Arizona woman who lost leg to cancer nears world record running 102 marathons in 102 days

Jacky Hunt-Broersma runs like a haunted woman. And in a way, she is: An amputee runner trying to run at least 102 marathons in 102 days.

Last month, just over two-thirds away from her goal of setting a new world record for back-to-back marathons, the South African-born girl posted something on Twitter that got everyone talking.

“The first thing I did after running today was take my legs off. Feeling so good,” she tweeted. “The 69th Marathon is done. There are 31 marathons left. ”

That was last month, and she’s still running – covering the classic 26.2-mile marathon day in and day out, rain or shine, occasionally on the treadmill but mostly on the roads and trail near her home in Gilbert, Arizona. If her traces are still intact, go in Boston Marathon on April 18, it will be marathon number 92.

Unlike the other 30,000 people running the track, Hunt-Broersma, 46, will run a marathon the day before. Somehow, she will have to muster her body and soul to run one day later. And another one after that. And then eight more.

It’s all on a carbon fiber blade that’s been her left leg since she lost the real one below her knee to a rare cancer.

“You make peace with the pain,” she said in an interview with the Associated Press. “I think my pain threshold right now is probably quite high. That is step by step. ”

Boston is the only certified marathon in which she participates in her quest. Others she’s running on either laps near the house or indoors on the treadmill – a monotonous machine many runners derisively call the “treadmill”.

In 2001, while she and her Dutch husband were living in the Netherlands, Hunt-Broersma was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rarer childhood cancer. Overnight, a blister the size of a golf ball appeared on an old scar that had become soft. A biopsy confirmed the worst, and within weeks her leg was amputated below the knee.

“The biggest struggle was accepting that part of my body was gone,” she said. (She made peace with that: A favorite t-shirt that reads “A Zombie Chewed It Off.”)

Until five years ago, she wasn’t athletic at all, but getting started was expensive. Carbon fiber blades designed to run cost about $10,000 and are not covered by health insurance. Survivors of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombingkilling three spectators and injuring 260 others, encountered the same problem when they searched to reclaim their lives.

“Running really changed my life,” she says. “It helped me accept myself as an amputee. It gives me a sense of freedom. I love the process of pushing my body further just to see what I can do.”

Marathon races then lead to sprinting over long distances, including a 100-mile race. So when Hunt-Broersma learned that Alyssa Amos Clark, a non-disabled runner from Bennington, Vermont, had completed a 95-day marathon in a row in 2000, an idea was born: She would do 100. That plan was thwarted this week when British runner-up Kate Jayden completed 101 marathons in as many days, so Hunt-Broersma has a new goal: “Now I’ll hit the least. at most 102″.

“I hope it inspires a lot of people to get out of their comfort zone and go a little further,” she said.

She was worried her stump would become rough and painful, and the first two weeks were difficult. Since then, however, she has had a steady rhythm, diligently applying ice and massaging stumps. When it became swollen, she switched to a running prosthetic with a little more room.

But there are also mental challenges on the road to 102, which begins on January 17. During a recent outing, Hunt-Broersma – who averages more than five hours per marathon – felt close to falling apart at 15 miles and bursts of tears. Suddenly the whole adventure is in doubt.

“I had a complete emotional breakdown. I said, ‘I just can’t do this. What am I thinking? ”, She speaks. “The trick for me is just breaking it down into small goals. Just to the next mile. And then the next one. ”

Her support group is her husband and their two young children, but she also has a huge following on social media.

This week, after logging into the 85th marathon, the savvy players gave a magical round of applause. “You seem to only eat marathons for breakfast,” one person tweeted. “In such bleak times, thank you for serving as an inspiration,” another commented.

As she nears the end of her epic quest, Hunt-Broersma hopes she will inspire a singular thought in others, regardless of their physical challenges:

“You’re stronger than you think – and you can do so much more.”

at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here