Mom Finishes First Among US Women in NYC Marathon 10 Months Postpartum

Moms can do just about anything and while everyone’s postpartum journey looks different its safe to say that running 26.2 miles less than a year after bringing life into the world is quite the feat.

After giving birth to daughter Keagan Kathryn Taylor in December 2022, pro runner Kellyn Taylor took home first place among American women during the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon with a time of 2:29:48. Averaging an impressive 5 minute 43 second mile, Taylor finished ninth overall among women and placed 50th among all 50,000 runners in her first return to marathon running.

Just behind Taylor, Molly Huddle placed second among American women and ninth among women overall. Huddle who was also running her first marathon postpartum, gave birth to her first baby Josephine Valerie Benninger in April 2022. Both women told Women’s Running that the marathon represented an important step in race experience and a healthy training cycle started prior to the US Olympic Trials.

“Obviously you want to be able to finish 26.2 miles and have that fresh in your mind, but also the buildup, the marathon work—I’ve gotten pretty far away from that just with the pregnancy and postpartum,” said Huddle, a two-time Olympian in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. “This is supposed to be a building block toward the workload that you need for the Trials—I’m going to have to try and inch my way back a little closer to what I’d ideally do for a marathon buildup.”

Taylor also spoke to the increased support for runners who’ve had children. Compared to when Taylor welcomed her first daughter 13 years ago, she’s “found a plethora of support from elite distance running moms.”

“It’s become really helpful to be able to text each other and just directly ask how they handled one thing or another,” Taylor says. “There isn’t necessarily a lot of information, but with the network of athletes that have kids, I feel like there’s more coming out now.”

According to Women’s Running, Huddle and Taylor each took a bit more conservative approach to training for New York this time. Be that as it may, Taylor still clocked an impressive peak of 112 miles a week and Huddle around 80 miles a week.

Our congratulations to these two moms on their impressive times and best of luck to them as they train for the US Olympic trials!