By: Zoe Hu

Keira D’Amato is the holder of the American women’s marathon and her story of becoming a marathon runner is quite unique.

After she graduated from high school, D’Amato went to American University before she joined DC Elite, which is a professional running team led by Scoot Raczko, who was Alan Webb’s coach when he set the U.S men’s record in the mile in 2007.

But two of D’Amato’s bones in her left foot were connected wrongly, and she needed a surgery that her insurance couldn’t cover, forcing her reluctantly into an early retirement.

After she got her foot surgery in 2009, she didn’t want to go back to running. But she never completely quit the sport. In 2013, she tried her very first marathon with hopes to qualify for Boston. But after what she called “the perfect storm of everything that could go wrong in a marathon,” she believed that the 26.2-mile race was just not suited for her.

She had gotten back into the sport almost by accident. Soon enough, she reached the top by achieving one goal after another. When she crossed the finish in Houston at last, she had rejoiced the feeling of breaking a record, she had looked around and realized, “I can go faster.

She finished 15th in the Olympic trials of 2020, and later that year she helped order a race in Washington DC that was called the Up Dawg Ten Miler. She finished the race in 51:23 and by doing so, claimed the U.S women-only 10-mile record.

Tears still form in her eyes as she remembers crossing the finish line at Houston, she had first started out as a competitive runner, where she achieved her goals if she had worked hard enough, and she always worked hard. But eventually she failed to accomplish her goals, leaving her disappointed and confused, wondering why she had failed so badly. That’s why she has appreciated this second chance so much. It stopped every single “what if?” that D’Amato had been thinking about for years.

Source: Keira D’Amato is 37. A mom of two. And America’s fastest female marathoner. – The Washington Post.pdf