NEWS, VIEWS, TRENDS and ORDINARY RUNNERS doing EXTRAORDINARY THINGS
Meet the mother of five who’s proving that pregnancy and being a parent needn’t put an end to your running ambitions
SOPHIE CARTER’S youngest child, 10-month-old Teddy, is a great example of how thoroughly the personal trainer from Oxfordshire combines running and motherhood: his middle name is Eliud.
Last July, Sophie, 44, finished the Race to the Stones 100K ultra in 9:50:17, first woman and ninth overall. She did this while expressing milk for Teddy on the move, wearing an Elvie pump and passing the contents to her partner for a bottle feed at aid stations.
It’s a similar scenario to that of Sophie Power, whose experience breastfeeding her three-month-old baby at the Ultra-Trail Du Mont-Blanc in 2018 (which she had to do because the rules did not enable her to defer her entry) prompted UTMB to change its pregnancy policy. Alexis Berg’s photograph of Power and her baby went viral and was named one of ‘50 photographs that reshaped sport’ by TheGuardianin 2023.
Sophie Carter, meanwhile, still runs at a high standard with five children, including a 14-year-old (the eldest) and three-year-old twins. Last August, she completed the Dorney Lake half marathon pushing Teddy in a buggy and she took him the whole way at the 2022 Race to the Stones, finishing as second woman while 20 weeks pregnant. She is aware how unusual that is – she has sent her data to Professor Margie Davenport, who specialises in studying pregnant women and exercise at the University of Alberta, Canada – and doesn’t want anyone to think her message is that you and your baby bump should immediately enter the Barkley Marathons. But neither does she believe mothers need to put their own lives completely on hold.
‘After so many pregnancies, I felt I knew my body. I decided to listen to it and if I felt I needed to stop, I’d just stop,’ she says. ‘As a mum, I have had plenty of negativity in my head and I know lots of mums feel guilty, like they shouldn’t be out running. But I’m inspiring my children. The older ones are out running now and the younger ones like seeing Mummy helping other people to be fit and healthy.’
She found it easier to run while pregnant than while breastfeeding. ‘When you’re pregnant you’re f looded with hormones. Everything’s growing: your hair, your nails, the baby, and you feel like you have this amazing energy. That’s what made me think, “I can do this.�
