Sophie Power: Breastfeeding Midway Through a 100-Mile Race, Ultramarathons, and Changing the Sport for Good

This week on Rugby Rodeo, Ellie Kildunne and Jess Breach are joined on the Rodeo sofa by one of the toughest, most inspiring athletes on the planet—Sophie Power.

Sophie is a world-leading ultramarathon runner, a Guinness World Record holder, and a genuine trailblazer in endurance sport. She first became globally known after an extraordinary photo of her breastfeeding her three-month-old baby mid-race during a 100-plus-mile mountain ultra—an image later named by The Guardian as one of the photos that reshaped sport, sparking a global conversation about equality, motherhood, and opportunity for women in sport.

Ahead of the release of her new autobiography, The Power Within, Sophie takes us inside the wild world of ultra-running: what an ultramarathon actually is, how you even begin to train for events that last days, and why her very first race was the infamous Marathon des Sables—a 250-km, self-supported slog across the Sahara Desert in 40°C-50°C heat.

She opens up about “going to dark places,” the real dangers of extreme endurance racing (including a race that left her in a coma with a 50 percent chance of death), and the mental resilience needed to keep moving when your body wants to stop. We also dive deep into the story behind that iconic UTMB photo—why she raced while breastfeeding, what it cost her, and why pregnancy is still treated differently to injury in elite sport.

There’s also plenty on Sophie’s work beyond racing. She tells Ellie and Jess about her charity SheRACES, the SheRACES guidelines, and her mission to create fairer, safer, and more inclusive start lines—from trail running to rugby pitches.

Settle back, enjoy—and make sure you’re subscribed.

The Power Within is out now at all good retailers and is also available in audiobook format. More information on Sophie’s charity, SheRACES, can be found here.