On the morning of January 16, 2022, in Houston, Texas, Midlothian resident and Nike-sponsored pro-runner Keira D’Amato toed the line at the Houston Marathon. After finishing with a time of 2:19:12 and averaging just under 5:20 per mile, D’Amato successfully broke the American women’s marathon record by twenty-four seconds, which had been previously set by Deena Kastor in 2006.

When viewing her accomplishment from the lens of her high school self, D’Amato described it as “that little emoji with the head blowing up,” since she does not think the younger version of herself would be able to fully grasp what she had done. However, “[she] always believed if [she] put [her] mind to something, really special things could happen,” D’Amato said.

In order to achieve the goal at hand, D’Amato made some important changes to her training regime, such as listening to her body more than before so that she could address anything that felt different before it become something more serious. In this way, she has learned to be “very diligent about doing all the small things” so she “can train at a high level every day,” D’Amato said. She also feels that adding strength work to her routine has “made a big difference for [her].” Alongside such adjustment, she has found the importance of patience since “nothing happens overnight, but the really special accomplishments are worth the long grind!”

Following her race, D’Amato received press from many different media sources which she describes as “wild,” especially the press that has come from outside of the running community. Having reached a wider audience, she hopes that she is able to “encourage others to try to incorporate running into their lives” because she knows that “running can suck at first…but once you break through you can actually enjoy running,” D’Amato said.

One show D’Amato found herself extremely excited to appear on was none other than the Today Show.

“I still can’t believe that happened. I really thought I was getting pranked,” D’Amato said. Being able to take part in opportunities as big as the Today Show has allowed the local runner to bring attention to Richmond, a that she has come to appreciate.

Making the accomplishment even more impressive, D’Amato is also a mother of two children and a realtor in addition to being a record-breaking athlete. She has found that the best way to balance her family, job and running has been “prioritizing [her] time and making sure [she] makes time for the things in [her] life that are most important.” Throughout the process though, she has had a lot of help and is “working on saying ‘no’ to things” in an effort to not become too overwhelmed.

After setting the new marathon record, D’Amato was invited to the first RVA Sports Awards that took place on February 5, 2022, where she won Female Athlete of the Year. Not to mention, during the past year, D’Amato won the Allianz Partners 8K where she set a new women’s course record, ran the U.S. Nationals Half Marathon and earned a spot on Team U.S.A. for the World Championship. As of now, she currently holds the American Record for the 20K as well.

Through it all, however, continuing to look to the future is important to D’Amato in order to take “some pressure off the upcoming race if I know it’s just a stepping stone to get to where I am going.” In the coming months, her focus now lies on “earning a spot on this summer’s Track & Field World Championship” and “work[ing] [her] tail off to qualify for the 2024 Olympics,” D’Amato said.

Click here to read more about Keira D’Amato.