By: Allison Xu

Keira D’Amato had a record holder of two hours 19 minutes 12 seconds in the 2022 Houston Marathon, beating the record that has stood since 2006.

D’Amato is currently 37 years old. Her husband, Tony, is a delivery manager at Microsoft. Her kids include seven-year-old Thomas, and five-year-old Quin.

As D’Amato’s thinks back to crossing the finish line in Houston, tears forming in her eyes.

Earlier, when she was a competitive runner, goals were achieved if she worked hard enough, and she had always worked hard enough. But those goals eventually avoided her, leaving her confused. She wondered how she had so badly miscalculated her capabilities.

When she had her second chance, it was so delightful. It has ended every “what if” that circled the back of D’Amato’s mind for years.

After D’Amato finished high school in Northern Virginia, D’Amato became a four-time all-American at American University before trying running full time. She joined DC Elite, but two bones in her left foot were connected where they shouldn’t have been, so that required her to get a surgery her insurance didn’t cover. That incident made D’Amato go into early retirement.

Even after her foot surgery in 2006, D’Amato didn’t want to make a comeback. She didn’t give up on the sport though. She tried her first marathon in 2013, and D’Amato thought that the race was simply not for her.

Later on, she became a mother in 2014 and a mother-of-two in 2016.

“That’s what’s really important to me,” D’Amato says in the middle of her glute set. “When I come home from a race, whether I win or lose, they’re like: ‘Hey, Mom. What’s for dinner?’ They don’t care, you know?”

Sometimes, though, her mother-in-law would watch her kids. D’Amato would use the time to run.

“In a way, it just feels like this is my fun thing,” she says. “It’s my hobby. Some people are in book clubs. Some people collect stamps or coins. This is what I do.”