Meredith Fitzmaurice never dreamed she’d win Sunday’s Run for Heroes
Marathon in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada. Especially since the Belle
River runner planned to run the half marathon and not the full 26.2-mile
race. But a wrong turn sent her onto the marathon course. “I just run
with my watch, so I was watching my time since I planned to do my half
in under 1:28,” she said. “I was doing the race as training for my first
full marathon in Detroit. But I’m looking at the time and wondering
where the finish line is.” Fitzmaurice, 34, asked one of the bike
officials on the course where the turn was for the half marathon,
although she admits by that point she pretty much figured out what she
had done.
“Once I realized what I had done, I figured well I’ll just run 20 miles
and use it as a long run and call it a day,” she said. But as she headed
back from the turn-around in River Canard she started to count people
ahead of her. She realized there were only nine men ahead, and no women.
She asked the official on the bike if she finished the marathon, even
though she was signed up for the half, if it would count as a finish
and, more importantly, would she be able to use her time as a Boston
Marathon qualifier. “The official said he was going to ask the race
director and he’d be back,” she said. “So as I’m running I’m wondering
if my race is going to count, I’m thinking about my friend who is at the
finish line probably wondering where I am since I have the keys to the
car. And my neighbor, who was going to be waiting for me at the finish
line. I knew they were going to be worried about me. “
The bike official finally came back and said the race director, Chris
Uszynski, would honor her race as a completion in the full distance.
“While I was waiting for a response I wasn’t sure what to do,” she
said. “I felt really good but I was scared because I hadn’t planned to
run 26.2 miles that day and was worried if it didn’t count that I would
burn myself out for Detroit.” So Fitzmaurice decided to continue on. She
asked the official on the bike if he’d keep her company. As Fitzmaurice
got near the finish line at the arena on Meloche Road the feeling was
“surreal.” People were high-fiving her and telling her she was the first
woman and to keep going. “I had only ever run 20 miles, but I think at
that point the adrenalin just pulled me through,” she said. “I just kept
thinking you can do this, just get it done. The last couple miles were
really tough.”
When Fitzmaurice crossed the finish line in a time of 3:11:48 she was
the first woman, 10th overall and had qualified for Boston.
“I thought I was only running a half marathon so I really gave it out
there,” she said.
“If I knew I was going to be running the full marathon I probably wouldn’t have ran so fast. So
maybe it was a good thing.” And, as for making the wrong turn,
Fitzmaurice said when she got to the corner it was pretty quiet and
there weren’t a lot of runners around her. She blames the mistake on the
fact she had her headphones on and was definitely in a zone. “I just
missed it,” she said. “I didn’t do it on purpose. When I crossed the
finish line I saw my friend and I started to cry and then I hugged the
guy on the bike. Without him I wouldn’t have been able to do it. This
was my first one and even though my family was disappointed they weren’t
there to see it, maybe this was meant to be. I was alone and maybe this
was how I was meant to do it.”
There's an
audio interview with Ms Fitzmaurice here.
