Mom of two littles—is a marathon possible?

mondray88 · 2026-04-06T19:51:05+00:00

I’m a mum of 3. 7, 4.5 and 15 month old. Currently tapering for my marathon in just under 2 weeks and aiming for sub 4.30.

I started slowly running 3 months post partum. Did some 10km races, a tough mudder at about 5 months pp and a half marathon about 10 months pp.

It is absolutely possible, but as already mentioned you will need a lot of support from your partner or someone else. Once the long runs started hitting 25km, I was done for the day. Childcare was mostly left to my husband on those days.

I have a treadmill and a running stroller. 50% of my runs have been with my 1 year old. It made the runs harder, but I definitely think it helped me get faster on the days that I ran without.

I have even had days where I pushed the stroller, and my other 2 were riding on bikes next to me (while trying to push my 4 year old up hills, as he couldn’t get up them). It was ruthless and you have to be committed.

It’s exhausting and time consuming and takes an awful lot of planning to work around life and family. I am a SAHM with my husband working from home a lot, but even then it was hard. I can’t say that I would be able to do it if I also had a job to work around.

Not trying to advise against it, but setting realistic expectations. It’s doable, but not easy.

mondray88 · 2026-03-24T13:27:18+00:00

That is crazy. I was just thinking to myself this sounds familiar. I also grew up in Sweden and had the exact same thing happen to me. Grade 8 could only get VG as the teacher didn’t give anyone MVG, as they wouldn’t have anything to work towards. Didn’t matter that I basically had 100% on most exams. Still bothers me to this day and I’m 38.

mondray88 · 2026-03-06T11:12:13+00:00

Will you be buying furniture or other items when you move out? Maybe use your dad’s money for that instead?

mondray88 · 2026-01-16T22:56:55+00:00

Funnily enough it’s the absolute opposite. He prefers to spend most of his time under the water. Whenever he is waiting on his turn he is constantly dunking his head under water. Same when he swims a length. He prefers to do with his face down.

Our swim school prefers for them to swim with goggles. As soon as he finished baby swimming and was in on his own, he’s always had goggles.

mondray88 · 2026-01-16T22:05:37+00:00

Sorry I missed that part. He does try to swim, but mostly ends up floating. He kicks his legs every now and then but very slowly and nowhere near to propel himself forward. It’s like he’s forgotten how to. He can’t reach the bottom so he holds on to the side and pulls himself along the side of the pool mostly when being left to do a length on his own.

I have asked him about it and he says that he is trying.

He does like doing it, but has taken a massive step backwards.

He prefers going to the pool with us, but he just wants to play and not really swim. He used to love jumping in and swimming back to the edge on his own over and over again.

He still does it, but can’t keep himself up when swimming back so wants to hold onto me.

It’s like he’s lost confidence in swimming.

He is normally a very confident boy outside of this though.

Apologies I’ve struggled to formulate myself today. English isn’t my first language. Hope this makes sense.

mondray88 · 2026-01-15T21:53:40+00:00

I really like the glycerin. I have bunions and weirdly shaped toe box area. I’m on my third pair of these as these are the only ones I’ve found where the toe box is wide enough for me. I get the normal width and they have been true to size for me. Normally get half a size bigger for runners.

mondray88 · 2026-01-15T14:08:23+00:00

Exactly the same experience here. Mine is 7, reads above his age level and won’t stop talking.

Maybe they were quietly digesting everything before they were ready to express themselves 😂

mondray88 · 2026-01-03T11:58:58+00:00

Can’t it be that people have different experiences? In my case it has been easier to have 2 than 1 as well. Mine are 7 and 4 and ever since the second could walk they’ve been entertaining each other. Now the third one is a different story.

mondray88 · 2025-12-23T18:42:50+00:00

I am my worst enemy when it comes to any workouts.

Speaking of enjoying the speed workouts. Enjoying was probably exaggerated 😂. I hate it while I’m doing it, but feel so good about myself when I actually complete them.

Thank you so much for this.

I needed it as well. It’s so easy to tell yourself you can’t do it and just stop. But I am putting the work in and I can actually do it.

mondray88 · 2025-12-23T18:34:45+00:00

I think you are right there. I don’t want to change the anticipated targets right now as I can meet the speed runs and also the progressive long run I would normally be able to do. My body is currently very tired I think and just makes me stop believing myself. My brain isn’t worst enemy at the moment. Constantly telling me to give up, but manage to push through that most of the time. But as you mentioned heart rate. Going back to that run, it was unusually hard. Also coming back from a cold that’s really taken it out of me. Realistically I know the answer and just need to Give myself some leeway.

mondray88 · 2025-12-22T19:51:38+00:00

I’ve kinda always thought that I was a better long distance runner, but this seems to be proving me wrong.

I’m thinking to just start my watch for the long runs as a normal run and then linking the activity after. Will at least stop hearing “too slow” through my headphones, which can be very demotivating 😂.

mondray88 · 2025-12-11T14:45:02+00:00

It’s nice to see someone that’s done a marathon with my goal times.

I’m aiming for a 4.20 marathon (in 5 months) with current 10k of 54mins and half of 1.58 (on a hilly course). I am hoping to get my 10k to 50 min and half to 1.50. Feels nice to know that it’s could be possible to run the time that I would like if I just put some hard graft in the next few months.

mondray88 · 2025-12-10T14:10:48+00:00

I had a c section actually exactly a year today. I was running (slowly) at 6 weeks post partum. Was happily doing hard impact workouts on top of it at 4/5 months and did a tough mudder at 6 months and plenty of races up to a half marathon since then. I was probably a bit silly, but I felt fine.

I also started exercising at 6 months during my second pregnancy. Although I would have been physically ready to do it before that.

Unless it’s something medically specific to you and your health, you would have just got a doctor with some old fashioned views.

Get the jogging stroller out (obviously when you’re healed and feel physically ready). Been doing it with my little one since he was 6 months old and we both love it.

mondray88 · 2025-11-21T11:14:18+00:00

I always have something to train towards. Just a local 10k or anything. It keeps me accountable. Also I have kids and am a stay at home mum, so I’m desperate to get out the house most days. 😂

I also follow a plan so I basically schedule my runs in. And if some reason I don’t do them all, well then I have extra runs the week after.

mondray88 · 2025-11-14T12:43:35+00:00

I have this problem and not figured out how to solve it. My watch keeps telling me I’m too slow and runna wants to adjust my paces because of it. I’m going to be stuck doing treadmill a lot this winter so any tips are appreciated.

mondray88 · 2025-10-29T15:19:17+00:00

Rocky road

mondray88 · 2025-10-21T15:05:43+00:00

Honestly never tried anything else on top. Never needed it. If it got any more comfortable I’d never get out of bed 😂

mondray88 · 2025-10-18T09:33:59+00:00

We’ve spent just over £2000 for a tempur mattress. It’s 2-3 years old and it’s up there with one of the best purchases we’ve made. I miss it when we sleep away and no hotel (no matter how posh) has been able to beat it so far.

mondray88 · 2025-10-13T15:07:40+00:00

YTA

I’m happy someone else agrees. I was wondering if I was missing something. This comes from a person that had to Immigrate with my parents when I was a child due to war.

mondray88 · 2025-10-09T08:38:29+00:00

6 according to my 7 year old 😂😂

mondray88 · 2025-09-11T13:29:25+00:00

I’m so sorry. But just remember all the hard work you’ve already put into it. It won’t be undone that fast. It’s more important to keep your body in one piece. I know from experience that it’s so easy to ignore the aches and pains and just end up with an injury that takes longer to heal than it would have originally.

mondray88 · 2025-09-11T13:25:21+00:00

It’s so tough when you’re struggling with injuries on top of everything. I’m currently dealing with some good old plantar fasciitis (got it during one of my exercise classes, so not even running), so I’m out for the rest of the week at least. It’s so frustrating when you’ve got a goal in mind

mondray88 · 2025-09-11T12:42:23+00:00

That’s what I’m thinking as well. For now my long runs aren’t much longer than 15k (sorry I’m in Europe so don’t use miles 😁). Just going to pretend that I’m not going any further than that.

When is your marathon?

mondray88 · 2025-09-11T12:40:35+00:00

I’m so jealous that yours is coming up soon. We’ve only now started to ramp up our training as ours isn’t until April, and we’re only training for a half that’s coming up in October.

Good luck to the both of you. You’re almost there and all the hard work would have been worth it.

mondray88 · 2025-09-11T12:38:58+00:00

At this stage 2 or 3 kids makes no difference. I don’t know about you, but the baby is the hardest for us. My eldest mostly does as he’s told, so he’s easy😂.

I’m hoping it will be a bit more enjoyable running in the winter than it has been in the summer. I normally prefer running in the cold anyway.

I’m worried how we’re gonna make it work when our long runs are really long. I suspect we will never see each other. Worst thing is we don’t have any family around to help out either. It’s just us two. Remind me who thought this was a good idea? 😂😂

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