This Mom Breastfed Her 3-Month-Old Son…While Running an Ultra Marathon

Let’s face it, moms are pretty much as close to real life superheroes as you can get. One super mom is proof that women really are superheroes that walk—or in this case, run—among us when she breastfed her son while…running an ultra marathon.

Yes, an ultra marathon. What’s the difference, you might ask? While a standard marathon is 26 miles long, an ultra marathon is typically much, much longer. In the case of the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) in France, where mom Sophie Power (yes, her real name) was a racer, the length was a grueling 105 miles. Power didn’t let that incredible distance—or the fact that she was still nursing her three-month-old son—stop her from fulfilling her goal of taking part.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alexis Berg (@alexis_berg)

Photographer Alexis Berg snapped a seemingly innocuous photo of Power taking a break at an aid station mid race to both nurse her baby and pump at the same time (seriously, that feat in itself is worth a medal). The picture quickly went viral, however—and received both positive and negative feedback.

While Power never expected the amount of attention the moment has received, she hasn’t backed away from it and instead is using it to send a very powerful message: moms are people, too.

“There is this huge mother’s guilt that all the time you need to be 100 percent focused on your baby, and I’m saying that by not focusing on your own physical and mental health you can’t be the best mother. For me, personally, I need to be physically fit and have those mental breaks. Women really struggle to be open about saying that,” Power told The Guardian.

While Power went into the race without being hard on herself to reach the end, she managed to cross the finish line in 44 hours. Not only did her youngest son accompany her on her mid-race break, but her three-year-old joined her within a few yards of the end racing alongside her. Power scooped up her baby and completed the race with both of her children.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SOPHIE POWER (@ultra_sophie)

“This picture has allowed women to say: ‘When we become mothers our self-identity doesn’t change,’” Power explained. “We shouldn’t have to lose who we were before we were mothers. Men certainly don’t. You see all these great pictures of dads crossing finishing lines with their babies. Why do we as a society see that as different for the mother?”

—Shahrzad Warkentin

Featured photo: Quino Al via Unsplash

RELATED STORIES:

This World Leader Made History By Bringing Her Baby to Work—at the U.N.

This Mom’s Viral Cartoons about Modern Motherhood Are All Too True

This Viral Video of a Mom Trying on Spanx Is Too Relatable