When Ann Marie Cody’s 16-month-old triplets get fussy, instead of taking them for a spin in the car to calm them, she straps them into their 4-foot-wide triple stroller and takes them out for a run.
It works like a charm, the mother from Sunnyvale says, because the two boys and one girl seem to like being pushed while she jogs.
Cody used her kids’ calm temperament while in the stroller to her advantage Sunday morning as she bested her own Guinness World Record time for fastest half-marathon while pushing a triple pram, running in the inaugural Silicon Valley Half-Marathon in downtown San Jose.
She finished in 1 hour, 46 minutes and 13 seconds, according to the event’s runner tracking website, beating her previous time by nearly two minutes, which she set in the Fresno California Classic Half-Marathon last year. The time will still need to be ratified by Guinness before becoming official.
Even with the stroller, Cody placed 49th out of 753 women registered for the event, and 153rd overall out of 1,474 entrants.
“I went out hard, I tried to not leave any gas in the tank,” Cody said after finishing the race Sunday morning, still dripping in sweat and fighting off cramps in her feet. “It was awesome.”
And the kids were all smiles, giggling in the morning light, kept occupied by spill-proof containers of Cheerios and leak-proof bottles of water suspended by strings in front of them.
The stroller, which Cody and her husband affectionately refer to as “the tank,” weighs about 120 pounds when loaded with the kids, not to mention a few GoPro action cameras on board, making the feat all the more impressive to people who know Cody.
“She’s amazing,” Lindsay Martin, a teacher at a daycare center the triplets attend said Sunday. Martin came to the race to support Cody and the kids.
“Their mom is Superwoman,” she said, while holding a sign encouraging Cody to take the race one step at a time.
Martin said Cody’s dedication can serve as inspiration to other women who don’t want to give up their passions and hobbies after having children.
“She’s a full-time working mom, has triplets, and still manages to beat records and have energy to play with them,” she said. “I think it’s amazing.”
Cody said she feels a lot of women have gotten used to “the idea that they’re supposed to give up everything for their kids, and ultimately that might not actually be the healthiest thing for families.”
She said one of her big motivations is to show mothers they should keep themselves healthy and balanced as a way to be a better parent in the long run.
The first ever Silicon Valley Half-Marathon served as a benefit for ALearn Silicon Valley Education Foundation’s STEM programs.
Cody was doing some fundraising of her own, as well, for El Camino Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit in Mountain View, where her triplets spent the first few days of their lives.
She said in an interview last week the unit’s nurses and staff provided great care for her children, so she’s using this race and previous races, including a full marathon in Modesto in late March where she also set a [potential world record, to help raise money for the unit as a way to thank them.
Cody has also raised money for Project Sweet Peas, a nonprofit organization that supports families of premature and sick infants, as well as people who have been affected by pregnancy and infant loss. She shares links for people to donate to the two causes on her own website, where she also tracks her records.
Before having triplets, Cody said she used to run trails and mountains.
“But I quickly realized that I was not going to be running up mountains with three babies on my back,” and so she took to running on flat courses with the kids in the stroller.
After hearing about a North Carolina woman who had established the world record for running with kids in a triple stroller, Suzy Goodwin, Cody was motivated to try it herself. She said she contacted Goodwin, who supported her efforts.
Goodwin had to make a pit stop to change a diaper during the race when she established the record in late 2016, adding to her total time. But Cody said so far, she’s been lucky in that regard.
“My kids have somehow learned that’s not something to do in the stroller,” she said.
