As a professional runner, Makenna ran the 10,000 meters at the 2020 Olympic Trials in Eugene, OR, and came in 14th. Her PR is 32:03 at that distance. She also has a 4:42.40 mile to her credit (as well as a 15:31 5km PR). She decided in 2020 to run a mile within a week of her due date. It turns out she loves running timed miles on the track to celebrate important events – like running a mile on her wedding day (she would become a “Myler” – her husband’s last name – so it seemed appropriate!). She had the blessing of her obstetrician, and kept training right up until the delivery. She had a bet with her husband, who said she couldn’t run a sub-8 minute mile under those conditions. So, she ran a 5:25 on a $100 bet. Then, three years later, and being 3 weeks before the due date (this time it was February 21st – and due on March 15th), she ran a 5:17 mile! I found a Runner’s World interview written on March 13th, by Kells McPhillips (and taken from an NPR interview) with these quotes from Makenna: “It’s kind of funny. The weight almost just catches up to you in a sense. Like, all of a sudden, it hits your body that, like, you’re carrying this much weight. You need to slow down, even though you can kind of start out at a similar cadence.”

She added that while her midsection wasn’t shaking too much, her hips, quads, and lower back had to work overtime to propel her from one step to the next. She knew from her first timed mile (the 5:25 in 2020 before her first birth) she would get a lot of criticism for doing this; being irresponsible, endangering the life of a newborn, etc.

“There’s so many people who think I’m an absolute idiot,” she said. “And this time around, it’s just been quite a laugh with what people have to say. The comments are just absolutely ridiculous. The best is, ‘if men could run while pregnant, they would be running a four-minute mile, so this isn’t impressive.’”