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Amy Palmiero-Winters Wins the Run to the Future 24-Hour Race in Arizona
Below-the-Knee Amputee Qualifies for Team USA's Women's Squad, 2010 World 24-Hour Run Championship
From Running USA (by Dan Brannen) and PRWebJanuary 4, 2010 updated 1/6/10
In a stunning development to open the new year and new decade, Amy Palmiero-Winters won the Arizona Road Racers Run to the Future 24-Hour race in Glendale, AZ held on Thursday, December 31--Friday, January 1. Running 217 laps of a certified six-tenths of a mile course over twenty-four hours, Amy completed 130.4 miles; she finished ahead of the men's division winner, Paul Grimm. Her victory likely qualified her for the U.S. national team roster for the 2010 World 24-Hour Run Championship in Brive, France this May.
Amy Palmiero-Winters (37) of Hicksville, NY, is an employee of a Step Ahead Prosthetics, and is the Director of Team A Step Ahead. She runs with a custom-made prosthesis, and entered the Run to the Future 24-Hour race with the intention of making the U.S. national team to the World 24-Hour. Her previous longest race was the Heartland 100 Mile in Cassoday, KS last October, in which she finished 8th overall and won the women's race. For that achievement, she was named USA Track & Field's "Athlete of the Week" on October 21, 2009. Her other noteworthy achievements in 2009 included running five 50-mile trail runs as part of the North Face Challenge, two 100-mile ultramarathons which qualify her for the Western States Trail run in 2010, and fulfilling her requirements for the Adventure CORPS Badwater Ultramarathon.
Amy Palmiero-Winters' left leg was crushed in a 1994 motorcycle accident. After 25 surgeries and a below-the-knee amputation in 1997, the former high school track and swimming star began a decade-long rehabilitation which led to triathlons, marathons and eventually ultramarathons.
Prior to losing her leg, Amy Palmiero-Winters ran track in high school and completed the Boston Marathon in three hours and 16 minutes. Amy's athletic achievements have proven her ability to overcome adversity. She serves as a role model for many people disabilities and anyone else, able-bodied or not, who strive to overcome limitations. She has proven that despite physical challenges, family, and work commitments, if you believe that you can do something, you can.
The mother of two set her sights on making the national women's ultra team (the 2009 team earned the silver medal at the World 24-Hour Run Championship), a goal requiring her to achieve a distance greater than 129.6 miles by the end of the qualifying period (January 1, 2010).
The Run to the Future event commenced on December 31, 2009 at 9:00 am, and finished on January 1, 2010 at 9:00 am at the Victory Lane Sports Complex in Glendale, AZ. The qualifying standard was the most demanding ever for the women's national 24-hour run squad, as the quality of American women's performances for the all-day/all-night running event was higher in 2009 than in any previous year.
The USA typically produces one or two women per year able to achieve more than 130 miles in 24 hours, which is commonly accepted in international ultra circles as defining "world class." Amy Palmiero-Winters, the overall winner of the Run to the Future 24-Hour by more than 13 miles, raced 130.04 miles and became the fifth American woman with a world-class performance in the past year. She is the final qualifier to make the 6-woman squad.
Team A Step Ahead
Amy Palmiero-WInters is a proud member of Team A Step Ahead, a team of amputee athletes from around the world who compete in events including the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon, multiple marathons, road races around the world, and the Paralympic Games. Team A Step Ahead's members have been very competitive against able-bodied athletes, placing and winning age group awards. These elite athletes hold or have held world records in the 100m, 200m, 400m, track and field events, marathons and triathlons. Athletes receive training from coaches, prosthetists and physical therapists that are experts in working with amputee athletes, including world-record-holding Paralympians. For additional information on Team A Step Ahead, see www.astepaheadonline.com.