Paula Radcliffe wowed mothers, runners and running mothers in November when she won the New York City Marathon just nine months after delivering Isla, a healthy baby girl.
But Nancy Hammond, a St. Louis-area marathoner and mother of three, wasn't so surprised.
Nor was she fazed by news that the Brit with Grit - as Radcliffe is known - continued intensive training throughout her pregnancy, including a run the day before going into labor.
"I actually ran through all of my pregnancies," said Hammond, 33. "With my first, I ran up to four days before going into labor. With my second, I ran a week before, and with the last one I ran eight miles the day before giving birth."
Once upon a time, women weren't allowed to participate in marathons. The prevailing thought was that the female form wasn't physiologically able to run 26.2 miles. Roberta Gibb put an end to that notion in 1966 when she ran the Boston Marathon in a respectable 3 hours 21 minutes. (The top male finished about an hour earlier, about six seconds faster than Radcliffe's time in New York this month.)
GAUGING PRECAUTIONS
Now women distance runners like Hammond and Radcliffe are busting another myth about limitations of the female body. But their feats of endurance during and after pregnancy raise as many questions as they're answering.
For instance: Can all women runners run up to the day they give birth, or just elite athletes? Anecdotal evidence suggests that the answer is both.
If so, what precautions must be taken? Traditionally, doctors recommended the heart rate shouldn't exceed 140 beats a minute.
And does having a child affect postpartum performance? Some women think the substantial increase in blood volume shortly before labor might help.
Dr. Gil Gross, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University, says the answer to the latter is no, that increased blood volume does not help.
"The reason women have increased blood volume is to get them ready for delivery, when they'll lose anywhere from half a liter to a full liter of blood."
As for the other uncertainties, Gross explains how each woman is different and the key is to determine her activity and fitness levels to begin with.
"Pregnancy is not the time to take up running or to push yourself to new limits or set new records and goals," Gross says. "But if someone is used to running and has a normal, uncomplicated pregnancy, I think it's OK to continue with some precautions."
RESEARCH IS THIN
Until Radcliffe's pregnancy and subsequent victory, almost no research had been conducted on the effects of running and high-intensity exercise on expectant mothers and the effects of pregnancy on high intensity performance of new mothers.
"It's difficult to get research accepted when you're going to get a pregnant woman to push her limits and exert herself," Gross says. "But there's a little to go by."
He and other obstetricians have, in recent years, begun recommending that pregnant women go by perceived output rather than keeping track of their heart rate, which varies so widely among women even before they get pregnant. The same goes for their heart's responses to exercise.
Gross recommends women keep Radcliffe's pregnancy and subsequent marathon victory in perspective.
"I think it will be difficult for normal women to emulate her, and that's why it's important to take it with some degree of reservation when applying it to the casual runner," he says.
Nicole Burdge, a marathoner and two-time Ironman finisher, continued running into her eighth month of pregnancy and says her doctor supported her in that endeavor.
"A lot of books recommend a 140 heart rate or lower," said Burdge, 33. "But because I was fit going in, he recommended that I maintain what I could, but that I keep a pace where I could talk and not do any speed work. He also wanted me to make sure my body temperature didn't get too high, so I ran in the morning when it was cooler and drank lots of fluids."
Hammond thinks it helped that her obstetrician is a runner himself.
"But at same time, if something were going on that I needed to back off, he wouldn't have hesitated to tell me," she said.
Most pregnant runners wear special running shorts and a belt to keep their baby bumps from bouncing and jostling.
RADCLIFFE'S REGIME
According to a New York Times article, Radcliffe ran 75 minutes in the morning and 30 to 45 minutes again in the evening during the first five months of her pregnancy. Then she cut back, running an hour in the morning and riding a stationary bike at night during the last four months. She also did hill repeats, which is repeatedly running up hills to build strength and endurance.
She and her doctor told the New York Times that they devised a plan that wouldn't allow her heart rate to rise above 160 beats a minute. She also had monthly ultrasound scans of her uterus the last four months of her pregnancy to make sure her amniotic fluid levels and the baby's growth curve were on target.
Radcliffe, who turns 34 next month, was back running 12 days after giving birth. It may have been too soon, though, as she quickly succumbed to two overuse injuries and had to take a break.
Nevertheless, Burdge and Hammond were surprised to hear Radcliffe returned so quickly.
Hammond waited six weeks after her third baby was born before she pounded the pavement again. That was six months ago. Next month, she plans to run a marathon in Texas.
Burdge, a coach with Gateway Endurance Training, says she waited two months after giving birth until she started running.
"I felt like I came back stronger. I don't know if it was hormones or what. I think you're more focused on your training because you're on a stricter time schedule and you go out and you go out hard and make your workout count," Burdge says . "A lot of women I coach are afraid they'll lose their fitness, and many of them come back stronger than ever."
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(c) 2008, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Distributed by Mclatchy-Tribune News Service.