Just a few days after Elizabeth Northern crossed the 2016 Olympic Trials finish line in 2:50:04, she found out she was pregnant with her first child. The Fort Worth, Texas-based runner, who works as a research analyst at Tarrant County College, celebrated the news with her husband while she took some time off after Trials.

But a few weeks later, she was itching to begin training again. “I ended up running right up until I went into labor,” Northern, 32, told Runner’s World. “Six hours before my water broke, I ran a 5K.”

Northern, who began running 1K loops around her childhood home in Fort Worth at the age of 4, had her first daughter, Penny, in November 2016. Then around four months later, she discovered she was expecting another child.

“I was able to bounce back quickly from my first pregnancy and was starting to build up mileage again, but when I found out I was having another baby, everything had to be put on hold,” Northern said.

Before she knew she was pregnant in early 2017, the runner had asked a new coach to train her to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials. “I had to tell him, ‘Hold that thought, let me have this baby, and we’ll revisit a year from now,’” she said.

In December 2017, just a year and two weeks after having Penny, Northern delivered her son, Davis. With two babies in the house, she had to rapidly adjust to a new sleep, work, and training routine that allowed for enough time to care for her kids while also getting back in shape in time to qualify for Trials—which were only 14 months away.

“In June 2018, after a few months in a sleep-deprived fog, I called up my coach and said, ‘Let’s do this,’” she said. “I figured if I could get a solid half marathon time in the fall, I’d be able to qualify for Trials in a marathon in 2019.”

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Northern did just that: last September, she won the 2018 Tour des Fleurs Half Marathon in Dallas, Texas, in 1:22:54 , then came back the following January to run 2:43:54 at the Houston Marathon, qualifying for the 2020 Trials in Atlanta.

While it wasn’t the first time Northern qualified for Trials, her performance in Houston meant more than other marathons, since it required a tremendous amount of training while also juggling work and mom duties. Luckily, she was able to tap into years of strength and speed gained from running in college and beyond—while finding a brilliant way to blend kid time with training time.

Finding a Passion for 26.2

After jogging around the block as a preschooler, Northern went on to run in high school, then continued the sport as a cross-country and track walk-on at Trinity University in San Antonio. In college, she qualified for the NCAA DIII Cross Country Championships in 2006 and 2008, then in 2009, she placed 13th in the 10,000 meters at the NCAA DIII Championships.

During her undergrad years, Northern fell in love with high-mileage workouts, such as long runs and tempos. By the time she graduated in 2009 with a double major in religion and math, she was primed to take on longer events. In 2010, she made her 26.2-mile debut in the San Antonio Rock ’N’ Roll Marathon at age 23, running 2:56:21 .

“When I broke three in my first marathon, I figured I could get pretty good at this,” Northern said.

Over the next five years, Northern shaved more than 15 minutes off her marathon time, finally running her current PR of 2:40:49 —and qualifying for the 2016 Trials—at the 2015 Twin Cities Marathon. To make that giant improvement, she increased her weekly mileage from between 50 to 70 miles per week in her early 20s to between 80 and 100 after college, and also cut down her workouts from three to two per week.

“I found that increasing my mileage while still doing intervals, a tempo run, and a long run each week was too much,” she said. “My legs never really recovered when I did three hard workouts. So instead, I started incorporated tempo into my long run, and just doing one interval session during the week. That way, my legs were faster and fresher for races.”

Training for an OTQ With Babies

After going through what Northern calls her “two years of being pregnant” from early 2016 to late 2017, she had a new set of challenges to face while marathon training. First, she dealt with diastasis recti (abdominal separation) after the pregnancies, which required her to incorporate core strengthening exercises into her routine. Perhaps even harder to navigate, however, was the constant sleep deprivation.

“The lack of sleep was jarring,” she said. “After I had my second baby, I was in a constant state of being tired. I would get out for half-hour jogs here and there while the kids slept.”

By fall 2018, Northern’s children were sleeping until 7 a.m., so she had time to do her runs in the morning while her husband stayed with the kids. To prepare for Houston, she set her alarm for 4:45 a.m., then would meet up with her Fort Worth Distance Project training partners—two of whom have also qualified for Trials—between 5 and 5:30 a.m. to do anywhere from eight to 16 miles.

After the workout, she got home at 6:30 a.m., showered, fed the kids and pets, dropped the kids off at daycare, and clocked into work at 8 a.m. Later that day, she would leave her office at 4:30 p.m., pick the kids up, and spend the rest of the evening with her family.

“I rarely doubled, because I wanted to save my afternoons for my kids and husband,” she said.

In June 2019, Elizabeth Northern pushed her two children over a 10K in 41:20.56. Courtesy of Elizabeth Northern

While the bulk of her miles were done before her family woke up, about twice a month, Northern took the kids along with her in a jogging stroller—and she found that she had a knack for it. This past June, she finished a 10K in Fort Worth in 41:20.56 while pushing her children in a stroller, unofficially setting the Guinness World Record for fastest 10K with a double stroller.

“The key to running with kids is to pack lots of snacks, and then even more snacks,” she said. “After a half hour, they start picking at each other. So I knew I had to finish that 10K fast.”

Since then, Northern has found her stride again in distance races. Last month, she represented Team USA in the 50K World Championships in Romania, where she finished 6th. She’s planning on doing two half marathons and a 10-miler before lining up in Atlanta next February.

“In a perfect world, I would finish in the top quarter at Trials with a better marathon time than Houston,” she said. “But whether how my race goes, it’ll be a special experience. I’m excited to have my family at the finish line.”

Hailey Middlebrook Digital Editor Hailey first got hooked on running news as an intern with Running Times, and now she reports on elite runners and cyclists, feel-good stories, and training pieces for Runner's World and Bicycling magazines.

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