SPEARFISH, S.D. (AP) - April 16 marked a milestone for a Spearfish woman - running and completing the Boston Marathon.
Kara Weigel’s Boston race was her sixth marathon.
The Black Hills Pioneer reports that she was supposed to run the Boston Marathon in 2006, but her Army unit was getting deployed to Iraq, and her mandatory pre-deployment training fell during the time the marathon was held. Then, she said, life happened, and her focus turned elsewhere. But then Weigel entered this year’s race.
“It was amazing,” Weigel said. “I see why Boston is the pinnacle of marathons in the world.”
The race is notoriously hard - weather and rolling hills challenge runners, most notably “Heartbreak Hill” a steep half-mile long hill at mile 20 of the 26.2-mile race.
Weigel had another reason the race was especially tough.
“It was made even a little more challenging because I’m pregnant,” she said. “I just had to slow down and change my goals and just run to finish. It made it a little more enjoyable in a way.”
Training for the race was also tough this year.
“It has been a rough training winter for sure,” she said.
But thanks to the treadmill her husband Matthew Weigel bought her for Christmas, she has been able to log the miles inside, early, before she heads to work.
“Dark and ice don’t mix very well,” she said of early-morning outdoor runs.
Weigel is an avid runner and has run while pregnant with her two older children, but she never trained for a marathon while pregnant before.
“If it was any other race, I would probably have chosen not to do it. But I had already registered, and we had paid for our trip,” she said.
She said she visited with her doctor to make sure she and her baby, who is 25 weeks along, were healthy.
Dressed in tights, a long-sleeved T-shirt, shorts and a singlet with an image of a baby peeking out of a slit on her belly, she said she crossed the starting line about an hour after the elite runners started. Nearly 27,000 people raced this year.
Conditions were miserable, she said.
“There was moderate rain the whole time, heavy rain at times. There was a head wind the whole time or a side wind,” she said. “Temperatures were in the 40s. It definitely made for challenging conditions. It made it harder to not cramp up.”
But she said the supportive crowd lining the course cheered the racers on.
Many racers stopped at medical tents along the route, including Weigel. She stopped at mile 23, took anti-cramping pills, donned a warming blanket and poncho and headed back out into the elements.
Many others did not. According to race statistics, 1,202 people who started did not finish the race.
After 4 hours, 20 minutes, and 45 seconds, she crossed the finish line, arms raised in triumph.
“My main goal, being pregnant, was just to finish,” she said. “I thought I would finish closer to four hours, but with the weather, and how long I needed to make stops because I was pregnant, that probably added another 20 minutes.”
She qualified for the Boston Marathon at Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, in June 2017 with a time of about 3 hours, 24 minutes.
“It was a great experience that I’ll be able to share with my little guy when he is born,” she said. “I definitely want to come back.”
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Information from: Black Hills Pioneer, http://www.bhpioneer.com
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