I tend to agree - I imagine there have been elite women who have performed close to a world class level within a year of giving birth. I know several women who have run very hard marathons within 6-10 months after giving birth, although I'm not 100% sure if they were actually still breastfeeding when they ran the marathon.
I suspect it has a lot more to do with the individual involved, including weight, general health, and how fast the runner is. When the topic of hypernutremia came up several months ago, I noted that by and large it seems to be very slow people who have major health problems in marathons because of this. That may not be the case with this particular woman, but once you get slower than 3:30-4:00, the marathon becomes an ultra and needs a completely different approach. All that said, it is of course a tragedy to see someone involved in our sport meet with such a disaster. And based on what little I know of the subject, all indications are that one must be cautious coming back from pregnancy. I will soon learn more about this first-hand, as my wife is expecting our first child in May and expecting to run the Olympic Trials marathon the following April! - Ed Parrot ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 1:24 PM Subject: Re: t-and-f: Fwd: woman marathoner dies > Well, I think it may depend on the woman and the event. Seriously, Debbie > Grant Marshall resumed rigorous training fairly immediately after the birth > of her second child . Likewise, so did Merideth Valmon and Sonia O'Sullivan. > > > In a message dated 11/6/2002 11:20:13 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > >A member of our club knew this woman. She had given birth 10 months ago > > > >and was still breast feeding. She had undertaken a 30 week training > >program (starting 10 weeks after giving birth). It appears that she > >suffered from severe sodium imbalance possibly created by the stresses > >of > >nursing. (my wife knows another woman with the same problem). I think > >the > >message from this incident is that women should avoid training for such > >an > >arduous endeavor so soon after giving birth, especially if they are still > > > >nursing, which is particularly physically stressful. > > > >Richard McCann >
