Olympian Molly Huddle on Continuing Her 'Postpartum Comeback' with the NYC Half: 'I Feel Fresh'

Andy Lyons/Getty Molly Huddle

Molly Huddle is feeling "fresh" as she prepares to toe the line at the NYC Half, her third half marathon of her "postpartum comeback."

Huddle, 38, is an Olympian with many American titles and podium finishes over her professional running career, but this past year has been a learning experience as a new mom. She and her husband Kurt Benninger welcomed their first child, daughter Josephine, in April 2022, and Huddle has been carefully building back miles and speed over the past 10 months.

The return to running has "been good," she tells PEOPLE. "It's been very slow. I feel like I've been really measured with it. There's not a ton of information out there on postpartum training and recovery, but there is some, there's more than there used to be, and so I've been trying to take advantage of all of it."

Huddle says that she spent the first few months after Josephine's arrival focusing on strength — particularly in her core and pelvic area — before running too much.

"I probably would have [run more] if I was left to my own devices, but I avoided a few of the injuries that you hear are common postpartum," she says, adding that she got advice from other running friends who made their return to the sport post-baby.

The extra wait has paid off, Huddle says.

"I feel fresh — I feel a little undercooked but fresh, which is good."

That'll help next month, when she returns to New York City for the NYC Half, which Huddle won in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Still, she's tempering her expectations this year as she continues to recover.

"I don't know that I'm in that spot this year [to win], just because I'm on the postpartum comeback and I do feel like I'm having more normal work, typical workout splits that are close to my old previous best marks, but I just don't know if I'm ready to put it all together in a race," she says. "But we'll see."

Huddle also points out that she "won the race on their old course, which was a little bit flatter than this one. This one I hear is a little hillier, so we'll see how I handle that — I do struggle with the hills postpartum, I've noticed that's my last piece to come back. I don't know if it's just a muscular thing or a form thing, but we've been working on it so hopefully I can race well over the bridges and stuff."

And regardless of how she finishes, Huddle is feeling relieved that she already has her 2024 Olympic Trials Qualifier in hand for the marathon, which she earned at the Houston Half Marathon last month with a time of 1:10:01.

"That felt good," she says. "I had run a hilly half in Boston and I missed the [Olympic qualifying] time and I was bummed, so I wasn't sure if we'd be able to hit it. Only weeks later we ran three and a half minutes faster so that was a really good feeling and it also showed I'm chipping away and getting a little bit back to my old self."

After the NYC Half, Huddle is eyeing a spring marathon to possibly make the World Championship marathon team, and if she doesn't, might do a fall marathon before the Olympic Trials next February.

"I don't have a lot of marathons left, I feel like, and I would love to try and get a PR in on a fast course," she says.