Never bet against a mom
Makenna Myler, who ran a 5:25 mile while 9 months pregnant, to compete in the New Haven Road Race 20K national championship
When former BYU distance runner Makenna Myler first got pregnant, she and her husband were talking about how much she was slowing down and how much she would be able to do.
“I was calculating it in my head and I said, ‘I think I can still run a 7-minute mile at nine months,’ ” she said.
Her husband Mike laughed and said, “No way. I’m going to be taking you to the hospital. Your water will break if you break 8 minutes.”
The bet was on.
On Oct. 10, 2020, 10 days before she gave birth to their daughter Kenny Lou, Makenna stepped onto a high school track in Southern California and ran a 5:25 mile.
Her husband Mike made a TikTok video of the mile for their friends and the couple was surprised when it went viral with over 1 million views.
Seven months later, she qualified for the Olympic Trials in the 10,000 meters. In July, she finished 14th in Oregon in what was billed as the one of most competitive women’s 10,000-meter races in U.S. history.
Myler, 29, of Highland,
Utah, will be competing in the Faxon Law New Haven Road Race 20K national championship for the first time Monday. She is part of a stellar women’s field that includes UConn graduate Emily Durgin and 2017 New Haven winner Jordan Hasay.
When Makenna married Mike and became a Myler, she thought it would be fun to run a mile on their wedding day (she ran a 4:45 mile) and again during subsequent milestones in their lives. So the pregnancy mile was kind of an offshoot of that.
Myler’s initial goal for 2020 was to qualify for the Olympic Trials, but then found out she was pregnant.
“When I got pregnant, COVID hadn’t happened yet,” she said. “I was like, ‘Dang, I guess I missed my shot at the Trials.’ That was something I had wanted to do since I graduated college. Then COVID happened so my husband and I talked about it and it was like, ‘It’s still a possibility you could make the Trials.’
“I wanted to run through my pregnancy and keep it as healthy as possible so I could return to competitive running quickly. It worked out that the Trials were in the timeline [in 2021].”
She checked with her doctor and paid attention to how she felt. By her second trimester, she had cut her normal mileage in half. She would do an interval workout once every other week rather than 2-3 per week and rested more than usual.
“Every workout, it was like, ‘This could be my last workout, I don’t know, this is foreign territory,’ ” she said. “I was very fortunate to stay healthy and strong.”
She had run 10 miles at sub-8-minute pace, so was confident she could do a mile in sub-8. The execution of the actual run was another story.
“I felt like I was an emperor penguin trying to move my little legs as fast as I could,” she said, laughing.
Kenny Lou was born Oct. 20, a healthy 6.9-pound baby girl.
After some time off, Myler started training again for the Trials. It took her a few tries to qualify. In May, she did it at the Portland Track Festival, running a 32:03.62 personal best in the 10,000. The qualifying time was 32:25.00.
“Honestly, it was just a win for me to be there,” Myler said. “Before pregnancy, I was talking to coaches and I said, ‘I know I’m not going to make the Olympics, I just want to make the Trials.’
“I didn’t just return to pre-pregnancy shape, I surpassed it quite a bit. Just to be at the Trials, I knew the caliber of the women who should be representing the U.S. I knew that’s not where I was at. I just wanted to place as high as I could. I was stoked. That was one of the deepest fields ever because the marathon was the year before and all these women who didn’t make the marathon team had a year to train for the track. I was honored to be in the top 15.”
In July, she ran her fastest half marathon, 1:09:54, at altitude in Utah. She hopes to be able to run faster at New Haven since the race is at sea level. The 20K is part of her training for the New York City Marathon in November.
Since she had her baby, she has become faster and stronger.
“I feel like it’s more a mental strength than a physical strength that I gained from pregnancy,” she said.