Running 42.1 kilometers while 31 weeks pregnant sparked global attention for Deirdre Keane, a nurse practitioner and healthcare consultant who completed seven marathons during her pregnancy, according to the NZ Herald.
Keane and her husband started trying to have a baby after they married last year. She signed up for eight marathons in 2026, alongside a 100-mile ultramarathon and her first Ironman, viewing the schedule as a final athletic push before starting a family.
After competing in the Boston and London marathons in April, she took a pregnancy test and discovered she was six weeks pregnant. She consulted her husband and her doctor, deciding to withdraw from the ultramarathon and Ironman events while continuing with her planned marathons.
“I was so nervous to talk to my doctor about it,” Keane said, as reported by the NZ Herald. Her doctor supported the endeavor provided she maintained adequate nutrition and hydration, avoiding abdominal pain or cramping.
While her doctor doubted she would feel capable of running the New York City Marathon at 34 weeks pregnant, there was no clinical objection. “If you are comfortable enough, and you don’t run too hard, I’m totally okay with it,” Keane recalled her doctor saying.
Extreme endurance is familiar territory for Keane. When she met her husband Brian Innes in 2022, she was actively training for the World Marathon Challenge, which involves running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. Innes admitted he initially misunderstood the scale of the feat. Keane ultimately finished as the fastest woman in the 2023 competition.
Her running journey began in college in honor of her father, a marathoner who died of skin cancer when she was 13. Running subsequently transformed into a cornerstone of her mental health and daily identity, particularly during the pandemic while she worked at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Public reaction to her late-pregnancy racing has been largely positive, though accompanied by predictable outside criticism. Margie Davenport, an exercise scientist at the University of Alberta who studies distance running and weight training during pregnancy, said that public perceptions lag behind modern scientific findings.
Davenport and her research colleagues determined that exercising beyond the standard guidelines of 150 minutes per week during pregnancy reduces delivery complications without negatively impacting the babies. “Our data is demonstrating that it’s quite safe, and it’s beneficial for those individuals,” Davenport said.
Historically, pregnant women faced strict limitations, including mandatory bed rest for specific complications. Contemporary research links prenatal exercise to a 50 percent reduction in gestational diabetes risk and a 40 percent reduction in pre-eclampsia risk, alongside lower rates of prenatal depression.
“Women who are pregnant are incredibly resilient,” Davenport said. “And a lot of the limits that have been placed on them have been due to a lack of research.”
Trent Stellingwerff, research director at the Women’s Health Sports & Performance Institute, said clinical perspectives have changed over the past decade. Working with elite athletes, his research indicates that healthy individuals approved by physicians can maintain higher exercise volumes than previously assumed.
Expecting a child does not mean someone has to give up cherished pastimes such as running, stated UT Health San Antonio obstetrics and gynaecology associate professor and gynaecologist Denise De Los Santos. However, specialists emphasize the importance of self-monitoring.
University of Michigan professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and maternal fetal medicine Elizabeth Langen said that highly conditioned competitors often try to push past their physical limits and exert extra effort, but she advises pregnant individuals to tune into their bodies because those bodies are already doing significantly more work than usual.
As her pregnancy progressed, Keane adjusted her training by alternating running and walking or splitting long runs into three shorter daily sessions. Last week at the New York City Marathon, she finished in just over four hours, maintaining an average pace of approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds per mile.
“I think I’ve learned and appreciated so much more what, in particular, a woman’s body is capable of,” she said.
