Meet the Hawkeye mom that combined motherhood, track and academic success
John NaughtonIOWA CITY, Ia. — Alexis Hernandez had taken two pregnancy tests, both positive, then went to the doctor for an ultrasound procedure.
The then-University of Iowa sophomore saw an image of her daughter, who turns 2 in August.
The track athlete's confidence was shaken. How could she raise a child while continuing to run and stay in school? Every aspect of her life was about to change.
“Here I was, 19 years old, not knowing what I was going to tell my family,” Hernandez said.
Alexis Hernandez has always been a confident woman, from reaching her goals as a powerful sprinter to earning honor roll grades in the classroom.
Few statistics are kept on college athletes able to make it to the finish line for graduating, returning to the track team and being a mother.
Colleges are coping with athlete parenthood, too. There are medical and legal issues connected with pregnancy. It's been 45 years since the groundbreaking Title IX gender equity law expanded opportunities for female athletes.
The NCAA has aimed more resources to specifically addressing athlete pregnancy in recent years. It adapted a Model Pregnancy and Parenting Policy to guide both students and schools and created an inclusion department that covers women's issues.
There are about 460,000 athletes at NCAA programs. When a pregnancy occurs, it can create potential pitfalls for both schools and athletes seeking to compete and raise a child, too.
"Schools have to make accommodations for women who are pregnant," said Nancy Hogshead-Makar, an Olympian and attorney who was one of the authors of the NCAA’s policies.
Female athletes who compete while in the early stages of pregnancy have brought attention to that subject in recent years. Tennis star Serena Williams confirmed in April that she was taking a break while she prepares to have a child — and that she won January's Australian Open while she was pregnant.
Beach volleyball Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings is another notable athlete who competed during the early stages of pregnancy.
For Hernandez, she looked to another fellow competitor from the Drake Relays — pole vaulter Demi Payne — as an example of an athlete who returned to athletics following the birth of a child.
Count Hernandez as a winner despite the odds against her. Her story is so moving that she became a viral sensation this spring because of it.
Hernadez ran in an NCAA track and field regional in May, though she fell short of qualifying for last week’s national championships in Eugene, Ore. She made the dean’s list in her final semester in college and earned her diploma in May. She has a healthy and active toddler, Peyton.
A report used by the NCAA in its online information for the Model Pregnancy and Parenting Policy states that for college women, participation in athletics can be a factor that lowers the statistics for pregnancy. A study cited by the NCAA resource states the number of pregnancies among sexually active female college athletes is about one percent, with about 11 percent of comparable non-athletes becoming pregnant.
Even one or two percent is a significant number when the large number of athletes is considered, said Hogshead-Makar.
“If there are 500 female athletes at a college, there’s 10 athletes there — that’s a lot,” she said.
Hernandez was faced with financial burdens most student-athletes don’t have. Her medical bills from her pregnancy, including a C-section delivery, were paid for by insurance and family assistance. She did not receive help from Iowa because she is an athlete, she said. Hernandez does receive a subsidy from the university that covers a small portion of child care costs.
In track, she overcame a five-month layoff because of her pregnancy.
She worked with her professors to continue on pace to graduation.
It was a journey filled with tears. Of waking up at 5:30 a.m. on school days to get her daughter ready. Lining up in the starter’s blocks and knowing the other runners hadn’t delivered a baby or worried about their child. Studying into the night on weekends when some of her peers were socializing at downtown Iowa City bars or shopping at the local mall.
“I think having a baby at a young age is definitely not something to glorify or make seem exciting,” Hernandez said. “There’s a lot more struggles that I’ve faced. Social media doesn’t show the months I spent in my room crying because I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do.”
She survived. Alexis made a social media post dressed in her track uniform and cap and gown, her daughter’s hand in hers, that went viral and was viewed thousands of times. The picture summed up the package.
Graduate. Sprinter. Mom. Alexis did them all at the same time.
'Coach, I’m pregnant'
Alexis Hernandez never expected to attend college in Iowa.
Even when the San Diego track star enrolled, it took time to find the Hawkeye State on a map.
"It pretty much took around a semester," Hernandez said, smiling.
Hernandez spent her early years competing in figure skating, not track. But when she switched to running, she became a late-blooming star whose speed drew collegiate attention.
When Iowa contacted her, she accepted her first trip to visit the state.
“It was more of a dream," Hernandez said. "It didn’t feel it was too real until I was on the plane for my official visit.”
Hernandez was 19 in December of her sophomore year when she had a gut feeling that she might be pregnant.
After two positive home tests, a friend drove her to the doctor, where she underwent an ultrasound procedure. She saw her daughter's form.
“On the screen, there was Peyton,” Hernandez said.
She texted Iowa sprints coach Clive Roberts: "Hey, can we meet?"
When she sat down with him, she shared the news.
“I told him, ‘Coach, I’m pregnant,’ and I started crying,” Hernandez said.
She told her family, concerned about what they would think. But her family would rally around Alexis.
Telling her teammates was difficult for Alexis. Imagine a runner from a 4x100 or 4x400 suddenly lets the other runners know she won't be able to carry the baton.
“I felt like I was taking something away from my teammates,” Hernandez said.
She gathered with the Iowa track squad and sobbed.
“I’m sorry I let you guys down," she said.
The delivery room
As Alexis prepared for her due date in August 2015, she hoped that her daughter would arrive.
She went to an Iowa City-area restaurant for burgers and felt an unusual sensation: stillness.
Her daughter had always been active, kicking frequently. Not this time.
Alexis went to the hospital and was induced to deliver. She went into labor.
“I started crying and called her dad and told him I was in labor,” Hernandez said.
Peyton's dad, Omar Truitt, arrived to help.
Alexis waited. So did the doctors. She asked one of them questions about "Grey's Anatomy" to kill the time.
After 29 hours of labor, doctors decided to go for a C-section — a procedure that would affect her runner's body.
A curtain was draped over Alexis below her chest. Suddenly, she heard the baby girl cry.
After 33 hours, Peyton Noelle Hernandez-Truitt arrived.
Omar would eventually move out of state. Alexis said in a text message that they're still in contact.
“Our relationship is a work in progress,” Alexis said. “Omar and I have been in a lot of dark places but have also been in a lot of bright places. Without them, Peyton would not be here.
"However, being so young and trying to figure out our lives, we've come to realize that being good parents doesn't mean we have to be together. I have a lot of love for him because without him there would be no her. It's our love for our daughter that has brought two families together.”
Alexis had previously come to a challenging decision. She would raise the child, no matter what.
“People will sit here and tell you when you’re pregnant all of the negatives and all of the bad things and all of the statistics, but I didn’t want to be that,” Hernandez said.
“I’ve always had this attitude since I was little just to do whatever I put my mind to, and that’s how I treated being pregnant. I wanted to have the baby, I wanted to be a student-athlete, so that’s what I did.”
Her family provided support for Alexis as she approached her due date. Grandparents arrived two weeks before. Her parents, a week ahead.
“They provided the love and support I needed,” Hernandez said.
Pregnancy had changed her. She was a very social person, but there was no going out after she learned of her pregnancy.
She visited her professors and told them she was pregnant. She found a child care provider so she could attend classes.
“We’re student-athletes, students coming first,” Hernandez said. “It was very important for me to stay on top of my studies and classes.
“A week after Peyton, I was back in class,” Hernandez said. “It’s definitely hard writing a paper with a newborn, or a 2-year-old. But I made it work.”
During track season, her mornings usually started at 5:30 a.m., as she prepared herself and her daughter for the day. She attended classes and went to practice.
After returning home, she fixed dinner and put her daughter to bed. Frequently, Alexis stayed up until 1 a.m. doing homework.
“I’ll get up the next day and do it all over again,” Hernandez said.
Getting back on track
For five months, Alexis stayed away from track training and concentrated on becoming a mom.
But that long period off created concerns for her: Would she regain her speed? What if she lost the skill that earned her a spot on the team?
Her first workout after returning to the team — short sprints designed to reintroduce her body to the sport — was strange and punishing.
“My body didn’t feel like my body anymore,” Hernandez said. “My body felt like it was getting absolutely nowhere at all.”
At her first meets after returning, she would look to the right and the left at the starting line, knowing her opponents hadn't given birth recently, like she had.
But in a way, her athletic body had been conditioned to rebound.
"The more fit you are, the more in shape you are, the better off you are," said Chris Wiedmann, a Des Moines-based Certified Athletic Trainer who works at UnityPoint Health.
Female athletes who compete now are treated differently than a century ago, when women didn't have the right to vote.
"They were 'dainty little flowers,'" Wiedmann said. "Now it's, 'Get out of my way, Chris, I'm going to run you over.' "
A competitive attitude helped push Alexis in her desire to rejoin the team.
“Not once did I think, ‘I’m going to drop out of school and I’m not going to do track,'" Hernandez said.
Many athletes crave that competition through athletics, Wiedmann said.
Hernandez said her coaches and teammates were supportive of her and her daughter.
Her teammates continued to encourage her.
“A lot of us shared tears together,” Hernandez said. “Not once did they throw track in my face or say I let them down.”
At the same time, Hernandez said she made sure not to let her daughter have too much contact with her teammates. There's no babysitters by committee with the team.
Hernandez said she's done the best she could for her daughter. That effort included resuming her track career.
“I wanted to have the baby and track, and that’s what I did,” Hernandez said.
The final turn
Peyton turns 2 years old in August and is a very active little girl.
Alexis' daughter will count like a track starter: “One, set, go."
There are big smiles, but tears, too, for a 22-year-old mother.
“It’s not all rainbows and butterflies that it appears to be,” Hernandez said. “It was a wrestling match some days."
As her final semester of school and last track season ended this spring, Alexis put things together. She had a 3.47 grade-point average to make the dean's list and earn academic all-Big Ten honors.
Hernandez was part of Iowa's Drake Relays champion 4x100-meter unit and its third-place 4x400. The speed, indeed, had returned.
Alexis describes herself as a private person. But as she neared graduation, she shared a special social media post.
She put her graduation gown over her track uniform and placed her mortar board atop her head. Then she crouched in a sprinter's stance.
Hernandez held hands with Peyton, walking side by side down the University of Iowa track, her gown draped over her shoulders like a superhero.
"Statistics said otherwise. This one's for you," Alexis tweeted.
“It signifies me and Peyton walking away from that chapter of our lives,” Hernandez said. “It shows the different roles I’ve taken on in my life, my daughter, my education and my track."
Alexis wasn't ready for the way people reacted to the images. The tweet went viral, drawing more than 255,000 "likes" and 38,000 retweets.
“My phone was blowing up,” Hernandez said.
Her story was picked up by The Register and national media such as ESPN.com.
The photographs also made her an unexpected mentor to strangers. Suddenly, young mothers started contacting Alexis, asking her questions and complimenting her for her courage.
She offered her support.
“Any young mother knows the statistics are not in our favor,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez will return to San Diego next month. The sociology major plans to pursue a graduate degree and eventually become a juvenile probation officer.
Her daughter, the little girl that changed her life, continues to inspire her.
“She’s my light, she’s my purpose, and everything I do, I do for her,” Hernandez said.
Graduate, runner and mom.
“It definitely wasn’t an easy journey, but that’s what makes it beautiful, I guess,” Hernandez said.