Who would break Deena Kastor’s longstanding American record in the marathon? Over the nearly 16 years since Kastor ran 2:19:36 at the London Marathon in April 2006, any number of likely candidates have come forward.
Shalane Flanagan. Jordan Hasay. Sara Hall, who came the closest, in 2020, and put it out there as a goal as recently as the I passed her maybe 200 meters into the race and said, Go get it, Keira.
None did.
The title—American record holder in the marathon—now belongs to someone who wasn’t even in the record conversation before 2020: Keira D’Amato, a 37-year-old with two kids and a busy work life, who had taken a seven-year hiatus from running.
In interviews with D’Amato and 12 others who were that day in Houston on Sunday, January 16, Runner’s World got the inside story of how she fought through the wind and cold to run 2:19:12 and lower Kastor’s mark by 24 seconds.
EARLY OCTOBER, AFTER THE CHICAGO MARATHON, WHERE D’AMATO FINISHED FOURTH IN 2:28:22.
Scott Raczko, D’Amato’s coach:
When she ran Chicago in October, we felt that she was about six to eight weeks behind where we’d like to be. So then sure enough, by the end of November, beginning of December, she was getting to where we wanted her to be. The decision was made to do this marathon.
Jim Estes, When you look at the times she was running, in tempo runs and repetitions, she was definitely there:
She had a good run in Chicago, but the weather was a factor there. Before the U.S. half champs [on December 5, where D’Amato ran 1:07:55], I talked to Ray Flynn, Keira’s agent. He said, “Hey, Keira’s really fit, she’s thinking of running Houston.” We started talking about the what-ifs. The timing was going to be perfect for her and the race. The one factor we couldn’t control was the weather.
His first question was—what’s the course record? It’s like 2:23:14. She feels like she can come in and run a course record and a PR. There was no talk initially of an American record.
TWO WEEKS BEFORE RACE DAY
Des Linden, two-time Olympian in Houston to do television coverage:
I’d see Strava workouts—Fast and Flat Boston Qualifying Marathons.
Deena Kastor, American record holder in the marathon for the past 18 years:
who set the American record in the half marathon that morning, 1:07:15.
Calum Neff, one of D’Amato’s two designated pace setters:
I think everybody had followed her training so much on Strava. She just really puts herself out there. So, we all kind of saw the buildup and had anticipation of what could happen. We just saw a lot of the workouts were so fast. Frank Lara was there for his marathon debut and he ran 2:11, and he said he would see almost the same or similar workouts happen from Keira on the same day, but faster than him. I was almost scared of her speed and strength.
Silas Frantz, one of D’Amato’s two designated pace setters, making his marathon debut:
The first logistical idea that I had going into the race was that the wind that was predicted for that day was going to be a big problem. So, I knew a couple weeks in advance what her exact goal was going to be and that she was going to be trying to run for the record. And I got really nervous because I knew that Cal [Neff] is a great runner, but I figured that there was a chance that I would have to be in shape enough to run whatever the record is into the wind. That's a lot harder than running it with a pacer or behind a pacer.
I sent her a text message, maybe 10 days in advance, screenshotting what the National Weather Service’s predictions were. I'm very data-oriented. I work as a data scientist in my professional life. It was like 20 miles an hour, gusts of 30 miles an hour were predicted.
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Gradually as we got to the day, the forecast got a little bit better. And I was still like, man, this is really gonna be hard for even two experienced pacers to be able to run these paces and make sure that she’s in a pack. So, going in my mindset was very much like exclusively about the wind and then just being nervous as shit.
RACE WEEK
Keira D’Amato:
I got one day off that week. I saved it for Thursday, the day I was traveling [to Houston]. I got a light stretch in that night. Friday I think I went for maybe an 8-mile run. Smooth and relaxed. Saturday I did a 6-mile run.
My husband and kids came out Friday. They stayed in a different hotel that was maybe a block away. It was a really fun hotel. My husband did the research. There was a pool and a lazy river. There was a playground right outside. He found a really fun place for them to be in vacation mode. For me, it’s a little bit easier to relax as a mom without your kids there.
Even with my husband, sometimes he gets up or he can’t sleep. It’s probably best that no one is bothering my sleep. I’m actually a really great sleeper when not disturbed. I kind of isolated myself.
Anthony D’Amato, Keira D’Amato’s husband:
My background is in the military. I’m in the Air Force, in the National Guard now, but I did 10 years of active duty in the Air Force. I take these races with a military operational planning mindset. I do all the communication with Keira’s family. I send them a list of how to hit the app, how to track Keira. I give them a ton of information about the race. I did an analysis of where to go and even the day before, I had my parents and Keira’s dad out in downtown Houston relearning how to ride a bike because the Houston [course] is a big loop.
Jim Estes:
The whole weekend [including the press conference], she was not shy about saying that if things are clicking, she’s going for the record. She just didn’t appear to care [about the extra pressure]. It was a very genuine type of thing, to me. She was saying, “Hey, I’m here at this race, I’ve got this big goal, I’m going for it.”
Ray Flynn, D’Amato’s agent:
You have an athlete like Keira who is older and more mature—she’s seen it before, she has a different perspective, she’s not as awed by everything. She’s pretty chill. She had a different calmness about her than a young person, 10 or 12 years younger than her.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 15
The day before the race, D’Amato went out to drive the course with her pacers and her coach.
Ray Flynn:
I felt like, okay, she’s very confident in herself and she really has done all the right things, she’s got the pacers, she’s in the right race. The weather is going to be okay. It’s a little windy, but it’s looking good. It’s the fractions that make the difference. I said, “Seeing the course will be very important if you can. You’re here, why not just take a tour?”
Keira D’Amato:
I’m so thankful he did—just getting a visualization of the course, that once you get to mile 18, it’s kind of smooth sailing home, getting that visual cue. Cal Neff picked us up in his big truck. It took us close to two hours to get through Houston traffic. We were kind of laughing, how if things go well, we’re not going to run too much slower than we can drive this course.
Calum Neff:
Our focus was on the wind and what direction it would be coming from. We broke up the course into sections we knew would be really difficult and where our drafting would be the most needed.
When they returned from the course, they went to eat at the dinner the race provided.
Keira D’Amato:
Having almost a normal dinner was really fun. I remember laughing a lot and people would come in and grab their dinner and eat and go. We were almost the first ones there and almost the last ones to leave. I know what my job is. I know how hard I need to work, but outside that, I don’t dwell on it. I don’t overthink anything.
I eat a lot of chicken, rice, some sort of vegetable, I think it was broccoli. Sweet potatoes. We were sitting there so long, I kind of got hungry again. Then I got a roll with some butter on it. It was funny, too, my husband was one of the only ones going to the dessert table. We were like, “That’s all you, man, you take that down.”
Anthony D’Amato:
I feel like my role is to just get everybody relaxed. We didn’t do any motivational speeches before or anything like that. Keira put in the work and we treat these races as a workout. It’s a celebration of fitness.
Keira D’Amato:
Silas used to live in Virginia. [He now lives in California.] We used to work out together. He’s just such a talented, fast runner. He’s so quick. Every single workout it’d be like, “Silas, today is the day I’m going to outkick you. Today is the day I run you into the ground.” I never did. I had this one monster workout where I closed a mile in, I think, 61 seconds. And he crushed me.
The day before the marathon, I told him, “Silas, tomorrow is the day I crush you.” He’s like, “We’ll see. I’ve never run this long.” I’m like, “Exactly. We’re in my territory now.”
Silas Frantz:
We saw each other in the media area, and we hugged and teared up as we congratulated each other.
Keira D’Amato:
My pep talks [with coach Scott Raczko] go like this: I say, “What’s the workout today?” He’d say, “It’s this. Stay focused, keep your shoulders down, stay loose, stay tall, you got this.” And that’s it. That’s how we communicate.
We were at dinner. I say, “What’s the workout tomorrow?” He goes, “26.2 miles at 5:18s. Stay focused, stay calm, keep your arms down.” I was like, “Got it.”
After dinner, D’Amato went to her room to lay out her gear and pack her bag for the next morning.
I try not to do too much social media. I have mindless iPhone games that distract me. It takes me out of the running zone. I found this TV show I had never seen, Impractical Jokers. I was laughing so hard, I was spitting out water. What if I laugh so hard I pull a muscle? So I couldn’t watch that show.
I got everything done and got in bed about 8:30 p.m. That was a little earlier than usual. I just gave myself quiet space, extra time to fall asleep. I probably lay there for an hour. I didn’t let that stress me out; I gave myself extra time to wind down. And I also know that if I didn’t sleep at all that night, I could go out and do what I need to do.
I am someone who can get pulled into superstitions pretty easily. A lot of runners do. Something works, and you think, “Maybe that was it, maybe that was why it worked.” Leading into this race, I tried to break all superstitions. I used to have a shirt that I’d sleep in before races and I usually ran really well. And when I was packing my bag, I almost grabbed that shirt. I was like, “You know what? I’ve worn that shirt before and it’s gone well, but I’ve never broken an American record wearing that shirt before. So maybe that doesn’t matter.”
I didn’t want to feel like everything had to be perfect, because I’ve trained through “good enough” for a really long time. I’ve trained through wind and rain and not feeling great or not sleeping great or not getting a full breakfast or whatever it is. I’ve trained through good enough and I knew I could perform at “good enough.” Trying to relieve myself of any pressure that it needed to be perfect. I didn’t feel like it needed to be a perfect day. It just needed to be good enough.
EARLY MORNING
Keira D’Amato:
I think my alarm was set for 4, and I probably set four alarms: 4, 4:04, 4:08, 4:10, just to make sure. But I slept great. I felt myself waking up right before the alarm.
On the bus, I was sitting close to Nell Rojas. I love Nell. She is one of my favorite people. I met her at Houston two years ago. She’s just so tough. And just resilient. We were chit chatting. I had a granola bar and some waters, and I always sip on my sports drink on the bus before I start warming up.
I’m thinking to myself, “I’m feeling good. This is great. To get to the starting line of a marathon feeling good is a miracle itself, so this is awesome.” When we got into the tent, the chair I found was right near the heater.
Ray Flynn:
She was very connected, we were talking about the little things. Keep your jacket on until 20 or 30 seconds before the gun and then throw it over the fence. When you strip down, you want to make sure you’re doing it late. It was cold.
STARTING LINE
Keira D’Amato:
On the starting line, I remember thinking, “Let’s see what happens. How exciting that this day is finally here. And I’ve worked so hard to get here. And it’s going to happen or it’s not and if it happens, awesome, and if it doesn’t, that’s okay, too. I’ll be in the same exact spot that I am now without that American record and that’s fine.” It was really freeing to not be afraid of failing but just being so excited that this could happen for me today.
Des Linden:
I saw both Sara [Hall] and Keira doing strides and on the start line, Keira threw her jacket off. And it was literally right into my hands. She seemed really relaxed and kind of laughed about it. I told her I’d bring it back.
I was excited for them because it looked like such a nice morning. I know what those nerves are like, where you’ve done everything and you’re like, this is a don’t-screw-it-up moment. That is nerve-wracking even if you're not on the line. Because you’re like, I know these guys are super fit and if it doesn’t go well today, man, what a missed opportunity.
Silas Frantz:
So, at the starting line, we all had a little hug together, and we kind of had built a little team camaraderie, like, “We'll do this for you, just hang onto us and trust us” type of thing.
Calum Neff:
Keira and I joked back and forth a little bit during the warmup and also just talked about how to best get her started and where we should position. She found me in this little circle we had going. She came up on my shoulder and said, “You come here often?”
Liane MacDowell, Keira’s mother:
My husband and I were in charge of [the D’Amatos’ children], Tommy and Quin. Of course, I’ve been at almost every race she’s run since high school. I like to get to as many spots as I can to see her as many times as I can. But she and I had talked earlier in the week, and she said, “Mom, because you’ll have the kids, you’re not going to be able to really see the race too much, and I know that’s going to be hard for you, but are you okay with that?” I said, “Of course.” But I wanted to at least see her at the start.
Tommy and Quin stayed with us the night before and we got them up nice and early, which isn’t too hard because they’re young. We saw Keira four blocks after the start. We were there with our signs cheering her on.
It was so cold out, and the kids were cold. At that point, Keira had lined it up so that we were able to go to the hospitality room in the hotel. That was really ideal for us. We could keep them fed, we brought activities for them. And we watched the race on the big screen.
THE OPENING MILES
Keira D’Amato:
I get off the line so quickly. For maybe a step or two I felt like I was leading the whole race. I have a really good start, I guess. Sara Hall came up behind me and she went, “Crush it today, Keira.” It made me so emotional that Sara would take that moment in her race just to wish me good luck while we’re in the race.
Sara Hall, who set the American record in the half marathon that morning, 1:07:15
I passed her maybe 200 meters into the race and said, “Go get it, Keira!”
Calum Neff:
My watch was in kilometers and it read at the exact pace we wanted to see for the first kilometer. Even though it doesn’t mean a lot in the grand scheme of over 42 of them, it was comforting that I could turn to Keira and say, “We just nailed the first one.”
Keira D’Amato:
It’s funny, because starting out I was thinking like, I really hope we’re not going too slow right now. I’m not sure how much faster than this I’m going to want to go. When he said it was right on, it was like, “Okay, I was hoping this was going to feel a little more relaxed, but I can do this. This is fine.” They were so smooth for the first six miles that I just kind of mentally just zoned out.
Silas Frantz:
The early miles were really smooth. We tried to make a wall in front of her. So the two of us would be side-by-side most of the time and sometimes she’d go over and get water and we’d just communicate about where she was and try to stay as close as possible to her while kind of being in front of her and blocking the wind.
Calum Neff:
Because I know the course so well and I’m tall, looking for the shortest line was my job. There are a lot of places where you can run the curve longer than you need to.
Deena Kastor:
Here in California it was 5 a.m. at the start, so I didn’t see the first few miles. I was still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. But I was definitely sitting in front of the computer with my husband, Andrew, watching it. We were in the office with the door closed, because our daughter was still sleeping and our dog hadn’t heard us tiptoe out of bed.
Scott Raczko:
Right from the start I was pretty confident, when they seemed to lock in the pace. And I knew Keira was strong enough to either get stronger or at least hold onto that and she had some great pacers with her. Obviously, it was a marathon and a lot of things can happen during a marathon and you never know. But I was pretty confident about it. I saw her at four different spots. It was a challenge to get around.
Anthony D’Amato:
I saw her at mile 7. She just looked comfortable and relaxed. She was probably zoning out a little bit. I could be right next to her and cheering, and she may not even hear or pick it up. So I try to save my voice at those spots. I’ll still yell something encouraging.
Keira D’Amato:
There’s a big crowd around—maybe almost to 8—where the races break off. The half marathoners go to the left, the marathoners go to the right.
When I did the half marathon there two years ago, I remember at that point thinking, “Suckers! I get to go straight back, you have to do this long crazy loop. I’m halfway through my race, you haven’t even started yours.”
I remember getting to that point and I was just excited for the adventure. It didn’t faze me in the way I thought it would. The crazy thing is, I got to that point quicker than I did doing the half two years ago. So it was just cool to see I’m ahead of where I was two years ago, mentally and physically. That felt symbolic for me. But at this point, the pace is never feeling great.
Maggie Montoya, who finished third at Houston, her marathon debut:
I think she was just like, six or seven seconds ahead of me at the Houston Half back in the beginning of 2020. And then she beat me by almost 10 minutes in the marathon.
MILES 11–18
Calum Neff:
Silas and I were just basically [blocking] the wind, but there were these little packs up ahead of us that would’ve been really beneficial for us to also work together with. But when we would mention to Keira, “Hey, let’s just put in a one- or two-second surge and we’re going to get right on these guys’ heels to draft,” she would say “no” or give the impression that it would put her over the edge. We were very much on that fine line.
Keira D’Amato:
I did a lot of tempo runs in the low 5 teens and I thought that pace, 5:12 or 5:13, I could comfortably lock in. Running 5:18s, it wasn’t clicking like I hoped. That made me feel like—maybe this isn’t going to happen for me today. Maybe this is too hard.
And whenever I’d say that, I’d think, “Yeah, this is going to be hard. You’re trying to run faster than any American woman has ever run. Yeah, it’s going to be hard. This is what it’s supposed to feel like.”
And then we got to mile 11. You take a right turn and head north, from 11 to 18, there’s this huge headwind. Even though I had people blocking that wind, I could still feel it. It just felt cold and breezy. That was probably the toughest stretch in the race for me. At some point I’d fall back a step or two from my pacers. Whenever that happened, part of me wanted to say, “Hey, can we slow down?” But then I’m like, “As soon as you say that out loud, the race is over. You’re not going to get it.”
Deena Kastor:
I was subconsciously telling her through the computer, “Just get through this patch. You’re gonna get there, you just gotta stay focused, keep your eye on the prize, this is just a bad patch.” I probably knew she was going into a little bit of a headwind but that was going to change as soon as the course changed direction. It was a lot of cheerleading that morning.
Keira D’Amato:
Halfway through the race, there’s this overpass where I slowed down a lot on the mile—we knew because of that hill the mile would be slower. At that point I fell off a step or two again from the pacers.
I thought, “Man, I don’t know if this is going to happen today.” I was thinking about it, like, “Well, you know at some point you’re going to run 5:18 pace. You are going to do that. So if it’s not today, it’s going to be another race, which means you’re going to have to put in months and months more of that marathon buildup training. You’re going to have to do all those early morning runs and 24-mile runs with tempos. You’re going to have to somehow make it to a starting line healthy and find a race with good weather on a fast course with pacers that can help you and then you’re going to have to get back to this point that you are right now and figure out how to work through it next time. That actually sounds harder than just working through it right now. Tell you what, body. If we can figure out a way to work through that, you never have to run again.”
Silas Frantz:
Halfway we emerged into the worst windy section of the course. Keira was too uncomfortable at those paces. She was working really hard. I think she was working a lot harder than either of us were through that middle section. It was very much a balancing act between us wanting to be on pace and Keira wanting to not push it too hard in that section.
Calum Neff:
We had a pace truck that had a clock on it. And it not only tells you what the current time of the race is, the duration, but it’ll cycle through what your last mile and kilometer split was. And then it also shows you a projection of what you’re expected to finish the marathon in. It started out reading in the 2:18s. It was quite a bit under the record. And it slowly just started creeping up and creeping up.
Keira D’Amato:
I went into the race thinking it wouldn’t be crazy if I ran 2:18. I didn’t feel like that was so out of reach, either. So I don’t really know why I didn’t feel great. That whole time, whenever it didn’t feel awesome, I would think, “It’s good enough. This is all good enough. This is fine.” Take that pressure away from being perfect. It’s good enough.
Ray Flynn:
I went back to the hotel and watched it and paid attention to the splits. I did read the comments on social media. When she started slowing down, we knew it was into the wind. A lot of people [on social media] weren’t there and didn’t know those nuances and they’re saying, “She’s probably not going to be able to pull it back now. She’s gone out too fast.”
We knew this could turn around. Her coach, Scott, was out on the course, and I was talking to him several times. He said he saw her and he said she was strong. I was calling him, because when you go out on the course, you have no information except visually seeing the athlete a couple of times. Does her form look good? Does she look in control? And she did.
Liane MacDowell:
At halfway, it looked like Keira was doing very well and I thought, “I need to do some surveillance as to where we can be when she finishes, because I just had to get as close as I could to that finish line.”
I told my husband, “Art, you watch the kids. I’m going to scout it out and see how close I can get.” Before I left, I checked in with the hospitality staff and told them, “My daughter is in the lead. Do you have any tips on where I could stand so that we could be close to the finish line?” The lady said she’d check with someone. Within 15 minutes, this nice guy, one of the planners, came up and introduced himself. I said “I’m sorry if I’m taking you away from what you’re supposed to be doing at the race.” And he said, “What I’m supposed to be doing right now is taking care of you.” I started crying right then and there.
He said, “I’m going to come back about 20 minutes before she’s going to finish. You guys get all zipped up and we’re going to get you right to the finish line.” So, that was magic. I never even comprehended that we could really be that close to the finish line.
Logan Barrett, IT Brand Stretches:
I ended up catching her just before 15. I got up to her and the pacers—they were stating she was on pace for the American record. They were very fluid, very focused. I was almost in awe to be part of that group for several miles. I made the decision to break away just after 20.
Silas Frantz:
There were a lot of people cheering, like “Do it for the moms!” while we were out on the course. That was fun. We were the girl power team. Me and Cal would fist bump and say, “Fuck, yeah! Do it for the moms!”
MILES 18–23
Keira D’Amato:
We thought we’d get a slight tailwind at 18. That was in my head. If I can make it to 18, I’m going to have some help, Mother Nature is going to help me. We got to 18, but the wind was just fickle. It was a crosswind, a headwind, a little bit of a tailwind. I can’t even explain that last part.
I started trying to pick it up. I think we were at 20 or 21, you go through the landbridge, which is really cool, this little tunnel. They’re blasting music. I felt like we were cruising at that point. We hit a 5:14 mile, my pacer Silas, he was like, “F yeah, 5:14 Keira, you’re doing this! Keep it rolling.” He just had this surge of energy.
I wasn’t checking my watch. I knew we were past mile 18 because of the turn. But I wasn’t looking for the miles. I feel like that wouldn't have helped me at all. I knew what my job was, just stay on the pacers. They’re carrying the whole mental burden for me, I just need to stay on them. I’m almost just like afraid. What if I look at my watch and it’s like 5:25? Dream’s over. What if I see it’s 5:12? I’m going to think, I should slow down. I thought any feedback wouldn’t help me.
Calum Neff:
By mile 20, we were seeing [on the clock] basically a few seconds slower than the record on the projected finish time. It was definitely getting to that point of make or break. And you could feel that. The doubts were kind of creeping in because of the trend. It was starting to go slower and slower. So it was a matter of, can she really close this final 10K as strong as she needs to?
Anthony D’Amato:
I had traded out my manual bike for an electric bike. I thought it would be great. It has a motor. But those electric bikes have a governor, so it slowed me down significantly. It’s funny, the governor was set at 14.8 miles per hour, which is only two and a half miles an hour faster than Keira was running. So, I was barely faster than Keira.
I wanted to see her at mile 13, but I was looking at my watch and realized I wasn’t going to make it. So I ended up seeing her at the 21-mile mark.
I don’t remember what I said to her, but I always get choked up whenever I see her pushing herself and accomplishing something amazing. She knows it, too. That’s when she’ll hear me and that’s when she knows that I’m proud of her. I probably said something like “let it loose” or “let it rip,” or “buzz saw, baby,” something fun, whatever the heart is feeling.
At that mile marker, I knew [the record] was going to happen. ... I knew if she was close, she was just going to rip it up. She was going to buzz-saw it.
Keira D’Amato:
And it’s funny, in November, I overheard my husband talking to someone, and he said, “When Keira gets in really good shape, I call her buzz saw, because she just cuts through everything. Don’t stand in her way.” I overheard that and later I was like, “Hey, what did you say?”
And he’s like, “Oh, I’ve been saying this behind your back for awhile, but I call you the buzz saw when you get in really good shape, you just tear through things.” We kind of laughed about it. A couple of nights before the race, he sent me an emoticon of a B and then the saw.
I don’t really hear what he says during the race, but I can hear in his tone how he perceives the race going. Sometimes it feels more comforting or nurturing, sometimes he gets real excited. Sometimes I can tell he’s overcome with emotion and proud. Just his tone gives me so much energy. I can hear it in his voice, he was so excited, his voice was kind of cracking, that gave me so much energy. Aww, he’s really proud of me.
Ray Flynn:
When she got to 20 miles, she started moving out of the pocket. She started racing it. Then I knew. She’s feeling it, she’s not just hanging on. When I saw her move out of the pocket, I made that visual note to myself, she knows now she can do this. She started bringing the pace back under and not running behind.
Des Linden:
You don’t want to overhype the moment and then have the record slip and have people watching go, “Well, now I’m disappointed.” It all looked really safe. You just don’t know with the marathon. I was excited. It looked really good. But again, you can hit 24 and lose 30 to 40 seconds a mile. So it was never like, “Oh, this is for sure.” I probably said for sure sooner than I should have anyway, and it was pretty late in the broadcast.
MILE 23 TO THE FINISH
Anthony D’Amato:
I was going to [pass] her [on the course] around mile 23, but because the bike went only two miles faster than Keira, I was going to be on camera, and I didn’t want people to think I was pacing her. I didn’t want to go viral as the husband who paced his wife to the American record. I could see the headline.
Calum Neff:
With about four or five miles to go, something changed and she got competitive. She really started charging. That's when I noticed she was actually on our shoulder, more like a competitor. That was really exciting.
Keira D’Amato:
I actually hadn’t planned to try to beat my pacers, but that’s exactly where everything started catching up with Silas.
His calf was cramping up, he stopped and stretched it. And I ran by and said, “Man, you’re so close. Just keep going.” The first time you feel that wall in a marathon—he experienced it in the full sense. But for him to do so well in his first marathon, it just blows my mind.
Silas Frantz:
I fell off really bad just before mile 24. I went from feeling really good to having nothing. I think in hindsight, I didn't eat enough throughout the race. I only took two gels. I was too focused on other things than investing in my own wellbeing. I didn’t want to poop my pants on TV, either, so that was part of it. I bonked in the last two miles. I would have liked to have been there and encouraged her for a little bit longer, but I went from running 5:14s to what felt like 10-minute pace. It wasn’t actually that slow, but it felt like a switch had turned off in my body. I just said, “Good luck. You can do it!” with my last dying breath.
Calum Neff:
There was a point at two miles [to go] where I was like, “She’s charging, she’s got it. She’s going to do this, and it’s time for me to just get out of her way.” She got a couple seconds gap on me, then a complete surprise wind from the east, which was just bizarre, hit us really strongly and it really set us back. That’s where I had to dig in. I was like, “This right here is the reason that Keira asked me to be here.” So, that’s where I put in my final surge and got ahead of her again.
Keira D’Amato:
I knew I wanted to pick it up and wanted to go faster. But I was a little bit afraid to not have him. He said, “You’ve got this. Go.” Just then this huge headwind came, this huge gust, and he sprinted and cut back in front of me to block the wind. I listened to his breathing, and he sounds terrible. He was tired. And that gave me so much confidence. This dude is hurting more than me. And he’s blocking the wind right now. I’m going to run him into the ground.
When that wind gust stopped, I tried to take off. I was lucky there were a handful of men I could try to catch. I think I caught like five men in the last mile.
Deena Kastor:
You know, the marathon is never really over until someone crosses the finish line. So I would say it was like two or three miles, maybe the last 5K that it seemed like it was a sure thing. Without anything crazy, you know, without like a defrocked priest running out and tackling her or something like in the Olympics in 2004. So minus any crazy shenanigans like that, I was pretty sure at 5K to go that she was on record pace.
Keira D’Amato:
I felt like I was getting closer, I felt like my momentum was building, but it was such a fight. My hamstrings were burning. Whenever I’m doing a race, I never survey my body and ask it how it’s feeling, because I don’t care. I don’t want that feedback. My body was just screaming at me. My hip flexors. Just everything was on fire. It just hurt. I was like, I just felt like I was building the momentum. I really at this point had no idea if that record was going to happen. I get to 25—I think I saw 2:12, and I can’t do math in a marathon that good.
So 2:12, what does that mean? Is this going to happen? I think? I think this could happen, 2:12 plus 5 minutes, plus 400. I think this could happen.
At 25, I was just digging with everything I had. With one mile to go, I just kept repeating “buzz saw.” I’ve never had a mantra like that. But in the last mile, I kept saying it out loud. I probably looked crazy. I’ve never said anything out loud to myself while running. It was just weird. At the moment, it didn’t feel weird. It got me through.
Logan Barrett:
Keira caught me with about a mile to go. I didn’t have anything more. Throughout the entire race, if you take out the chaos of the first half mile, I only got passed by one person. And that was Keira.
Calum Neff:
There’s a section with just under a mile to go where you actually turn into the city buildings and that’s where we had a very strong tailwind and it felt like somebody pushing on your back really strong. I kind of realized I’m going to run really fast today, too. I started picking up ground again, and Keira was passing people, and I was passing people, kind of chasing Keira down for the final 800.
Liane MacDowell:
When Keira was about a mile away, they brought us about 50 yards from the finish line. They told us to let her finish, give her a few seconds and then the kids can go running out. I saw her make that turn, and we were just all cheering her on.
Des Linden:
Keira DAmatos husband.
Calum Neff:
It was a lot of fun to finish in that tunnel of buildings. But I don't think there was any point even like 400 meters from the finish where we were like, “She's got it.” It was a super suspenseful moment, because you can't see the finish line because of this really sharp turn you make into the finish.
Keira D’Amato:
You’re coming down this straightway. And then there’s a turn and you have maybe 75 or 100 meters to go. You can’t see the finish line. But I could see that turn. Just make it to the turn. When I made it past, I could see the clock at that time, I think it said 2:18 at that point, that’s the first point in the race that I thought it was going to happen. When I knew it would happen.
When I saw the finish line, saw the clock, that’s when it started to hit me that this was going to happen today. I’m sprinting as fast as I could to get there. I wanted it so badly to happen. Right before I crossed the line, you see me put my hands over my mouth, because I couldn’t believe it happened that day.
THE FINISH LINE
Keira D’Amato
I was just confused. And then I saw my family. I had been away from them a couple of days. So that was so nice just to hug my kids. That really surprised me.
When I’m isolating from my family, it’s relaxing, but there’s also a level of guilt. If I’m taking these moments of being away from my family, my most important thing in my life, I’d better show up and compete.
I gave my kids a hug and then I’m like, I just need to sit down. Just give me a couple of minutes to sit here. I saw my pacers, they were finishing. I think it was after I saw Silas. It was probably three to five minutes, maybe? In the back of my head, I was looking around, “Where’s Anthony, where’s Anthony?”
Liane MacDowell:
I have seen so many of Keira's races and I have never, ever seen her more exhausted. She's a beautiful runner, and she just always looks so composed. I mean, she had laid it all out there. I could just tell.
We waited a few seconds, and Tommy and Quin went running up to her, and then I went running up. I couldn't stand it any longer. I hugged them all. It was just one of the most incredible moments of my life.
Scott Raczko:
I was still on the course trying to make my way back to the finish line. But I knew what had happened, I was just very proud of her. She has put in so much work and so much dedication and persevered through so much, it’s just awesome to see a result like this.
Calum Neff:
The time to beat was 2:19:36. That was the American record. I was 2:19:33, so I was basically that line. I just went right under the American record time that she wanted. I came through knowing I had just gone under what she wanted, so I knew she had definitely got it by at least 20 seconds or so.
That was a PR for me, too, by over a minute. My PR was from pacing Sara Hall the year before at the Marathon Project. From being a part of two of the three fastest times in women's marathoning in the U.S., it means a lot to me.
Silas Frantz:
I finished in 2:21:51. I averaged like 6:30 for the last two miles. It wasn’t a great marathon performance from my perspective, but it was the coolest way to start running marathons.
Right when I crossed the line, she actually had just put on the flag. I saw the race replay where she’s coming out and I’m cheering as I went across the line and she’s doing her victory jog. I knew immediately when the flag was draped around her, I was like, “Yeah, she got it.”
She gives a lot of credit to everybody around her, but at the end of the day, she ran the record by herself. It makes the record all that much better that she had to run those last miles by herself. If I were one of those old, Irish ballad writers, I would write a ballad about her, like coming down the streets of Houston all by herself, just shredding on all those guys who didn’t get their marathon trials qualifier. She just rolled on so many people and straight into the arms of her family. It’s just very cool.
Anthony D’Amato:
I knew she had finished because I looked on my watch and it was around 2:20–2:21. I couldn’t follow her on the app so I didn’t get an update on her time. I went mad to the finish line, like pedaling through sand. I set my bike down in front of the Hilton, and I heard on the loudspeaker that she broke the record. I got choked up, and I had to take a moment. In that split second I thought, “I should find a dock for this bike, but then I was like, F that.” This is once in a lifetime. Dreams and reality have just collided.
I just ran to the fence, and I popped right over it. I don’t know how other than adrenaline. Then I hopped another fence and was there at the finish line. I ran up and hugged her. She said, “I’m never doing that again.”
POSTRACE CELEBRATION
Keira D’Amato:
Right after the race, a woman identified herself as my chaperone [for drug testing]. She stayed with me the entire time. So we went to the press conference together and then we went straight to drug testing.
Sara Hall:
What You Need to Know About the Barkley Marathons.
Liane MacDowell:
She shared with me that it was a very hard race for her to run. I think because of the wind and cold, this one was just very hard. Keira shared that she had many things that motivated her, but she said, “Mom, you always taught me that I’m not the average girl.” Many years ago, I played music by India Arie. She has this song called “Video” with this lyric, “Not the average girl.” I just love that song, and I played it all the time for my girls. For some reason, that song and those words came back to Keira at the end. When she needed to motivate herself, she remembered, “My mom always says I’m not the average girl, and I’m not the average girl today. I’m going to make this happen.” When she told me that, I started crying.
Maggie Montoya:
I was taken out from the finish line pretty quickly. And I think I’d heard about both the American records being broken as I was being taken out, on my way up to drug testing. It was mind-blowing, because I know that Deena Kastor’s record has been being tracked down for so long.
Ray Flynn:
We were waiting for her in the holding area for the press conference, and Deena called. Classy person that she is, she said, “Hey, if Keira’s around, I’d really like to talk to her.” “She’s right here.” It teared up Keira for sure.
Deena Kastor:
Joan [Benoit Samuelson] called me when I broke her record. That’s what I was focused on. Like, let’s make sure that you’re one of the first ones to congratulate her. So just making sure that that torch was passed in that way. That was special 18 years ago for me, and wanting to make sure I somehow made it special for Keira as well.
Keira D’Amato:
It blew my mind. She said, “When I broke Joan Benoit Samuelson’s record [in 2003], she called me and officially passed the torch. It’s a bit of a tradition, so I’m passing the torch onto you.” She also said she was really happy or proud of just who I am and how much joy I bring to the sport, and being a mother, and my family is on this journey. And what I represent. And that meant the world to me.
Deena Kastor:
Records matter when you’re chasing them and when you’re obtaining them, but to hold them doesn’t hold any weight, because you’re on to the next thing. And I loved to hear Keira’s spirit after the race, just saying like, “Okay, that was good, it hurt. I’d like to feel good and run a little faster next time.” Like, it’s just that mentality of like, checking that off your list and, and going for it again, trying to lower that record. I love that. I love that spirit in her.
For years, my title when I introduced myself, or my signature at the end of my email is Deena Kastor, Olympic medalist and American record holder in the marathon. That has been my title for so long. So it feels like a little bit of my identity has changed, but I equate it to when I went from Deena Drossin to Deena Kastor.
And on some of my handles for social media. I mean, my Instagram just says like, “runner, wife, in love with this life” or something like that. But I think it was on Twitter and Facebook, I had to change it.
Calum Neff:
We were at the press conference and waiting for it to start, and there were these waves of emotion that would hit where you kind of realized what had happened, even though it didn’t really feel real.
Maggie Montoya:
I didn’t see her until I was being let out of drug testing. And then I saw her and congratulated her. And of course, she was so nice. She’s like, “Oh, your debut is like 10 minutes faster than my debut.” And of course, like she’s going to say something like that. It was so nice, like, she just got the American record, and she is still being really humble.
Jim Estes:
I brought finish line banners for her to sign, and I was able to get a minute with her. I told her, “I’ve been around the sport for a long time, seen and been a part of a lot of cool things, and this is top of the list.”
Keira D’Amato:
I did drug testing and then I went back to the press conference area and got some lunch. Then I went up to my room totally by myself and that was the first moment I had. I sat in the shower, thinking, “It happened. Oh my gosh, it happened.”
I knew I could, in all of my planning and working, I never thought about after I crossed the finish line. It was always just getting to the finish line in that time. I never let myself dream past that. Just get to the finish line and we’ll figure out what that means and where we’ll go from here. Just sitting there in silence with myself, was, “Wow. It happened.”
—Additional reporting by Cindy Kuzma and Derek Call
she looked super fit is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World Other Hearst Subscriptions, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
