Chicago: Amber Miller felt contractions just minutes after crossing the finish line at the Chicago Marathon. A few hours later, the suburban Chicago woman — who ran through 26.2 miles while nearly 39 weeks pregnant — delivered a healthy baby girl.
"For me, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I was running up until that point anyway," Miller told The Associated Press in an interview from the hospital. "I am crazy about running."
Sunday's marathon was the eighth for the 27-year-old. She found she was pregnant with her second child days after signing up for the Chicago race.
Clearance from her doctor
When the baby hadn't been born by Sunday, she got clearance from her doctor to run half. She completed it with a half-run half-walk approach, drinking lots of fluids and eating a lot. She finished in 6:25:50.
"Lots of people were cheering me on: ‘Go pregnant lady!'" she said. "I was expecting some negative comments. I don't remember anything."
It was not Miller's first marathon while pregnant. In May, she ran the Wisconsin Marathon in 4:23:07 while 17 weeks pregnant. In 2009, she ran the Indianapolis Marathon in 4:30:27 while she was 18 weeks pregnant with her son Caleb, who's one.
Elite runners have trained while pregnant, but doctors say Miller is a rarity. She was 38 weeks and five days pregnant. Full-term is typically defined as 40 weeks.
"It's probably the rare woman who is in good enough shape to run a marathon while pregnant. It's probably the exception more than the rule," said Dr Priya Rajan, an assistant professor in obstetrics and gynaecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
