The professional runner, who made headlines in May when she revealed she was taking a break from the sport in order to get her period back, announced on her blog Friday that she and her husband Steve were expecting. “I can barely believe it myself… but yes, I am pregnant — 8 weeks pregnant,” she wrote, calling her pregnancy “the biggest news of my life.”
Because of her lean physique and intense training schedule, Muir suffered from amenorrhea, or period loss, and had not menstruated in nine years.
In March, she made the emotional decision to temporarily stop running and and ease up on her super clean diet in order to gain enough weight to get her period back. She was determined to focus on her health and start a family.
She didn’t have to wait long. After a 10-week break from running and a 15-lb. weight gain, the 5’5″ brunette’s weight was 130 lbs. and her cycle returned — “slap bang in the middle of the time my doctors predicted.” And with her pregnancy clocking in at eight weeks, the British-born runner did the math and realized she got pregnant on her first egg.
“Through some miracle, I didn’t even get to have one period since my recovery from amenorrhea, I got pregnant on the first egg my body had released in 9 years!” she wrote. “It really is that unbelievable.”
“First try. No period in 9 years. What are the chances?!” she added. “My dear Nanny Jolly lives on through our family by passing on her fertility I guess.”
The decision to stop running wasn’t an easy one for Muir — especially since others battling amenorrhea had been able to get their cycles back without leaving the sport. But Muir said she didn’t want to wait to see how long it would take to get her body to start ovulating again.
“As with everything else in my life, if I was going to do this, I was going to do it right. All in one go, and all or nothing to get it back,” she said. “If you want something enough, you will do anything for it. It’s as simple as that. I wanted my period back, so I did what I had to.”
Those 10 weeks off were hard, Muir admitted. “I fought those inner demons telling me I was getting fat (and I beat them down, its amazing how little I hear them anymore),” she said. “I didn’t run a step, I rested, I ate whatever the heck I wanted, and I trusted in my body to tell me when it was ready.”
At the beginning of May, Muir visited her OBGYN where she got the green light to start trying to get pregnant once she got her first period.
“Her confidence was incredibly soothing, and I left that office with my head held high, probably strutting down the corridor, for the first time in a long time not feeling like my body was completely broken,” Muir wrote. “I had no idea as I walked strutted down that corridor just how right she was going to be, that just three weeks later I would call her and say, I’M PREGNANT!”
Muir, who lives in Lexington, Kentucky, used an at-home ovulation test to find out she was ovulating. She calls the moment she saw the positive results “a moment I will remember forever.”
“Even though I felt like a teenage girl getting her period for the first time, I was so proud of myself for becoming a functioning woman again,” she said.
Figuring she had nothing to lose, Muir and her husband. “The craziest part is, within a few days, I knew I was pregnant. I just knew,” Muir said. “I am a ‘gut person’ — I trust my intuition with everything, and I just knew I was pregnant.”
On May 27, Muir took an at-home pregnancy test and learned the good news. It made her feel revealed that she had made the right choice about her health. “My body asked for rest, more food, and some weight gain. I gave it to it, and look what happened,” she said.
Despite her joy, Muir admits she has experienced the downside of pregnancy, too: extreme nausea and vomiting.
“My body has not been in a good place,” she said. “The baby is safe and well, we had our first ultrasound last week to confirm that, but for about three weeks I was really really ill, so sick that I could barely leave the couch for days on end. Not to leave the house, or even go upstairs to get in my bed as I was too sick to move. The idea of opening my laptop gave me instant dizziness.”
“Morning sickness? Try all day and night sickness,” she continued. “Try being unable to even keep down a sip of water and ending up in the ER with them giving me two drips of fluid plus anti nausea medication. It was rough, and although I have only ended up in the hospital once, I have had a few bouts of the debilitating sickness that crippled me. Every hour felt like four, and I spent my days throwing up, nibbling on saltines, and watching anything that could distract me for even a moment.”
In the end, Muir survived by remaining strong. “I reminded myself every minute that it would be worth it, oh so worth it, and I knew it would” she said. “I would do this every day of the pregnancy if I had to. … I wasn’t thinking about me any more, my thoughts were consumed with what I could do to help my baby grow healthy and strong.”
She also took time to thank her fans for all their support throughout the last few months.
“Without feeling so lucky and appreciated, I would never have been able to chill the f— out and let go of my obsession with perfection,” she said. “None of us is perfect. None of us should want to be perfect. We all have to find our journey, and trust our hearts to guide us to where we truly want to be.”
General Health Magazine 