Pregnant woman defies critics and runs a mile just days before her due date

A woman who refuses to let pregnancy get in the way of her fitness has defied the critics by running a super-fast mile - just a month before her due date.

Makenna Myler is a professional middle-distance runner who has been keeping up her training routine with her upcoming second child, just like she did her first one in 2020.

This time round, she managed to run the mile in five minutes and 17 seconds - beating her previous record by eight seconds.

Despite the fact that there's no evidence to suggest exercising is dangerous while pregnant - on the contrary, it's been shown to improve the process - the 30-year-old has received a fair bit of trolling online.

With both pregnancies, when sharing her impressive running victories online, people have waded in to tell her she shouldn't workout so hard while expecting.

Makenna explained: "I thought it was quite common to train during pregnancy but there turned out to be a lot of people who think it's not normal.

"Some of it has been genetic - I know some awesome runners who got pregnant and their pelvis just couldn't take running.

"I had people asking how I could do that while nine months pregnant when they can barely get off the sofa.

"A lot of it has to do with how you fortify your body before getting pregnant - I was running before pregnancy too which helped me.

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"There were so many days I tried to run while pregnant and it just wasn't happening, so you don't win every time. But you just keep trying."

The soon-to-be mum-of-two from Orange County, California, added: "At the end of the day, it's important to listen to your body and only do what you're capable of, because a healthy pregnancy is the most important thing."

When she's not pregnant, Makenna competes in 5km and 10km races for Asics, and she trains up to six days a week.

When it came to their first baby in 2020, the idea to see how fast she could run a mile came about from a conversation with her husband Michael.

The 31-year-old marketing manager joked about it before wondering whether she could do it in less than eight minutes.

Little did they realise she would completely smash that target.

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"It started out as a joke the first time - we thought it would be funny, but it went totally viral," she added.

"The responses weren't all positive - lots of people told me I shouldn't be exercising so hard."

But thanks to her already high fitness level, she was able to handle it well.

Speaking about breaking her previous record, Makenna said: "For me, it's not even about proving people wrong, but about questioning the reality of what you're capable of.

"I'm a big believer of listening to your 'internal governor' - the voice inside your head that tells you to stop when you need to - but you can push it a bit first.

"If you listen to that voice you won't do anything that will endanger you."