By Katherine

When I was about ten weeks pregnant, I was out on a long, rainy run with my running group, and I almost fell. I did not actually fall, mind you – instead, I performed a long series of hunched over, tripping motions, arms extended to brace myself JUST IN CASE. I had just told all the women in the group that I was pregnant, and we were on the last mile of an eight mile run, heading down hill on the Leif Erickson trail in Forest Park – a part of the park that has uneven trails, roots, stumps, mud. I lost my footing, and I almost fell. But, I didn’t.

Still, everyone with me panicked.  Infact, people in the group that were not even there that day heard about my almost-fall. I remember thinking about how awful it would be to have to deal with actually falling, and the awful wondering if everything was okay, how much I was going to hate having to make the call to my husband, wondering what we would do with the kids while we were at the hospital. I remember thinking  how guilty I would feel falling while out participating in a sport. Was I being selfish?

Later that evening, Andrew and I talked about all the ‘what-ifs’ surrounding falling, we talked about how even if I had fallen, at 10 weeks, I would likely be fine – and then we talked about how whether or not it was responsible of me to continue running.  I had been given the green light from two doctors, but I still wondered.

This is my first, of three pregnancies, where I have continued a consistent running schedule.  When people would hear that I was still running well into my second trimester, I had to endure the inevitable comments about how I COULD FALL, or I could damage my pregnancy, and the my favorite, ‘ You have years to run and be in shape, later.’

Well, this week I fell.  I fell down a wooden flight of stairs that lead into my laundry room.  I was carrying a small, empty box to the recycle bin.

I am incredibly grateful that everything is completely okay.  Still, falling down a staircase when you are six months pregnant is a thoroughly miserable and frightening experience.  Aside from the unpleasant hospital stay,  I came away considerable soft tissue damage to, my bottom, of all places.  The fall has also derailed my pregnancy fitness plan, which involved running for as long as safely possible.

Needless to say, I won’t be running for awhile, if again, until after his baby is born.  By the time this injury heals well enough to hit the road, I’m afraid I will have been out of commission too long to continue running safely. I am going to continue some strength training, and start walking daily. 

Anyone have some pre-natal exercises that are safe enough to start six months into a pregnancy (preferably exercises that don’t involve any sitting )?

This entry was posted on Friday, December 17th, 2010 at 9:49 am and is filed under Blogs, Will Run for Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.