(Re)Storying embodied running and motherhood: a creative nonfiction approach

In the present study, post-partum embodied subjectivity of five competitive recreational mother runners of children under 6 years of age, was explored using narrative inquiry from a story analyst and a story teller position. This focus expands understanding of sport, embodiment and good mother ideals using narrative inquiry as a novel theory to centralize body-self stories contextualized in cultural narratives. A central theme of ‘reimagining the post-partum self’ was identified from a story analyst position whereby stories are the objects of analysis. We shifted to storytellers to present the nuanced intersecting meanings of this central theme in the form of three accessible creative nonfiction stories presented as composite vignettes. The three vignettes were: listening to, and learning from my postpregnant body; new mum, new athlete; and running (re)connects me to myself. These findings expand critical insights into the motherhood, sport and embodiment nexus into the under-studied topic of postpartum recreational sport. Such work opens pedagogical possibilities through telling, and witnessing, stories to highlight constraining and emancipative aspects, of women’s physical participation.