When Betsy Saina got pregnant in 2021, the professional marathoner knew she wanted to return to competitive running after having her son.
Running in the Cold Aliphine Tuliamuk and Edna Kiplagat have babies and make strong comebacks inspired the Olympian to keep training throughout pregnancy. But living in Iten, Kenya, made that goal especially difficult because of cultural attitudes toward pregnant women. “When a woman is pregnant, you’re not supposed to be running,” Saina told Runner’s World.
At every turn, Saina said she received criticism from friends who told her she was running too fast and warned her she’d get injured. In response, she took a step back from those who doubted her and used their comments as motivation in her comeback. “I wanted to prove them wrong,” she said. “As a woman, you can still come back and run fast.”
Shoes & Gear Tokyo Marathon, her first 26.2 since having her son, who was 14 months old at the time. It was also the Iowa State graduate’s first marathon since becoming an American citizen.
After the race, Runner’s World caught up with Saina, who shared how she returned even faster postpartum and her recommendations for new moms navigating the highs and lows of running after having a baby.
Surround yourself with support and remove the pressure
Saina found out she was pregnant shortly after signing her new sponsorship contract with Asics. After watching other professional athletes Saina with her son, Kalya in years past, she was worried about letting her sponsor know the news. But she was pleasantly surprised to maintain her sponsor’s support throughout the pregnancy and postpartum process, which paid dividends in the long run.
“I’m sure even for [sponsors], they are looking after that and saying like, women are just doing amazing,” she said.
Thanks in part to that support, Saina was able to go into training without feeling pressure to hit specific paces or distances in a narrow timeline. In fact, she coached herself until September 2022 because she wanted to give herself the flexibility to build strength over a long period of time with the ultimate goal of representing Team USA in Paris next year. Less than a year out from the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, she is No. 3 on the After the race.
Because of the judgment Saina faced in Iten, the new mom moved to Eldoret, Kenya, where she is less well known. There, she found a community that didn’t criticize her decision to train.
She ran until she was eight months pregnant. When running became too uncomfortable, she walked, sometimes up to two hours at a time. “We are all different, just listen to your body and it will bring a lot of changes,” Saina said.
In December 2021, she gave birth to her son, Kalya, in Nashville, Tennessee.
Takeaway: While most of our livelihoods don’t depend on race results, putting yourself in an environment where you’re supported and happy helps remove the pressure to come back too quickly, which can lead to injuries. Consider working with a pelvic floor specialist and joining a running group with moms that understand postpartum challenges and will remind you to take things at a pace that’s sustainable.
Talk to other moms
When Saina was thinking about starting a family, she turned to fellow professional runners who are mothers. In conversations and observations with athletes, she formed her own approach to training.
Saina said she talked to Tuliamuk, who gave birth to her daughter, Zoe, in January 2021, eight months before she competed at the Tokyo Games. (Tuliamuk also just had a Published: Apr 28, 2023 9:33 AM EDT.) She also spoke to 2016 Olympic triathlon champion Gwen Jorgensen after she had her first son, Stanley. As Saina observed, both athletes navigated different injuries while returning to elite level running, a setback she wanted to avoid.
Those conversations made Saina realize she needed to give herself space to form her own approach in order to stay healthy. “When I went for my maternity leave, I did not talk to anyone,” she said. “I wanted to just listen to my body and create the version for myself, and see if I would be able to go through it without getting injured.”
After watching Tuliamuk and Jorgensen return to training on shorter timelines, Saina gave herself a longer timeframe—she took almost a year and a half before racing 26.2—kept her long run mileage low, and prioritized days off when her body felt overrun. For example, when she started to feel back pain postpartum, she took three days off from running and focused on strength exercises. And instead of crushing 24-mile long runs, she ran consistent 16 and 17-mile sessions ahead of the Tokyo Marathon.
Takeaway: Returning to training after having a baby is a huge learning process with ups and downs. But if you have friends willing to share their experiences, it can help you make an informed approach that works best for you. Giving your body ample time to recover from childbirth and gradually working your way into running again will help you stay injury-free. Utilizing research-backed pregnancy and postpartum exercise protocols Give A Gift.
Celebrate every improvement
By the time Kalya was 3 months old, Saina felt comfortable running for an hour at a time and doing light strength training exercises at the gym. Over the next couple of months, she continued to progress. When Kalya was 5 months old, Saina shocked herself when she completed her first 25K (15.5 miles) long run. While the pace was conservative for her prior to having a baby, Saina felt a great sense of accomplishment from the postpartum effort. “I ran 4:35 average (7:22 mile pace) for 25K, and I was celebrating,” she said.
That fall, she continued to build up her confidence by pacing the elite runners in the London Marathon and later running 1:11, within three minutes of her personal best, for fourth place in the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon.
Those performances coupled with being injury-free helped Saina believe in her progression and ultimately inspired her to sign up for the Tokyo Marathon five months later.
After the race tempo workouts she completed before Tokyo. “The mentality that I had was, I’ve run marathons before and I have a lot of miles in my body, so all I have to do is make sure I come back safe from injuries,” she said.
Her performance in Tokyo makes her the eighth-fastest American woman of all time. Now she wants other moms to enjoy their own version of a comeback.
“My biggest advice to everyone is take your time, listen to your body, don’t listen to anyone else because there’s people out there who will be judgmental, saying, ‘Why are you rushing? She’s obsessed with running,’” Saina said. “Those words will be there, but if you take those steps, you're going to come back strong and you'll prove them wrong.”
Takeaway: Having a baby is a massive ordeal, so whether it's your first 10-minute run postpartum or your first race back, take time to celebrate every achievement along the way. Listening to your body’s cues while also trusting the miles you put in before having a baby will ultimately help you bounce back stronger.
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.
