Running and Motherhood

 Gone were the sinus infections that plagued Blake Russell during the final months of her pregnancy, the additional 40 pounds she packed on her 5-foot-5 frame, the awkwardness she felt when she resumed running five weeks after the birth of her son, the raccoon eyes from sleep deprivation.

Less than a month before she was due to leave for the New York City Marathon, Russell, an Olympian at Beijing, was training better than ever. It seemed that taking a year off from hard-core running to have a baby had been a dual blessing, enabling her body to heal from chronic hip and foot injuries.

In October, Russell won a half-marathon tuneup in San Jose, Calif. But a few days later, she felt tightness in her left calf while doing 800-meter intervals. A week after that, still in pain, she tearfully withdrew from the New York race.

''I made it all the way through the pregnancy and the delivery, and then this happens,'' Russell said. ''I think that's the most frustrating thing.''

Russell isn't the only first-time mother who won't make it to this year's starting line. Kara Goucher, who finished third in New York City in 2008, gave birth to her first child, a boy, in September after trying for more than a year to have a baby.

Deena Kastor, the 2004 Olympic marathon bronze medalist, was running 120 miles a week to prepare for this year's race. Near the end of the summer, after developing a sluggishness she couldn't shake, she had her blood tested because she thought she might be anemic. That is how she found out she was three months pregnant with her first child. Paula Radcliffe, a three-time winner of the New York City Marathon, also is missing this year's event after giving birth to her second child, a boy, in September.

Russell, 35, Goucher, 31, and Kastor, 37, ran into the age-old dilemma common among elite female athletes, but particularly long-distance runners who often don't reach their physical peaks until well after their 30th birthdays: how do you marry your quest to realize full athletic potential with the desire to become a mother?

''You discover you're gifted in the marathon,'' Goucher said in a telephone interview, ''and the problem is you're in your late 20s and you're like, I want to have children. What do I do?''

For the elite runner, the pull of motherhood competes with the tug of another marathon on the calendar.

''There's always another race looming out there,'' said Russell, a former track runner in college who became hooked on the marathon in her late 20s after winning the first one she entered, in Minnesota in 2003.

The Olympic cycle leaves only a small window of opportunity for getting pregnant. In 2004, after Russell missed by one spot a berth on the United States Olympic team in the marathon, she decided to try for the 2008 Olympics instead of for a baby.

The berth to Beijing became a reality in April in Boston, and in September, shortly after placing 27th in the Olympic marathon, she and her husband, Jonathan, an information technology specialist, found out she was pregnant.

''I was 33 at the time I got pregnant,'' Russell said. ''I knew I definitely didn't want to wait until after the next Olympics to start a family. Making the team and getting pregnant right after the Olympics was perfect timing. I was very fortunate it happened the way it did.''

Russell ran 45 minutes to an hour every other day, at a 10-to-11-minute-a-mile pace, during the first six or seven months of her pregnancy, until sinus problems made it difficult for her to breathe and she had to slow to a walk.

Pregnant women run the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes and injuries because of weight gain. Russell, a wisp of a woman who normally weighs 107 pounds, increased her body weight by a third during her pregnancy.

''I was getting so upset my blood pressure was going up,'' Russell said.

Her son, Quin, was born three weeks before his due date and weighed 6 pounds 4 ounces. Five and a half weeks later, Russell went for her first run.

''I felt like I was running on stilts,'' she said. ''It was like torture. I thought I'd be a lot faster than I was. I was shocked.''

Every woman is different. Goucher was able to do an easy run a week after the Sept. 25 birth of her son, Colt, although, she said, ''I felt really low to the ground, and I couldn't lift my legs up.''

At the end of October, Goucher resumed easy interval training and described feeling ''really normal.'' She hopes to run a marathon next spring.

Russell's plan was to take at least a year off from competition after her son's birth in April 2009. In her first few months back, she took two days off for every day she ran. She knew her ligaments were more susceptible to strains and tears because of heightened levels of relaxin, the hormone that increases ligament laxity during pregnancy. In addition, her bones were more vulnerable to stress fractures because they lost calcium during her pregnancy.

''I felt like I was starting from scratch many, many times,'' Russell said. ''I felt like I didn't know if I was ever going to get back to my old level of fitness.''

The first eight months, she said, her son never slept more than three hours at a time, and the round-the-clock feedings took a cumulative toll. Her longtime coach, Bob Sevene, said, ''After Quinnie was up all night, she used to arrive at my door to do a run and break out in tears.''

Russell said she didn't start to feel like her old running self until after she stopped nursing.

Dr. Nadya Swedan, a women's sports medicine specialist in New York, said she wasn't surprised. ''It's a full-time job to nurse a baby,'' Swedan said in a telephone interview. ''It completely affects sleep, diet, calorie intake. As long as you nurse, it perpetuates the hormonal changes of pregnancy.''

Russell's body eventually returned to normal, but her life has changed. No longer does she have the luxury of stretching in solitude before a morning run while making a mental checklist of her goals for the workout.

More often than not, she has to stretch in the shower. Many days, her last image before taking her first strides is of Quin being pried from her arms by her mother, who moved to the Monterey Bay from Benicia, Calif., to help with child care.

''There's no down time, and I found that hard initially,'' Russell said. ''You come in from a run and you have to be on because Quin wants to play.''

Mother and son took off for the playground on a recent morning. Both were wearing sneakers by Reebok, the shoe company that sponsors Russell, who said she was grateful for the company's support during her pregnancy-induced hiatus from competition.

Russell is in the final year of her contract. She said she felt some pressure to complete a marathon by the end of December to remind Reebok why it was good business to continue to sponsor her.

''I don't run for the money,'' Russell said. ''Of course, nobody wants to think of their salary as being gone.''

She and her husband, a former world-class steeplechase runner, bought a house in June. Russell said: ''We definitely would be hurting if we didn't have that money. It would make a huge difference for peace of mind.''

Russell was resting her sore calf on a recent afternoon when she looked out the window and saw a United Parcel Service truck pull up in front of her house. With her son napping, Russell raced to the door before the delivery man could ring the doorbell and signed for the tricycle she had ordered for Quin.

After pulling out from the marathon, Russell looked at the bright side. The time she normally devoted to running, she was spending with her son.

''That's the only positive thing,'' she said, adding, ''He's become really attached to me.''

Motherhood in Play: Articles in this series are examining the decisions female athletes face regarding pregnancy and child rearing. Previous articles featured the golfer Cristie Kerr and the L.P.G.A.'s mobile day care center; Taj McWilliams-Franklin, one of 11 mothers playing in the W.N.B.A.; and the former tennis player Gigi Fernandez, who overcame infertility struggles to start a family.