It’s been a wonderful racing season for me, my sisters. My
muscles are sore but my mind and heart are full as this past weekend I ran
(with a personal best, I might add) the Lululemon SeaWheeze Half Marathon.
Full disclosure girlfriends? I indeed hate yoga…. But I do
LOVE a good yoga pant. Perhaps it’s a fashion case of “Love the sinner, hate
the sin”? Who knows?
I remember my first pair of great yoga pants. Yes, they were
Lululemon and yes, they made my butt look good. This was not subjective. This
was fact. As a fiercely patriotic Canadian it helped that said pants were
indeed Canadian and so I dropped $85 dollars like it was spare change in order
to have those pant as a part of my person.
Years later, the yoga pants are long gone- replaced with
running tights and more serious, functional attire, but I still remember with
fondness the first pair of black stretchy pants that made me want to live the
dream.
And so when I realized that I could combine my love for
stylish athletic wear with my love/hate for running I jumped at the chance.
Which brings me to this weekend. There I was among the
10,014 runners, almost all of them girlfriends as we embarked on 21.1 km of
personal greatness. It was Saturday morning, it was 6:30am and there we were in
downtown Vancouver dressed in our Lululemon’s finest waiting to cross the
starting line and looking damn well dressed while doing it.
I could not help but smile and marvel at the dynamics of
this race. The SeaWheeze really is,
what I would call, “A CHICK RACE”. Say what you want but it’s an
estrogen fest. You see, I can get away with this terminology because indeed I
have a uterus- but this race is predominantly a female experience. Of the
10,000 plus runner almost 85% are women.
If you think about the logistics of this- men do indeed, on
average, run faster than women. I’m not being chauvinistic- it’s a fact. So, if
you are like me and you run a half marathon rather slowly, You are not going to
find many men around you in a race where only 15% of the participants are men.
Chances are the boys in the group are lining up well before you and crossing
the finish line an hour or so before you collect your medal.
This was indeed the case at SeaWheeze where there were
starting corrals organized based on one’s projected finishing time.
My beloved (a hotty and a damn fine runner- shout out babe
if you are reading…) was in Coral #1. Coral #1 had a projected finishing time
of 1:10 – 1:30. Coral #1 of the SeaWheeze half marathon might as well have been
the men’s locker room.
I was in Coral #6. Back in Coral #6 the projected finishing
time was 2:30-3hours. Coral #6 was giving away free pap smears. There maybe
were a dozen men in the coral and they were all old enough to be my father.
Make no mistake- I LOVE Coral #6. I loved the whole race. I
have never been one to debate about how fast we run; I stand firm in my belief
that if the will is willing, the speed is immaterial. Each runner regardless of
their time goes through the same highs and lows in a run- this is indeed what make
the sport so magical.
Regardless of which Coral you start in, regardless of you
reasons to race…. When the rubber meets the road- we all take a similar journey
together.
And so there I was with a few thousand other ovaries in
Coral#6 waiting for my moment of glory, when I saw her. Over to my left, laced
up for glory, decked out in her Lulu best was….. wait for it…. A woman who was
easily 7 months pregnant.
There she was- pregnant and ready to race- she was a running
unicorn. The woman in front of me saw her too, because she remarked,
“Holy shit. Is she gonna run pregnant?”, This was not quite
as poetic as my unicorn reference but similar sentiment all the same.
Another sister chimed in informing all of us in the vicinity
that she had indeed just given birth 2 months ago and was still breastfeeding.
In fact she had pumped this morning just so her daughter would have breakfast
while Mama ran for greatness.
Like any good girlfriend I told the woman in front of me
that her daughter would indeed be proud.
But thereafter ensued a debate within Coral#6 about the
safety of running while pregnant.
Was it safe to train for the half marathon while pregnant?
Was it safe to breastfeed while running? Well, not while
running, at the same time…. But you know what I mean?
Would the banging of the pavement harm the baby?
These indeed were the quoted comments that rose up from
around my little group in my new found village on a Saturday morning in August.
I should say that usually I try to tune out the world just before a race. I put
my headphones on a try to go to a happier place as I prepare for the hours of
pain before me.
But on this occasion, I was riveted. Not only did I have
running commentary around me- I had a pregnant woman, a running unicorn in my
very own coral. Here was a woman who was not going to let her pregnancy limit
her abilities. As long as it was safe, (and I was assuming she checked with her
OB/GYN before hand) she would not let this pregnancy define her.
The whole thing indeed got me thinking…. When did pregnancy
become a disease? When did it happen that people far and wide assumed that
exercising while pregnant was harmful for the baby?
In 1967 Katherine Switzer was the first woman to run the
Boston Marathon. Sure, she had to sneak into the race and, yes, she was almost
dragged of the course, but she did it. In the months that followed doctors told
her that running would indeed cause her uterus to collapse and she would not be
able to have children.
Fast forward to 1983 when Ingrid Kristianson won the Houston
marathon just 5 months after giving birth. This actually sparked the idea among
aome athletic circles that pregnancy was indeed a “performance enhancing drug”.
Maybe physiologically there was some truth to this? Pregnancy increases blood
volume, increases cardiac output and increases stroke volume, but I’m not sure
that scientifically it can be seen as performance enhancing.
In 2007 Paula Radcliffe claimed victory at the NYC Marathon just 10 months
after having given birth to her daughter Isla. She remarked about how she had
been cleared to run during her pregnancy and ran all the way through her 39th
week. She had been a world record holder and multiple marathon winner going
into the pregnancy and so her doctors did not feel that her training would harm
the fetus as long as she trained within certain specifications.
According to multiple reviews, including one published in
the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Canada in 2003, maximum aerobic power
(VO(2)max, L/min) is well-preserved in pregnant women who remain physically
active, but anaerobic working capacity may be reduced in later in pregnancy
(beyond 30 weeks).
According to a study published in 2012 in the Journal of
Applied Physiology, the big concerns on endurance exercise in pregnancy are as
follows:
An increase in heart rate long term that can cause reduced
placental blood flow. This only occurs if someone is exercising beyond 85% of their
target heart rate.
An increase in energy expenditure (measured in METs) of
greater than 28 MET-Hr/week
A decrease in maternal blood glucose can cause a decrease in
fetal blood glucose.
Here’s the thing- this woman running the marathon was indeed
actually walking it- briskly. I know this because I watched her do it during
one point in the course where there was a turn around. AND, I watched her
wearing a heart rate monitor. She was walking the course briskly at best, at about
6km per hour.
When I do my exercise math- she is most definitely not
exercising above 85% of her max heart rate… I was running faster than her and I
was nowhere near 85%.
Secondly- at her speed and given her weight (she looked to
be about 170 lbs) her energy expenditure for the entire half marathon was maybe
doing 14-15MET-hrs if I calculate things according to the American College of
Sports Medicine Equation on energy expenditure for walking briskly on a flat
surface. This is well below the max of 28 METhrs per week.
Finally- There was a ton of food on the course and I am sure
that yummy mummy was keeping her sugar levels up.
There you have it. Did we not all learn something new this
week?
No I am not suggesting that all my pregnant girlfriends take
up running/brisk walking this minute and then promptly sign up for a race. Nor
am I suggesting that my running sisters go get someone to shoot a baby into them…..
But in the name of science and sisters everywhere… its not
an unsafe practice if done properly.
And really my sisters- isn’t that the lesson here? Do it
right, my girlfriends and do it with style…. Or don’t do it at all.
Want further info on exercise in pregnancy?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/health/nutrition/08Best.html?_r=0
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