‘GO MOMMY GO’

Mom of 2 Sets New U.S. Women’s Record at Houston Marathon

“Part of me just can’t believe this is happening. The other part is like, ‘This is happening because you worked your tail off, Keira.’ Dreams come true, you know?”

A 37-year-old real estate agent and mom of two broke an American women’s record in the Houston Marathon on Sunday. Keira D’Amato won the marathon with a time of 2:19:12, shaving 24 seconds off the previous record set in 2006. “Part of me just can’t believe this is happening,” she said after the race. “The other part is like, ‘This is happening because you worked your tail off, Keira.’ Dreams come true, you know?” A college runner who briefly competed after graduation, D’Amato took a seven-year break from the sport over a chronic injury. By 2016, however, she’d taken up running as a form of “me time” once again. By 2018, she qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Her 7-year-old son, Tommy, cheered her on during the race, holding a sign that read, “Your 1# in my heart.” His brother, Quin, waved one that read, “GO MOMMY GO, GO MOMMY GO, GO MOMMY GO.” To ABC13, D’Amato said, “It's so special, to think that this dream was ‘gone’ a decade ago, and somehow I just believed.”