Sara Hall, Emma Bates and Keira D'Amato finished in the top 10 in the marathon at the world championships, a race that carried additional meaning for them.
The American women, two of them mothers in their late 30s, embraced at the world championship marathon as three of the 10 fastest marathoners in the world. Over about 2 hours 20 minutes, Hall, Bates and D’Amato ran alongside one another, basked in cheers and smiled with greater frequency than most anyone running 26.2 miles would sanely dare.
She had defied convention her entire career. An Oakton High graduate, D’Amato turned professional as a miler after four all-American seasons at American. Injuries pushed her into retirement and a Realtor job in 2009. She tried her first marathon in 2013, and it went so poorly that she figured she wouldn’t try another. She had Thomas the next year, then Quin two years later.She returned to distance running as a break from motherhood and gave marathons another shot.
It was a gift that presented challenges. Normally she would take two or three months to train for a marathon. If she took the normal runs she would in the weeks before a marathon, she would risk fatigue and injury.Three days after she joined the team, D’Amato took a 22-mile run. She knew she had retained some of the fitness from setting the American record six months ago. She ran between 60 and 70 miles during each week she had.
D’Amato and Bates eagerly agreed. For the first half of the race, the trio ran next to one another, helping set one another’s pace. Their bond went beyond the course.In 2015, Hall and her husband, Ryan, adopted four sisters from Ethiopia, now ages 11, 14, 18 and 22. She had never trained for a marathon in the summer, which meant she had never trained when her kids weren’t in school. When she returned from training runs, rather than enjoying the quiet, she had to be present as a parent.
Bates views Hall and D’Amato as inspirations. She wants to have children someday, and she plans on asking the two for advice on how to balance motherhood and running. “Just the fact they can come back not only running well but doing even better is something I admired them for,” Bates said. “I want to be more than a runner. They’re doing it.”
D’Amato slowed her pace but kept grinding. Her family shuffled around the course. They watched and screamed for her at the five-kilometer mark, then rushed toward the finish line.
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