In super sports, athletes often resist the human limits. But in the recent 100km race in Wales, a runner took it to another level.

From the photos that spread quickly, runner and new mom - Stephanie Case sat three points in a demanding track class to breastfeed her six-month-old daughter. The case not only completed the competition; she ranked first among female competitors.

"That was a surprise," Case wrote on Instagram, posting photos of herself feeding her daughter while wearing a racing bib and gear. "I won?!?"

Case didn't know the victory was waiting for her in the Ultra-Trail Snowdonia match in northern Wales. After three years of competition break, she was happy to run again. After a long journey, there was a daughter, Pepper, which included two miscarriages.

"I think the reaction is the vast majority," Case, 42, told NPR, adding, "the reaction shows me that we still have these ideas about what a new mom looks like."

For her, the photo shows “a athlete becomes a mom at the same time and these things aren’t actually competing with each other.”

“We don’t have to lose ourselves in being moms, we can continue to set big goals for ourselves,” she said.

On a practical level, Case’s feat raises a key question: How can she make sure she gets enough calories during the ultramarathon to power herself and another person?

"It's not just in the competition," she said. "It's also in training to make sure my milk supply isn't affected. It's not easy. I feel like I've been eating all the time, but actually being a mom has made me more effective in both training and refueling strategies."

Her coach, Dr. Megan Roche, said Case, a Canadian human rights lawyer currently based in Chamonix, France, helped hone the strategies.

"In the game, I'm taking about 80 to 100 grams of carbs per hour," she said. "Then I continued until about 65k and then I had to pull back a little because I got really nauseous. Then I lifted it up again and finished at 95k.

“That was when I started real nausea. ” she said with a smile.

Super Runner vs. "Rock Wall"

Keys said of the Snowdenia course: “It’s a surprising technique. Ultranunners have to cross the Welsh (called Yr Wyddfa in the Welsh) in the highest mountain in Wales and navigate the rough terrain from swampy fields to rugged ridges and hard shale.

“It’s not what you think is a typical running race,” Case said. In some parts, she added: “It’s almost like climbing up or climbing, the vertical wall you’re going to.”

The box ended for only 16 hours or more than 53 minutes. But she didn't know where she was in the competition at first. Since she has not competed in recent years, Case has not run with the main female runners - she started after 30 minutes and was unaware of their pace.

Case's companion takes the pepper to checkpoints of 20, 50 km and 80 km. She received a special permit for the party at 50 km, a requirement that she could not get assistance during parking.

It wasn't until the match officials confirmed her tracking chip record that unexpected results came out: A new mom in her 40s (stopped to breastfeed her child along the hardship course), ranked first among more than 60 female finishers.

Welcome to take a new step in the journey of nearly three years

Case won a supermarathon during her parenting holiday as a human rights lawyer at the United Nations. Her career has previously brought her to countries like Afghanistan and South Sudan - long-distance running helps cope with the pressure of working in a humanitarian crisis.

This experience inspired her experience of discovering free running, a nonprofit that empowers girls and young women in conflict areas through running and other outdoor activities.

In case of this, the Welsh race was her first major race since the summer of 2022: Hundred Miles of Endurance in Hardrock, Colorado.

"I was second in that game and I was really happy," she recalled.

Then, Case learned that she was pregnant - "Unfortunately, it was in trouble in the miscarriage," she said.

“People question whether it’s actually the run that causes miscarriage,” she said. “And there is no scientific or medical research that can indicate this connection, but it has planted the seeds of doubt in my mind.”

Once under pressure shelter, the case begins to doubt whether running “actually does not help me or helps me with the attempts of having family members”.

She began to quit the run. But when she got pregnant and had another miscarriage, “people questioned whether it was my job that caused the stress of miscarriage,” she said.

"I felt like I was just lost without the answer, there was no clear approach," Case said. "When I lost my running part, that was the core part of my identity. That was my identity, the way I identified, how I moved around the world. Suddenly I didn't."

“I’m dealing with the sadness and all the emotions surrounding pregnancy and infertility,” Case said. “So when I finally got a successful pregnancy with IVF, I started running again at the second semester, not in three months at all.”

She said she was more confident in getting pregnant—until somehow.

"Even at about 39 weeks, I can't completely relax. Once you've experienced a miscarriage, the statistics don't matter. Every doctor in the world tells you, 'You'll be fine.' You don't really believe it until you actually see that baby."

The victory of the race begins with a simple goal: running

As a new parent, the case has been fighting against a new question: How should she view herself?

"You know, am I sure I am a mother now?" she recalled and wanted to know. "What will happen in my career? Can I still call myself an athlete?"

She said it was a state of dormancy that was a joy to go back to running and rekindle part of her identity.

“Once I started training, I really started to improve my goals,” she said.

Her initial hope was just to end the game. But this was quickly replaced by greater ambitions.

"You know, why not set big goals?" the case said. "If I don't do it well, I don't do it well. But let's see what we can do."

Now with this problem, the case is preparing for a familiar event: Hardrock 100.

"In about six weeks, I'm going to go back to the same race, which disappoints me on the journey," Case said.

This time, she will eat pepper with her.