I’ve run throughout my entire pregnancy and feel better for it

Not only was I staring at the world’s largest castle as the first snowflakes of the morning started to fall, but I could also see a familiar purple and orange sign.

That sign signalled that I had made it to the start of the Zamek w Malborku parkrun and I was feeling excited. 

After being founded in the UK, parkrun is a free, weekly 5km event that now takes place all over the world.

And while I have attended plenty within running distance of my house, travelling nearly 1,000 miles on this occasion was necessary for two reasons.

Firstly, completing the one lap course that cold January morning allowed me to finish my ‘parkrun alphabet’ – an unofficial challenge where participants try to complete a parkrun at a place starting with every letter of the alphabet.

Unsurprisingly, the Zs were particularly elusive and, to date, there are none in the UK, so I’d had no choice but to venture further afield than south east London, where my home parkruns include Bromley, Beckenham Place Park and Crystal Palace. 

Crucially though, it also allowed me to tick off a new location. 

When I initially set that goal, it seemed eminently doable. And then I found out I was pregnant.

I was running at location number 79 – a beautiful rural course at Parke in south Devon  – when I started to feel weird. 

Hills suddenly felt inexplicably hard and my heart rate was through the roof. ‘Massively elevated heart rate,’ I wrote quizzically in my notes on Strava. 

Initially, I put it down to too much Christmas cheer, but a week later I still felt the same, so I tested for COVID-19 thinking I must have picked up a virus.

After everything came back negative, it finally dawned on me. And five days later, we were overjoyed to find out that I was pregnant.

This wasn’t an issue at first as I found I could still run slowly. But as the nausea and sickness hit I found travelling to different locations harder and finished my first trimester on location 83. 

My second trimester has been easier as the sickness subsided. But now I’m at 28 weeks, lots of people have suggested that I ought to stop running or, at least, take the pressure off.

I disagree. While everyone experiences pregnancy differently, running has been critical for my mental and physical health for years and that’s no different now. 

When I was in my mid-twenties, I realised my ‘dream job’ as a news editor was more of a nightmare. I was avoiding social situations, my health declined, and I spent months, if not years, feeling like a failure when I eventually quit.

While the support of friends and family was crucial, so was parkrun – it helped me out of one of the worst periods of mental health I have ever experienced.

I loved the quiet calm of walking to a nearby park and seeing others doing the same. The knowledge that it would be there every Saturday and I wouldn’t be judged for what I looked like, or how fast I ran or walked, was invaluable.

On the days where I was struggling, I could put my headphones in and not speak to anyone. There was a comfort in seeing familiar faces and to know it was somewhere I could be myself.

I was initially anxious about what pregnancy meant in terms of being able to exercise. But the NHS has really clear guidance, which says that you can keep up your ‘normal daily physical activity or exercise’ including running – as long as you are careful.

‘Exercise is not dangerous for your baby,’ it adds. ‘There is evidence that active women are less likely to experience problems in later pregnancy and labour.’

To be safe, I consulted a physiotherapist who guided me through some pelvic floor exercises, and I used my smartwatch to keep an eye on my heart rate. I also paid attention to the guidance that reminds you that you may need to slow down and should be able to hold a conversation.

Admittedly, some weeks I’ve felt too exhausted or sick to run but on the whole I haven’t let it put me off getting outside and moving when I can.

Since finding out, I’ve done 23 parkruns and visited 13 new locations from Malling to Milton Keynes, Edinburgh to Amsterdam, which span universities, woods and National Trust properties. 

Though, probably my favourite location to date has been Wollaton Hall parkrun in Nottingham – a pretty one lap course that features a lake, trail paths and even some deer. 

This means I need to go to a new location almost every week – I plan to squeeze them in before birthday parties, weddings and our baby shower – and the only real difference these days, aside from walking up steeper hills, is needing to know where the toilets are on route!

My friends often laugh at me when I tell them about my latest parkrun plans. I’m not sure my family fully understand why I can’t even take a day off at Christmas. 

But for me, parkrun is so much more than a place to run; it’s a place of positivity and community. It gives me space to take a step back from an otherwise busy life and appreciate the small things.

As this is our first baby, there is a lot I don’t know about what will happen next. But I can guarantee one thing; I’m confident parkrun will help me through the hardest times. And, when the time is right, I can’t wait to introduce our newest addition to the parkrun family.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

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