Jenny Jurek’s Advice For Aspiring Mother Runners
Jenny shares her advice for fellow mother runners who struggle to start their families.
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Ultrarunner Jenny Jurek’s relationship with the outdoors shaped her into the woman she is today. In our September 2018 cover feature, Women’s Running Managing Editor Bethany Mavis spoke with Jurek about her years-ago entry into the ultrarunning world, the book she recently cowrote with her husband, Scott Jurek, and the couple’s struggles to start a family. Read the full article about Jenny here, and look below for her tips on women runners who yearn to become mothers—just like she did.
Be True To Yourself
“We’re females, so we’re so in tune with our body. I would keep true to your body and do what you love. A lot of people who aren’t really active are like, ‘Oh, you’re running too much—that’s why it’s not happening.’ Or ‘Oh, it’s because you’re vegan.’ But it wasn’t those things. We never really figured out what it was, but I did every test under the sun, and all the tests said I should be able to have a baby. There was no explanation for it. So don’t stop doing what you love, because that really stressed me out and made me sad—I feel like that negative energy was doing a lot worse things than running for me.”
Leave No Stone Unturned
“Keep trying. We’re so healthy—vegan, organic and we don’t use any drugs, like not even Tylenol or whatever. Not that we’re anti-, but we always like to try natural, holistic remedies. In the end we had to go full-on science and do IVF. So it was evaluating what’s most important for us. At first, Scott really wasn’t willing to go down that road because he was like, ‘No, if it doesn’t happen naturally, it’s not meant to happen.’ But I just didn’t take no for an answer and kept plowing forward and trying to make it happen. And it did work.”
Related:
So I Married An Ultrarunner: An Interview With Jenny Jurek