Keira D’Amato makes running fast look easy.
At the Texas Qualifier in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 27, D’Amato immediately pulled out in front of the elite group of 15 runners in the women’s 10K Olympic Qualifier race, seemingly unfazed by the humid and windy conditions that had led more than half of the men’s 10K field to drop out of their race just before the women’s event. D’Amato ran alongside 24-year-old Konstanze Klosterhalfen of Germany for more than half the race until Klosterhalfen pulled away, eventually setting a new German national record of 31:01.71.
Even though D’Amato placed second at 32:16.82, she qualified for the U.S. Olympic team trials in June in Eugene, Oregon. She still needs to reach the qualifying standard time of 31:25 for the women’s 10K to make an Olympic squad, but she’s one step closer to a goal that began two decades ago.
“I was hoping for a better finish, but I’ll get ’em next time,” D’Amato says.
The 36-year-old wife, mother of two and full-time Realtor from Chesterfield — who ran as an amateur until January 2021, when she signed with Nike as one of their sponsored athletes — is known in the running community as much for what she’s done as for what she didn’t do: run competitively for 10 years.
As a track standout at Oakton High School in Fairfax County, and then at American University, D’Amato knew she wanted to compete in the Olympics.
While most races were canceled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, D’Amato kept training. In November 2020, she ran a 5K time trial in 15:04 on a private track in Richmond. A video of her run has been viewed thousands of times, as it shows D’Amato — then an amateur — beating the Olympic qualifying standard time, even if not in a sanctioned race.
On Nov. 24, 2020, D’Amato ran the Up Dawg Ten Miler in Washington, D.C., a race she created with her husband so she could shoot for a new American record in a women’s-only 10-mile race. She did just that, running 51:23 and easily eclipsing the existing record of 52:12 from the 2014 Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run. When that earlier record was set, D’Amato, as a race volunteer, held the tape for the winning runner, Janet Bawcom. D’Amato wasn’t running competitively in 2014, and at that race, she was pregnant with her first child.
D’Amato finished 2020 by placing second at the Marathon Project in Chandler, Arizona, with a time of 2:22.55, a personal best and the seventh-fastest time recorded by a U.S. woman. That time is actually below those posted by the three women who will run the marathon for the U.S. in Tokyo this summer; after the 2020 Olympics were postponed to 2021, USA Track and Field determined the marathon qualifiers would keep their team spots, while runners could still compete to fill other event rosters.
“I discovered the spirit and art of running. ... It became an immediate passion.” —Keira D’Amato
D’Amato’s first opportunity to represent the U.S. on a world stage was to have been last October, at the World Half Marathon Championships in Poland. She placed on the squad with a time of 1:10.01 in the Houston Half Marathon in January 2020, but USA Track and Field decided against travel, a decision she respects.
“It was the biggest heartbreak of mine, race-wise [last year],” D’Amato says. “I think it was the right decision. I gave myself 48 hours because I was sad and frustrated, then I moved on. It’s just life.”
Her response to that disappointment shows D’Amato’s typical response to a setback: “Put on your big-girl pants and move on.”
Keira D’Amato qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in the women’s 10K in February at a meet in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Kevin Morris)
Changing Tracks
D’Amato began running as a teenager to pick up speed for the sport she loved: soccer. “I was on a traveling team and wanted to play soccer in high school,” she says. But once she started running, a new world opened. “I discovered the spirit and art of running,” she says. “I was competitive with myself. It became an immediate passion.”
D’Amato was a four-time Virginia All-State High School Champion and then a four-time All-American in college. After her 2006 graduation, she continued to train and run competitively in 1,500-meter and 5K races, with her eye on the Olympics. But something wasn’t right: Stress fractures kept appearing in her left foot.
Eventually, D’Amato was diagnosed with a tarsal coalition in her left ankle, an irregular connection of bones that should have been separate. Because those connected bones couldn’t release pressure as they should, stress fractures formed elsewhere in her foot. Surgery was recommended, but D’Amato’s insurance at the time deemed the issue a preexisting condition and declined coverage. “I didn’t have the money to pay for it, so it forced me to start the next phase of my life,” she says.
With a degree in math and a minor in computer science from American, she found employment in McLean at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, known as Freddie Mac. And she faced a new reality.
“My whole life, I had gained confidence and community from running,” she says. “All of a sudden, I was pulled out of that. My best friends were training, and I was starting a new life as ‘Keira, the runner who doesn’t run anymore.’
“I was mourning the goals I hadn’t hit — I hadn’t made the Olympic team,” she adds. “I had to figure out the new Keira. The biggest thing I took from that [time] was that I was OK. I did it, and I was OK.”
At the end of 2009, with new and improved insurance coverage, D’Amato had surgery to correct the tarsal coalition. She began to run again, with fresh purpose. “I would run for fun,” she says. “I’d go with friends to do a 5K or a Tough Mudder [event], or a half marathon. I put the ego aside and put Keira of the past away and just enjoyed Keira of the present. I love to race and being surrounded by runners. I called myself a hobby jogger.”
One constant in her life was an old friend: Anthony D’Amato. He remembers the first time he saw Keira, at a track meet when they were both high school sophomores. “She was a Greek mythical being, just radiating light and beauty and speed,” he says.
“As chaotic as being a new mom is, running was something I controlled.” —Keira D’Amato
Though separated by distance — Anthony attended Midlothian High School — the two saw each other at events and racing camps. When Anthony went to the U.S. Air Force Academy for college and Keira was at AU, they stayed in touch. After college, when Anthony returned from deployment in Afghanistan, Keira was with his family to welcome him home.
“We were best friends for a really long time,” Anthony says.
The pair finally married on Jan. 1, 2012, in Las Vegas, taking as their inspiration Keira’s best friend’s wedding, which happened the day before, also in Vegas. They later had a “big white wedding” in Virginia on July 4, 2012, for family and friends.
In November 2020, D’Amato and her husband staged the Up Dawg Ten Miler in Washington, D.C., a race they created so she could try for a new American record in a women’s-only 10-mile race. She did just that, setting a new record of 51:23. (Photo courtesy Linda D’Amato)
Running to Heal
In 2016, when D’Amato was pregnant with the couple’s second child, their daughter, Quin — their son, Tommy, had been born in 2014 — she and Anthony decided to return to Virginia from Tampa, Florida, to be closer to family. Anthony transitioned from his full-time military career to the Air National Guard in September 2016, and then he spent much of the next two years in training and deployed.
That time was hard. So D’Amato turned to two reliable means of support: family and running.
Her father, who lives in Washington state, would come stay with her for weeks at a time. On weekends, her mother-in-law, Linda D’Amato, would watch the children so D’Amato could supplement evening runs on her treadmill with real road distance.
“I really struggled during that time,” D’Amato says. “I was lonely … so I filled all of that with running. We joke now that [Anthony’s] deployment wasn’t all bad — it made me really fast.”
Looking back, D’Amato sees how running supported her, both physically and mentally.
“As chaotic as being a new mom is, running was something I controlled,” she says. “This was about finding something that was my own. Then I saw improvement. I clung to that improvement as something that was going right.
“I was able to change my perspective from my first round when it was about winning to having something that was my own,” she adds. “I felt so much appreciation for the luxury of time for myself to run. I don’t think [many] people have experienced running in that way — as something that’s healing you.”
She returned to competitive racing in March 2017 for the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, hoping to break 3 hours. She ran 3:14.54. “There was sleet and hail and crazy wind,” she recalls. “After that, and how easy it felt, I thought I could break 3 [hours].”
Next came the 2017 Richmond Marathon and D’Amato’s time of 2:47.00, a pace of 6:22 per mile. Running the Boston Marathon in April 2018, she posted a time of 2:56.44, suffering hypothermia in terrible weather conditions.
But she knew she was back.
“That’s when everything switched,” she says. “I became intentional about training, and I begged [former coach] Scott Raczko to take me on full time.”
Raczko, who coaches the track team at South Lakes High School in Reston, knows D’Amato from her high school days, when she was Keira Carlstrom. He followed her career at American, where he had run as well, and then he worked with her after college, when she was part of an elite team in the D.C. area. Raczko is known in the running world as the coach who guided U.S. Olympian Alan Webb, who holds the American men’s record in the mile (3:46.91).
Anthony and Keira D’Amato with their children, Quin and Tommy (Photo by Carlos Bernate)
Training to Win
Along with their two children, now 6 and 4, both D’Amatos have full-time jobs: She’s a Realtor, and he works for Microsoft in addition to his National Guard duties. Their daily routine starts around 6 a.m. and includes early exercise for both of them, getting the kids to private day care — suspended for three months during the pandemic — work and then family time in the evening, before bedtime at 10 p.m. “I train [almost exclusively] by myself; I don’t really have a social life,” D’Amato says.
She runs daily, usually in the morning, logging more than 100 miles every week, from recovery runs of 10 to 14 miles to weekend runs of 14 to 22 miles. From her house, she has mapped routes of varying lengths, so she’s always prepared. When she’s gearing up for a race, additional workouts set by Raczko often start with a 2- to 3-mile run, followed by 6 to 7 additional miles with targeted split times. She also has exercises and drills designed to strengthen and support her running.
Raczko says D’Amato is unique among elite runners.
“She’s always been a talented athlete,” he says. “What’s changed the most is her level of maturity. When you’re a collegiate runner or an aspiring post-college professional, that’s your world; you’re obsessed with being successful. [But D’Amato’s] financial success isn’t determined by what she does on the track, so she’s much more relaxed. Her attitude is, ‘I love to do it, but I don’t necessarily need it.’ ”
D’Amato agrees that the mental aspect is significant.
“I have worked on that part arguably as much as the running,” she says. “Naturally, I’m a competitive person. I was born with this warped sense of self-confidence that anything is possible. Now that all these goals are back on the table, I don’t want to fail again, but I know if I do fail, I’ll be OK. Other elite athletes don’t know what’s on the other side.”
D’Amato also works with a nutritionist, a massage therapist and a chiropractor to help keep her body in tune. There are often two dinners in the house: one for the kids, and one for the adults, heavy on carbs and protein. “‘I see food as fuel and energy,” she says. “I’m really careful to make sure I’m getting enough of what I need to support this lifestyle.”
At age 36, she’s on the upper edge of competitive women runners, but she’s not worried.
“Especially in endurance sports, women in their mid- to late 30s are doing well,” she notes. “I’m not slowing down, and I’m not planning on slowing down. I’ve found the more you run, the more efficient you naturally get. Your body tries to figure out how to be faster.”
Raczko wasn’t surprised by D’Amato’s success in 2020, noting that her workouts are designed to support both speed and strength, making her competitive in a range of distances. Typically, athletes who train with a focus on speed do better at shorter distances, while longer races require a different type of muscle strength and stamina.
“There were signals [leading into 2020] that she was on the cusp of a significant breakthrough,” he says, pointing to D’Amato’s then-personal-best marathon time of 2:34.54, logged in Berlin in October 2019.
He says her dedication over the last three years shows. “Her training just continued to get better and better,” he notes. “Sometimes there is a delayed training effect. What you’re doing may not show up for six months, but eventually it will. Running is pretty simple; you usually know what’s going to happen … if the conditions are right. There are no guarantees.”
The Team
D’Amato is quick to credit a strong support system. “It’s Team D’Amato all the way,” she says. “I couldn’t do this without Anthony, our kids and our extended family. It really seriously takes a village.”
D’Amato’s mother, Liane MacDowell, owns Stone Properties, the Northern Virginia real estate firm Keira joined in 2018, hoping to earn enough to cover the costs of running: shoes, entry fees, medical support and travel. MacDowell says her daughter’s energy on the track is evident in her professional life as well. “She is such a go-getter,” MacDowell says. “She brings the same passion, drive and will to win.
“She’s always been upbeat,” MacDowell adds. “She’s so your average mom, just getting out there and running. But she’s hungrier than she’s ever been.”
MacDowell and her husband, Art, will often come to Richmond to stay with the kids when Keira and Anthony travel to races. Anthony’s parents, Linda and Tom D’Amato, help plug the everyday gaps, picking up children or dropping off a meal. “I do whatever she asks me to do,” Linda says, noting she’ll often stay with the children while her husband drives D’Amato to Charlottesville for a run with her pacing partner. “We support her in any way we can,” she adds. “It’s been so much fun to see her do so well. She’s very competitive, very humble and a very giving person.”
D’Amato is a member of the Richmond Road Runners club, and she tries to participate in as many events as she can. “They have made me feel so much a part of the running community,” she says. “People call encouragement out to me as I run!” Anthony will sometimes ride his bike alongside her, and she relies on two running partners, Sara Baugh and Silas Frantz, for companionship and challenge.
Baugh, who met D’Amato at a Sports Backers Marathon Training Team run in 2017, notes the 7-minute to 7:20 per mile pace set by D’Amato requires her to keep up with her own training. “It’s not as comfortable for me as it is for Keira, but it’s certainly manageable,” Baugh says. “We talk about anything and everything; it’s the best two hours of the week. Sometimes, we get to the end of an 18-mile run and realize we haven’t finished our conversation.”
For faster training runs, D’Amato goes to Charlottesville to meet with Frantz, a Douglas S. Freeman High School graduate who ran at Georgetown University and won the 2016 Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10K. Frantz will set his watch to D’Amato’s target speed and run in front of her.
“At Keira’s level, there are maybe 10 women in the world who could pace her workouts,” Frantz says. “She’s kind of a machine — she gets the job done every single day. She’s [also] really nice. It’s probably hard to stay nice when you’re super successful. Not all elite runners are like that.”
In December 2020, D’Amato placed second at the Marathon Project in Chandler, Arizona, with a time of 2:22.55, a personal best and the seventh-fastest time ever recorded by a U.S. woman. (Photo by Justin Britton)
‘Do it your way’
January 2021 brought another milestone: D’Amato signed a contract with Nike, making her a professional athlete for the first time in her life. The company covers her equipment, racing fees, travel and training costs — and she even gets a paycheck, though it’s not enough for her to stop selling real estate.
It’s a big change.
“I’ve been paying for everything out of pocket, working my butt off in real estate so [running expenses] didn’t take anything away from the family,” D’Amato says, estimating that her running costs from $10,000 to $15,000 a year. “I would keep doing this for free, but I think it’s really cool that Nike is going on this journey with me.”
Nike expects her to be visible and “to run fast in their gear,” she says. D’Amato was already active on social media, posting regularly to Instagram (@keiradamato), and updating her Strava account — an app used by runners and cyclists — with routes and times. She’s a firm believer in the power of running.
“I feel like anyone can be a runner, no matter their height, weight, body shape,” D’Amato says. “I can understand why people say they hate it, because it takes some time to get into a routine and get comfortable with it. Even when I didn’t run for a decade, I still called myself a runner.”
And she’s proud of what she’s accomplished thus far.
“I felt like I was sticking it to the man a little, working without a professional sponsor,” she says. “I’ve showed you can do it your way; there’s not just one path up the mountain. I think everyone has something in their life where maybe they didn’t go all in — a woulda, coulda, shoulda thing. I think people are excited to see that I’ve cleared every single hurdle so I can pursue this passion. I hope it inspires them to do whatever that thing is for themselves.”
