A seasoned ultra-marathon runner share her experience of training while pregnant

Staying fit in this heatwave is tough, but I have little to complain about next to my wife, Eleni, who is pregnant. This is her experience: Serena Williams was eight weeks’ pregnant when she won the Australian Open last year. Social media and newspapers exploded with commentary, declaring that her win “proves you can do almost anything while pregnant”. I’m 38 weeks’ pregnant and wish this was true. But the only thing Williams proved is that she could win her 23rd Grand Slam while pregnant. Funny how being the greatest athlete of all time lends itself to being the greatest pregnant athlete of all time. One of the key challenges of my pregnancy was finding out what was right for me, in a culture that too often assumes that one idea fits everyone. An equally false narrative, according to Michelle Mottola, director of the Exercise and Pregnancy Laboratory at Western University in Canada, is that pregnancy is a time to kick back, do nothing and eat. “These are the worst things a pregnant woman can do,” she says. Dr Mottola, who helped develop a standard template to best determine fitness plans in pregnancy, added: “We usually suggest ‘do not eat for two, but eat twice as healthy’. We also suggest ways to increase daily physical activity by parking farther away or taking the stairs.” I was taken aback by the intense opinions on my decisions about exercise. These seemed to be at two extremes: “You can do anything!” versus “You’re endangering your baby!” Now, with two weeks until my due date, I’m very good at the “smile, nod, ignore” protocol. Running is my sanity. I have completed six ultra-marathons of 100km or more. I knew at the outset of my pregnancy that I’d want to stay as fit as possible.

posted Saturday July 28th