° I am presuming, since you did not state otherwise, that you have normal menstrual cycles (26 to 35 days). If so, this indicates that your body is quite capable of producing reproductive hormones, so why should it fail once you fall pregnant?

° While this may be little consolation, if a pregnancy is going to fail, there is little one can do to prevent it. Hormone supplements and bed rest are merely palliative.

° Running does not cause miscarriage directly (i.e., impact of exercise) or indirectly (i.e., reduction of hormones), and athletes are at no greater risk of miscarrying in any

given pregnancy than others (global figures are that 12 to 15 percent of all identified conceptions end in miscarriage, for which no explanation is found).

I hope this information helps. Lindsay Weight has a PhD in exercise science and is a two-time winner of the Comrades Marathon (1983 and 1984); she is a freelance journalist in South Africa.

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About THE Authors

ALOT LSD LILLE DIED L IEE SEL INE I TTL IEE LEE

TOM HAMELisa sculptor and occasional writer. He has lived in Brazil, Switzerland, and Ireland and has traveled widely; Spartathlon 2000 was his third visit to Greece. His friendship with the runner Rob Byrne goes back more than 16 years, but Hamel only recently began to crew for Byrne, lured by the promise of free meals. Hamel currently lives in Morgan Hill, California, and his sculpture can be viewed on the Web at http://home.netcom.com/~hamelb/.

JEFF HAGEN has run 63 ultramarathons, including five 48-hour races. His average mileage in each of those five events was 204.75 miles. His personal best was a 216.41 mile effort at the 1999 Texas A&M 48Hour, in which he broke the North American men’s 50 to 54 age-group record by three miles; it was also the overall ninth best 48-hour performance in the world in 1999. Jeff is a retired Indian Health Service dentist who now works as a dental consultant in Yakima, Washington. He and his wife Joyce are recent “empty nesters” who like to spend their spare time backpacking, mountain-climbing, backcountry skiing, gardening, and taking photographs.

“BUCK” NIEHOFF, a Cincinnati attorney specializ

ing in public finance law, has served as chairman of the local Republican Party and sponsors an annual literary lecture series by authors such as Ray Bradbury, John Updike, Julia Child, Pat Conroy, and Joyce Carol Oates. He is a former limited partner of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team and a member of the board of trustees of the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon. He has run six marathons and received much-needed coaching from Julie Isphording, a member of the 1984 U.S. women’s Olympic marathon team.

May/June 2001 ABOUT THE AUTHORS @ 165

NIGEL WALSH is editor of the British publication, Athletics Weekly (think Track & Field News of Britain). Anenthusiastic, if not particularly gifted, runner, he has completed 32 races of marathon distance or more, including 9 ultras. Once a sports and news journalist in South Africa, Nigel has been a resident of the & UK since 1988, working as a writer and subeditor on

national and regional publications. He lists his halfmarathon PR as 82:55, and his only “down” Comrades and a 25K training run with nine-times Comrades Marathon winner Bruce Fordyce as his running highlights. Nigel traveled to South Africa with former world mile-record-holder Steve Cram, who took a group of runners over to raise money for the children’s charity Coco, and he plans on making the trip again in 2001. Runners (of any ability) interested in joining the Coco group for the 2001 Comrades trip can contact Nigel at nigel @hollyroad.free-online.co.uk.

GAIL KISLEVITZ is the author of two books, First Marathons, acompilation of told-in-their-own-words first marathon experiences by a wide range of runners, from world class to seemingly ordinary; and It’s Never Too Late, which brings together the experiences of people who came to exercise later in life. Gail has been published frequently in M&B and is one of the few runners who has seen Johnny J. Kelley’s bare feet.

JIM WHITING began running 41 years ago when a friend suggested an impromptu track meet. At that time one of the slowest kids in his age group, Whiting tried to beg off. But when he smoked his faster friend in the 440, he discovered an unsuspected talent for running longer distances—until recently, however, it

was not enough talent to complete a marathon. His

4 streak of marathon futility ended when he completed

the 1998 Athens Marathon, happily entering the stadium built for the modern revival of the Olympics. Jim is a freelance writer.

166 M@ MARATHON & BEYOND May/June 2001