D’AMATO EYES VICTORY, AMERICAN RECORD AT BMW BERLIN MARATHON
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2022 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved – Used with permission.
(22-Sep) — Keira D’Amato, the 37 year-old licensed real estate agent from Virginia who set the North American marathon record of 2:19:12 in Houston last January, is the fastest woman entered in Sunday’s BMW Berlin Marathon. She hopes to get faster and possibly become the first USA athlete –male or female– to win in Berlin. The Nike-sponsored athlete passed up what would surely have been larger appearance fees from either Chicago or New York to take advantage of Berlin’s super-fast course where multiple world records have been set.
“I’d love to run faster than that in Berlin,” D’Amato said of her American record at this morning’s press conference. “To win a great race such as Berlin would be a dream and a great career ambition.”
D’Amato’s unusual path to marathon stardom has been well-chronicled, including some seven years away from competition to build her “regular” career and raise a family (she has two children with her husband, Anthony). But her path to Berlin has been just as unusual. After her record in Houston and some time to recover, D’Amato got back on the roads in March and marched ahead with her regular road racing season. She took second at the USATF 25-K Championships in May, won the USATF 6-K Championships in June, then ran an excellent 31:03 at the Mastercard Mini 10-K in New York a week later. Everything was going according to plan, and D’Amato was excited about her summer.
“It was incredible,” D’Amato said of the atmosphere at the Mini. “New York shows up, and puts on just an incredible event.”
Two weeks after the Mini, D’Amato took a crack at Shalane Flanagan’s North American 10-K record of 30:52 at the B.A.A. 10-K. She came up short, but won the race in 31:17.
But then things took an unexpected turn. Olympic Marathon bronze medalist Molly Seidel was forced to withdraw with an injury from the national marathon team training for the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. On July 1, D’Amato got the call-up from USA Track & Field to replace Seidel, and with only 17 days to get ready for the July 18 race she set about to do a super-short marathon build-up. She was up for the challenge.
“Bittersweet and unexpected news for an alternate to hear, as I was genuinely rooting for our rockstar marathon team,” D’Amato wrote on her Instagram account on July 2. …
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