‘Oh My God, She’s Pregnant!’: This Expecting Mom Ran a 2:59 Marathon—Just Weeks From Her Due Date

Some day, when Alexandria Andrews’s daughter is older, maybe her parents will explain to her how she was along for the ride for two very fast marathons before she was born.Andrews, who goes by Ali, ran the 2026 Boston Marathon in 2:41:58. It was a PR for her, in her sixth marathon—and she was 13 weeks pregnant.But the one that really turned heads was her seventh marathon, which she ran August 30 in Sydney, Australia, her fourth of the eight World Marathon Majors.There, at eight months pregnant, Andrews broke the 3:00 hour barrier, running 2:59:43. She ran even half-marathons of 1:29:23 and 1:30:20—with two quick porta-potty stops—and averaged 6:51 per mile pace.“This was by no means like a fast, hard effort,” Andrews said in a phone interview with Runner’s World. “This race was on the books, so I wanted to do it.”As she was running, spectators and other runners at the front of the pack would only clock what was happening after she had passed.“It’s like a delayed reaction,” Andrews said. “People would be like, ‘Oh my God, she’s pregnant!’ And it was just really funny. And the guys and women on the course were super duper supportive. They were like, ‘You're doing great. Keep killing it.’”Andrews, 29, lives in Oklahoma City, where she does financial reporting for an oil and gas company. She had the blessings from her medical team before the race and said her pregnancy has been perfectly healthy so far.As the doctors put it to her, the baby “has known nothing but running this whole pregnancy.” She wasn’t going for speed and she kept her heart rate in the 150s, only briefly reaching into the 160s in the final miles.Andrews is something of a natural. She grew up in Park Hill, Oklahoma, about an hour east of Tulsa, and at her small high school she did all the sports—running, soccer, and cheer. When she went to college at Oklahoma State University, she kept in shape and worked at the gym teaching spin classes.Jack WattsAndrews running the Sydney Marathon.BAA/MarathonFotoAt the Boston Marathon in April, Andrews set her PR of 2:41:58.In 2023, her father, Mark, decided he wanted to do the Oklahoma City half marathon for his birthday and she thought, well, certainly if he can run a half as he approached 70, she could do a marathon at 26. Andrews ran 3:11.From there, she joined a local running group and met her husband, Jacob Anderson, who has run 2:26. He now coaches her and several other athletes.“She’s been a trooper during this pregnancy and very resilient and robust,” Anderson said. “She had very minimal morning sickness the first trimester and she's just been healthy and strong throughout the whole Boston build. For her to PB at Boston 13 weeks pregnant I think said a lot and so going into Sydney, it was just about maintaining that base she built from Boston.”The baby is due at the end of October. Both Andrews and Anderson plan to enter Cal International in December next year, with Andrews hoping to make a run at the Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying standard of 2:37. She needs to cut five minutes off her personal best, but Anderson thinks it’s within the realm of possibility for her. “I think we're just tapping into her potential,” he said.Andrews pushes back against the narrative of fear around working out while pregnant, especially for people in low-risk pregnancies. Running has always felt comfortable for her during the past eight months.Her advice to other pregnant runners? “Don’t stop your norm,” she said. “Your [body] is already doing a super hard change. Why would you give up more of your normal and more of yourself?”Find Your Next Running PlaylistSarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!