Women from around the world have read my article on running while pregnant entitled,
Please see the new discussion at www.RunnersIllustrated.com, Run Pregnant, It’s OK!
Paula Radcliffe and Kara Goucher both have exciting news. They are both pregnant and both due on the same day. Radcliffe, who is expecting baby number 2, has been quick to give some sage advice to Goucher, the new mom to be.
Radcliffe reported to the New York Times, “If you haven’t gone through pregnancy, you don’t know what that type of tiredness feels like, what being wiped out feels like. I didn’t sit down and lecture (Kara); I passed along bits (of advice) to her.”
Paula Radcliffe is the women’s marathon world-record holder and winner of the 2008 NYC Marathon. Goucher, who holds several records in many distances from 5K and up is now training with Radcliffe in Portland, Oregon. Each will train through their pregnancies.
Baby Planned With Olympics in Mind
That said, both women will be running strong through their pregnancy, as Kara Goucher’s Web site she plans to run through birth. Her plans are to have the baby now so she can compete in the 2012 Olympics. Radcliffe’s plan for baby number 2 was planned with the same plan in mind – to give birth and spend the 15 months before the Olympics training for her home country, England.
A Potential Scare
Goucher had some scary news; after learning the baby might have a developmental abnormality, she waited until she was near 5 months pregnant to share the news of her pregnancy to the world. Fortunately, the baby will be normal and she’s relieved, I am sure, beyond belief.
Goucher’s Training Plans Undaunted
While both women are still training hard, both admit to slowing down when they need to listen to their bodies. Recently,
Goucher with her husband, Adam. New York Times Photo
however, Goucher completed a 13-mile run at a 6:50 pace. Dr. Mona Shangold, the director of the Center for Women’s Health and Sports Gynecology in Philadelphia told the New York Times, “It has not been shown that running for that long, for that intensity, is safe.”
Recently, according to an article on Oregon Live.com, Goucher mentioned she cannot imagine taking a day off and recently she logged 80 miles in a week; but if that is something her body can handle, she should do just fine.
We just have to trust that both women know what they are doing. Paula Radcliffe won the IMG New York City Marathon merely 9 months after the birth of her daughter in 2007. That said, Radcliffe suffered a stress fracture in her sacrum post partum.
Radcliffe Running a Race Pregnant in 2007
Dr. Swedan, a rehabilitation specialist in New York City stated in Runner’s World article that the hormone relaxin, which causes joints and ligaments to loosen up so the hips can accommodate giving birth, doesn’t depart the body until at least four months postpartum. “It makes you more prone to sprains,” he says.
Good luck to both women in their pregnancies, motherhood, and pending Olympics.
First Time Mother Runs 10K 4 Months Post Partum.
My neighbor, Jaime, came up to me last night at a neighborhood happy hour. She was wearing her 4 month old son, Evan, in a Bjorn facing forwards. I offered to hold while she ate.
We talked about breast-feeding and pumping; all those new mom conversations still fresh in my mind even though my children are 7 and 4 years old.
Her husband, Luke, approached and after we caught him up on our conversation Jaime turned to me and said, “I’m, well, we’re running a 10K tomorrow, what do I eat beforehand?”
I was surprised. There was no way I could run a race while I was still breast feeding. I was so afraid I’d get engorged I put the thought out of my mind completely. Plus, I was exhausted. Jamie had told that Evan had kept her up every other hour last night. I was thinking she might want to go to sleep. And who was going to watch the baby while she ran?
“Wow!” I managed to reply. I immediately switched to trainer mode. “What time is the race?”
Once she told the race was at 8 am I recommended she get up around 6 and have a piece of toast with a little butter and jelly and only a half a cup of coffee. The idea being to feed the body and wake it up but not over stimulate it.
I’ll catch up with Jaime later but I am so proud of her. Oh, and by the way, I instructed her to wear two running bras!
