This pregnant gym owner ran a 5K on her due date
Next time you need an extra boost of inspiration to go running in the cold, look to Meredith Hodges Bumgarner, the North Carolina gym owner who happens to be pregnant — and finished a 5K on her due date.
Lauren Winkler Hart, who works with Bumgarner, shared a video of her boss finishing the race in the snow. She looks victorious, happy — and also super cold.
“I have worked out my entire pregnancy,” Bumgarner, who owns a local CrossFit gym, shares with Yahoo Lifestyle. “I felt great finishing the race even though I was as slow as a turtle.”
Bumgarner tells us she hasn’t let pregnancy interrupt her fitness routine. She’s run two half marathons, two spartan springs, and continued to lift and coach CrossFit, all while pregnant. “Hopefully my baby girl will be able to look at all our accomplishments and be proud one day!” she says. In the meantime, she has plenty of support from her fitness fam. Hart has coined her “#merediththemachine” and “#wonderwoman,” and we couldn’t agree more.
As for the medical opinion, it seems just fine for Bumgarner to keep her fitness routine up. Hydration is key for pregnant runners, says Mary Jane Minkin, clinical professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the Yale University School of Medicine. We don’t want our pregnant ladies to overheat, and get dehydrated. At 5K, I doubt she’d overheat, as long as she kept fluids on board.”
Unless, like Bumgarner, you were a runner before pregnancy, Dr. Sherry Ross, OB-GYN and Women’s Health Expert at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., suggests deferring extreme athletic training until after you’ve delivered. “Pregnancy affects joint stability, balance, coordination and heart-rate fluctuations, so choosing a safe exercise is very important,” says Ross. “Best exercises in pregnancy include brisk walking, light jogging, swimming, recumbent cycling, yoga, elliptical and other stationary workout machines.”
For Bumgarner, the priority is “always listen[ing] to my body.” She listened to it all the way across the finish line.
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