often than not, it’s rolling throughout the day, both ups and downs of easy and challenging.”

[I get to live with my best friend, Gardner How This Sedentary Truck Driver Started Running.]

Clad in a long-sleeved top, head scarf, and skirt that hits below the knee, Beatie Deutsch has set records and shattered expectations on her running journey. The mother of five won Israel’s half marathon national championship in 1:19 before winning the Tiberias Marathon in 2:42 in January. The marathoner, who practices ultra-orthodox Judaism, set a 27-minute personal best on her way to victory, which marked an important step toward her goal of representing Israel at the 2020 Olympic Games.

“I’m proud that I can still pursue my dreams without sacrificing my values,” she told Runner’s World in January. “There are a lot of messages out there telling runners to look and dress a certain way, but it doesn’t have to be all about how your body looks when you run.”

Cynthia Arnold How This Sedentary Truck Driver Started Running stroller for the entire half marathon distance at the Missoula Marathon last summer. In the process of finishing in 1:29:08, Arnold shattered the world record for the fastest half marathon time for a woman pushing a three-child stroller. Arnold averaged 6:47 mile pace and finished 14th in the women’s division.

For Arnold, running the race was meant to introduce her children to the importance of living a healthy lifestyle.

“That type of lifestyle shouldn’t be sacrificed if you have kids, and kids should realize that it’s fun and normal and good to make these types of choices,” Arnold told Runner’s World in July.

Running, even 100 miles at a time, is often the “easiest” part of ultrarunner Connie Gardner’s day. The 55-year-old single mom to two daughters, one with a disability, has faced many unexpected challenges on and off the roads but has learned to approach every obstacle as a reminder of the people in her life who consistently overcome even bigger challenges.

One of those individuals is her youngest daughter, Gwen, who was born with developmental delay and diagnosed with schizophrenia about two years ago. Her daughter’s determination serves as a constant inspiration in her life.

“I get to live with my best friend,” Gardner told Runner’s World in March. “She works with what she has. In a 100-mile race, you have to work with what you have in that moment, and you try and do the best you possibly can.”

Taylor J. Dutch He Ran a Marathon on a Treadmill Two-time U.S. national champion creates her own balance between.

Ultrarunning mom of five Jessica Bagley inspires fellow moms in the running community with her real-world life and running advice on her Instagram account, @jessica.ultra.miles. The special education teacher balances classes for her master’s degree, family time, and training, all while sharing the highs and lows of the journey with her 11.2K followers.

Bagley caught her followers’ attention with her honesty when it came to sharing her body transformation in which she found that she was happier while 30 pounds heavier.

“I’m much happier at 145 pounds now versus the 115 I was at,” she told Runner’s World in August.

Ultimately, Bagley wants runners to find confidence within themselves, not just through running.

When NCAA All-American Erica Birk-Jarvis found out that she was pregnant in the spring of 2017, she was shocked and unsure if she could continue running at the Division 1 level for the BYU Cougars. But with the support of her coach, husband, and teammates behind her, she has thrived on and off the track as one of the fastest runners in the country.

On December 27, 2017, she gave birth to her son, Jack, and launched a comeback that saw her finish seventh overall at the 2018 NCAA Cross-Country Championships less than one year later.

“What she runs for now is different, the sacrifice she makes to be able to do this sport, she’s not going to give anything less than her best,” her coach Diljeet Taylor told Runner’s World in January.

As of May 10, Birk-Jarvis is ranked sixth in the 1500 meter, 5,000 meter, and 3000-meter steeplechase among the NCAA Division 1 ranks.