I'm going to be a mom! ... Oh my goodness me -Ashlyn- a mom?!?

Here we go! After a year of unknowns and hiccups in my life plans, this was one thing I knew I wanted and was going to love. I saw it as a time to reset, step back, find myself in a whole new light, and prepare as best I could to raise a kind, adventurous, loving little human. Parenthood was my next ultra marathon and I was ready to take on the challenge.

 I went straight to reading all the research I could find about exercising while pregnant. Google says "you're good to go, or maybe you're not", but as a first time mom, how on earth do you interpret that? Well, come to find out research also says "it depends". After a few weeks, I got to attend my 8 week appointment and my Dr. happened to be an ultra runner. At this point, it was June and I had registered for a 50k in September. This was obviously not a priority, but move of a curiosity. At 6 months pregnant, I could run a race this grueling? Her answer: "you should be just fine! Just listen to your body".

Though it was exciting to have a definitive answer, I was a first-time mom with a body hosting for two. My body did not feel like the body I had known for the last 24 years. I had no idea what "listen to your body" meant now. I wondered if I was going to spend the next 40 weeks slowly running a couple miles here and there, or if I could run an ultra?

 No better time to learn about my body than now!

For the first few weeks I ran trails, my longest being 15 miles, where all I was able to consume was a cucumber, some cherry tomatoes, & liquid calories because of how bad my food aversions were. Not ideal for a gal who loves and prioritizes adequate calories for training! So, the following two weeks I benched myself from exercise all together.

 Weeks 7-9 were not how I was expecting to learn. It began with sleeping 15 out of 24 hours, and struggling to consume 500 calories when my norm was nearly 3,000.

Lesson 1: This is our body now, so when you need rest, I'll rest.

From week 10-13, we grew together and learned what balanced us. Lots of sleep, good food, and sunny trail days made us a pretty great team. I was also seeing moms everywhere accomplish their big goals while pregnant. Seeing Anna Rohrer win the Indianapolis 500 half marathon at 23 weeks pregnant kept my feet beneath me. Especially, because I wasn't aiming to win any race, I just wanted to move one step at a time for 30ish miles. Logan and I soon found out we were going to have a little boy; he was looking healthy! We continued to ask questions & though I was doing the baby grown', I was sure to check in with Logan to make sure he was comfortable with my many trail miles with his little man on board. Not only did he say "of course", but at week 14, he crewed us for our 1st ultra together: 30 miles through the Gallatin Range In MT.

The annual Scummy Summer Slammer: 90 miles from Bozeman to Yellowstone.

 The same girl, Mallory, that crushed this run with me 2 years prior when I was in the best shape of my life, stuck with me through all 12 hours of Day1, with grueling ridge lines and what seemed to be endless route finding at 4 months pregnant. Instant cold packs, snacks, snow in my hat, and water were on repeat all day long.