Run It Fast®

Amy Dodson on the cover of Runner's World, July, 2011

Amy talking with @smithbend at Bell Buckle, June, 2001

It has been my good luck to stand in a place where I met some pretty amazing people. Two of them—Amy Dodson and Susan Ford—will be running The Ironman World Championship at Kona, Hawaii this coming Saturday. Both are my good friends, although they never met each other. And both began their endurance journey in Cookeville, Tennessee. Because of that commonality they planned to share a hotel room at Kona.
This story is about Amy. It’s an old story, first published in Running Journal. Although already written, it was on my mind in April, 2000 as I was running the Boston Marathon for the first time, because that’s when the story appeared.
The story is about how Amy started running. In one sense, it’s a disservice to her, because she has since accomplished so much. Just part of it makes a long list: Boston Marathon first woman leg amputee, marathon world record, 100-mile ultramarathon, two-time ITU World Paratriathlon Champion… It goes on. But this story is about how she began.
Read the full story by Dallas Smith by clicking HERE

Inspirational runner Amy Dodson is on the cover of the July 2011 issue of Runner’s World magazine.  The July issue features four different covers, each honoring a different cancer survivor, that not only survived but is thriving as an endurance athlete.

Amy lost her left leg to cancer at 19-years old. Two years later she lost her left lung to lung cancer. However, that was not the end but just the beginning of how her story would unfold.

From the Runner’s World Editor:

Amy Dodson, 48, lost her left leg below the knee to sarcoma when she was just 19. Two years later, her cancerous left lung was removed. I’ve never met Amy, but I have run with her. We both were among the 75 marathoners in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to run with Dean Karnazes as part of his 50-50-50 quest in 2006. I had met amputee athletes before, but this was the first time I’d gotten outrun by someone with a carbon-fiber leg. And I loved it.

Amy has run Boston twice (she was the first female leg amputee to run that race) and has a marathon PR of 3:35. She’s a four-time national half-marathon champion, with a PR of 1:51:04. She’s also done more than 30 triathlons, including two Ironmans, and is a two-time USA Paratriathlon champion and a two-time ITU World Paratriathlon champ.

As you read this, she’s preparing for her first Western States 100, one of the toughest races on Earth. “One of the great ironies of my life is that because of my childhood cancer, I couldn’t run with two legs,” she says. “But freed from the pain, with one leg and one lung, I can run forever. Cancer may have ravaged my body, but running saved my soul.”

Run It Fast contributor Dallas Smith, author of multiple running books, is a very close friend of Amy. He dedicated his first book, Falling Forward, to Amy.

Dallas had the following to say about Amy’s strength, “Amy went through white-hot fire and come out the other side tempered like steel. If you watch her compete you learn the potential of the human spirit. She continues to be a wonderful friend.”

Congrats to Amy on all of her amazing accomplishments and for making the cover of Runner’s World.  She is an inspiration of what the body can do when the mind takes control over it.