Family Planning and Professional Running
I feel very lucky to be a professional athlete in the time that I am. Just a handful of years ago athletes like Kara Goucher, Alyson Felix, Lauren Fleshman and others were being told that pregnancy was to be considered an injury. In their era, time away from training and racing meant immediate loss of income and potential loss of sponsorship in the long run. If it took and athlete who had been pregnant longer than a year to come back from childbirth, then something must be wrong and they must no longer be a good investment, right? The athletes before me fought for their rights as mothers and athletes. Unfortunately, most of the pioneers in women’s sports were not compensated fairly and were mistreated when they advocated for a mothers place in professional sports.
I don’t know much about the strides made in track and field to protect athletes who are pregnant. But when I see athletes like Elle St. Pierre and Rachel Smith - two of America’s greatest distance runners - decide to start families between Olympic cycles and keep support from their sponsors, it gives me hope. It gives me hope that they are benefiting from and continuing to advocate for being an athlete and a mother.
My husband Tommy and I have been trying to decide when the “right time” to start a family was for a couple of years now. I stepped away from NCAA Division 1 coaching in 2022 to pursue professional running full time; making training and racing my main focus and source of income. With professional running being the way I pay the bills, the thought of potential loss of income to start a family seemed scary. But, since I am the classic “type-a” runner, I looked into all the options, made a spreadsheet and started to make plans to align my professional and family aspirations.
Below is a list of deferrals I looked to when trying to “plan” starting a family as a professional athlete. I hope it can be helpful to other athletes who are trying to get pregnant.
Boston Marathon pro field offered me a spot for next year because my time from the 2024 New York City Marathon will still be eligible in 2026. If I had been signed up for the Boston Marathon mass start, my deferral would cover 2 years from my missed marathon date. While this seems a bit short to me, compared to what is offered in the trail world, it’s still better than completely losing a spot in this coveted marathon. Progress.
UTMB World Series Finals offers a 5 year deferral and refund for athletes who are pregnant, athletes who have a pregnant partner and athletes who are adopting or birthing via surrogacy. This deferral is the only one that I know of that includes the partner of the pregnant athlete. As an athlete whose partner is also a professional runner, this is great! It’s nice that Tommy does not have to feel the pressure to leave for France when I’m seven and a half months pregnant. I qualified for the finals with a 100K race at Canyons in 2024, meaning I could apply for OCC, CCC or UTMB (with the right approval of course - as they might allow a step up or down in distance) when I decide to come back.
Western States Endurance Run offers a pregnancy deferral with basically no time limit. A pregnant athlete who has obtained a deferral can return to any subsequent race! This is an incredible deferral policy. 100 miles is a very long way to go and everyone’s recovery timeline from pregnancy is different. In the case of a golden ticket winner using the pregnancy deferral, as long as the athlete withdraws before May 1 prior to the race, the ticket rolls down to the next athlete in the field (no further than 5th or 6th depending on the race). I was ecstatic to be able to hand my ticket over to the incredible Abby Hall. By keeping golden ticket winners in the race, WSER’s policy both supports to-be-mothers and keeps the race competitive.
So did my planning work? I’d say so. Obviously there were many aspects out of my control. I didn’t know if I could qualify for Western States again, although I had confidence after turning down a ticket in 2024. I couldn’t guarantee that I would be able to get pregnant before Western States, let alone before May 1! My hope was to be able to set myself up to come back to racing on my own timeline instead of feeling the need to rush back into things and qualify for the big dances. I worked hard to put myself in this position and am incredibly grateful for these opportunities. I’m fortunate to have races to come back to and a contract that allows me the support and flexibility to start this journey. I hope to see other athletes taking chances on their careers and still feel like they have the freedom to family plan. Mom strength - INCOMING.
