According to Stephanie Bruce’s Instagram account, her mother, Joan Rothstein, died on June 4, 2021. This story from 2017 shares how the two bonded during Rothstein’s recovery following inflammatory breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of the disease. Runner’s World sends its condolences to Stephanie Bruce and the rest of Joan’s family and loved ones.
Marathoner Stephanie Bruce has been known for having a lot to balance, starting with her high-level training, which has qualified her for Olympic Trials and given her a chance to represent her country in international competition. Her husband, Ben, is a similarly elite athlete.
Then came two young sons, now 3 and 2, born 15 months apart, and the sleepless nights and early morning wake-up calls that come with parenting babies. She’s also been involved in a small business, Picky Bars, that provide gluten-free nutrition to athletes.
Most days, Bruce, now 33, has mastered the juggling act. She competed at the 2016 Olympic Trials on the track just nine months after her younger son was born. In so doing, and in sharing honest looks at her life on social media, she has built a cult following, especially among runner-mothers. Top-down photos of her post-partum abs, with visible stretch marks, went viral in 2016. These days, her Twitter feed includes dispatches about toilet training and a funny jab at her husband when tried to clean out her car. (One spouse’s trash is another spouse’s treasure.)
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But just when it seemed Bruce had it all under control, a new struggle popped up last November: Her mother, Joan, was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of the disease.
Joan Rothstein got the call from the doctor at a son’s wedding reception in November. When the wedding was over, she gathered her other three children, including Bruce, and told them the news. They rallied around her, helping their mother get to chemotherapy appointments in Phoenix.
As the treatment progressed—Rothstein had a double mastectomy in May, followed by radiation—she moved 150 miles north to Flagstaff from her home in Scottsdale to live with Bruce and her family. “We just felt we could take care of her better,” Bruce said.
We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back New York City Marathon on Sunday, running between 100 and 115 miles per week, keeping her mother healthy has added a new dimension to the family dynamics.
“I felt pulled between being a daughter, a mom, a wife, and doing my job running,” Bruce said. “There were some tough times and stressors for sure. But at the end of the day, she is healthy, and I’m blessed with a great family.”
Rothstein started her treatment off with a positive outlook, which helped.
“With cancer, everybody is fighting and everybody has this battle. I decided neither one of those two words were about me,” Rothstein said. “I accepted it. I loved my body. And I said to myself, we are going to do this very well. And the bottom line is, we did.”
She did not go online searching for information, instead allowing the medical community to do its job. She refused to refer to chemotherapy as a poison drug. Instead, she called it her “healing elixir.”
That sunny outlook might sound familiar to any of her daughter’s social media followers. In 2016, Bruce captioned those famous Instagram photos of her pockmarked belly with the words: “When I look down I see stretch marks that are here to stay, ab muscles that need continued strengthening, legs that are powerful, and feet that are ready to fly.”
It is an attitude that Bruce and her mother have had years to practice, after cancer already devastated the family once. They lost James Rothstein, Bruce’s father and Joan’s husband, to prostate cancer when he was 55 and Bruce was 18, months before she graduated from high school.
When she first went to college at the University of California-Santa Barbara, she would collapse, weeping, after races, grieving the recent loss of her dad, Rothstein recalled. She’d call her mother almost daily in tears, with a common refrain: He’s never going to see me race. I don’t know if I can do this.
Finally her mother resisted. “You’re right, Stephanie. He’s never going to see you race. He’s not going to come to your wedding. He’s not going to see his grandchildren,” Rothstein remembers saying to her daughter. “And the sooner you pray for strength, the sooner you’re going to be fine. Or you can just collapse for the rest of your life. This is a choice, Stephanie, and it’s your choice.”
A week later her daughter called back: “I’m fine, Mom.” Said Rothstein: “She’s been smiling and running and winning ever since.”
Her buildup for New York has been solid, Bruce said. A few aches and pains here and there, but nothing that has kept her from running. She’s reluctant to name a time goal, knowing New York’s difficult course and windy race day weather can slow times, but she hopes for a top 10 finish. Top seven or five if it’s a “fantastic” day.
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Rothstein will be in New York on Sunday, with a fresh pedicure and hair growing back in, to cheer her daughter on. She’s proud of her daughter’s running, yes, but mostly she’s proud of how Bruce has unflinchingly stared down challenges in her way.
“I’m happy that she has found her passion,” Rothstein said. “Let’s put it that way. She’s come through stuff. She’s come through death and dying. She’s come through birth. All of that. She’s faced it. That’s what I’m happy about for her. It’s hard work what she does. She runs, what, 80 to 100 miles a week? We don’t drive that. She runs it.
“And raises two little boys and has a husband and her Picky Bars business,” Rothstein continued. “She has figured out, or is in the process of figuring out, how to live her passion. That’s what I’m most happy for her. If you can see that in your children, no matter what they want to do, then you’re happy.”
USATF to Elect New President Amid Budget Deficit is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World Sara Hall Smashes American Masters Marathon Record, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
