Woman gives birth after finishing the Chicago Marathon

In our current issue of TOCK, we talked to local moms who are running faster than ever—even setting marathon personal records—since having children. Impressive. But you know what’s even more impressive? Running a marathon while pregnant. While very, very, very pregnant.

That jaw-dropping feat belongs to Westchester resident Amber Miller. She ran/walked Sunday’s Chicago Marathon at 39 weeks.

The 27-year-old mom to Caleb, 19 months, found out she was pregnant exactly two days after signing up for the marathon. She continued to run throughout her pregnancy, and, with her doctor’s blessing, decided to go ahead and run the marathon.

Her husband, Joe, would be running his first marathon by her side and she planned to drop out halfway through. But she “felt so good,” she just kept running/walking, finishing the 26.2 miles in six hours twenty-five minutes and 50 seconds. (That’s an average pace of 14 minutes and 45 seconds per mile—or a speedy walking clip for most of us.)

In interviews Monday morning, Amber revealed that she felt contractions during the race but wasn't alarmed by them. She also got a lot of feedback from spectators as she tackled the course—nearly all of it positive. Most folks yelled things like, “Way to go, Mama!” and “I can’t run a marathon and I’m not nine months pregnant, you go girl!” (We’d guess there were a lot of dropped jaws as she ran by, too.) 

Baby June Audra Miller was born at 10:39pm. She weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and she’s 21 inches long.

Mom, dad and big brother Caleb are all doing well and bonding with the newest addition to the phenomenally fit Miller family. (Behind the scenes, at Monday morning's press conference at Central DuPage Hospital, Joe asked if there was a healthier snack on-hand for little Caleb when a hospital employee offered him a cookie.)

“I can’t wait to get back to training,” Amber said.