Photograph courtesy of A Step Ahead Prosthetics.
A 24-hour ultra-marathon is one of the most grueling events imaginable-as the sun rises, falls, and rises again, the runners’ legs ceaselessly churn while their muscles scream, toenails fall off, and shoes disintegrate. The fatigue could break anyone. Women, with their higher tolerance for pain and greater fat reserves, oftentimes do extraordinarily well in them and have set a variety of ultramarathon course and international records.
However, when Amy Palmiero-Winters won the Run to the Future 24-Hour race in Glendale, Arizona, on Dec 31-Jan 1, her victory was made even sweeter by the fact that she ran with only one biological foot. Palmiero-Winters, a 37-year-old mother of two, ran farther than any man or woman in the race-130.4 miles-even though she has had a transtibial amputation since 1997. The distance she racked up was 14 miles longer than the male winner’s and 36 miles longer than the second-place female finisher’s.
