Elite women are training, competing, and yes, winning, during and after pregnancy, rewriting the playbook for moms in sport.
It wasn’t that long ago that active women were discouraged from continuing their exercise routine when they got pregnant. Sure, they were supposed to meet the bare minimum of 150 minutes a week of physical activity. But doctors cautioned them to walk, not run, and to “take it easy”, not understanding that for a woman who clocks 60 miles a week and bangs out blistering track intervals every Tuesday and Thursday, a Sunday morning jog is taking it easy.
This is exactly what Lizzette Perez demonstrated during the 2019 Boston Marathon when she ran the event while eight months pregnant. A lifelong runner, Perez found out she was pregnant a week after she qualified for the prestigious event. She continued running, got regular checkups, and when race day came, she “took it easy,” which as she told ABC news, meant plenty of water breaks, snack breaks, and porta-potty breaks along the way. She finished in 5:49:20, healthy and elated. She gave birth to a healthy baby girl just over a month later.
