TO BE A MARATHONER IS TO BE HUMBLED

BOSTON (18-Apr) — Before becoming an elite athlete who set American records in the marathon and half-marathon, Keira D’Amato was a recreational runner trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon, which will be held for the 128th time as an in-person race here on Monday.  She signed up for the Missoula Marathon in 2013 and hoped to make the then qualifying time for a 28 year-old of 3 hours and 35 minutes.

“The only reason I wanted to run a marathon was to try to qualify for Boston for 2014,” D’Amato told Race Results Weekly at a press conference here this morning.  “This was the year I had just seen the bombing and that inspired me to do my first-ever marathon.”

D’Amato, whose maiden name was Carlstrom, was not an ordinary beginner.  She had competed in the NCAA system at American University where she finished sixth at the 2005 NCAA Cross Country Championships and ninth in the 5000m at the 2006 NCAA Track & Field Championships.  Still, she had no idea how difficult a marathon would actually be.

“I didn’t really train as hard as I should, and I wasn’t really running at the level I was (in college),” said D’Amato, who ran 3:49:56 that day.  “I went in and I was just taught a huge lesson to respect the marathon.  Maybe like 16 to 18 miles (in), and I walked a lot.  I finished –I was really proud to finish– but it humbled me and really taught me to respect the marathon as a distance.”

D’Amato, 40, who re-booted her running career in 2018 after having two children and establishing a career in real estate, went on to run more than an hour and a half faster than she did in Missoula, setting a (since broken) American record of 2:19:12 in Houston in 2022.  She enjoyed even more success, placing eighth in the 2022 World Championships, and taking sixth at the BMW Berlin Marathon later that same year.  She’s broken 2:23 three times.

But the marathon would humble her again.  In 2024 she dropped out of both of her marathons, the Olympic Trials in February and Chicago in October.  Her Chicago experience was particularly painful.  She had moved with her family to Utah to train under Brigham Young University coach Ed Eyestone, and had prepared very well.  She thought…