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SALT LAKE CITY — Alyssa Puttkammer arrived at the marathon venue, opened her car's back door and discovered that her 19-month-old daughter had thrown up all over herself.
She appeared not to be feeling well, but Puttkammer strapped her into her stroller. This wouldn't be the first time Puttkammer ran with her daughter, but it would be the mother-daughter duo's first marathon together.
As she ran the first several miles, her daughter cried — until she finally fell asleep, only to wake up halfway through the race feeling better and happier.
The Park City woman not only finished the Pacific Northwest marathon in Oregon on Sept. 16, but she broke the world record for running a women's marathon while pushing a stroller.
The previous record for the running-with-a-stroller combination was 3:10:26, and Puttkammer crossed the finish line at 3:02:54.
"I needed something to achieve, or at least attempt. Being a single parent, I couldn't leave her, so she had to come with me for a lot of my runs. ... There's that John Wooden quote, 'Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.' And I just took that to heart and I was like, right now I don't have the support or the time to train at the level that I would want to train for doing a marathon, but I can do it with her — so that's what I'm gonna do," Puttkammer said.
Puttkammer, 33, has been a runner for many years, but fell out of it when she became pregnant and ended up going through a divorce shortly after her daughter's birth. Puttkammer took up running again as a release from stress. "Running has always been my happy place," she said.
She found the previous world record while researching races with flat terrain and low wind, eventually choosing the Pacific Northwest marathon with the goal in mind to beat the record. She said as far as she could see, just one other person pushed a stroller during this year's race.
Puttkammer is used to the need for flexibility during her runs, rescheduling training based on day care, nap time and work. "I just had to do what I could, which often wasn't what I had planned," she said.
While she is grateful for the win, Puttkammer said she looks forward to someone else breaking her record. She hopes she has set an example for parents to see that they can get out with their kids and accomplish their goals.
"The big thing that I would like to say is, it was hard, but it was totally worth it. ... There are a lot of barriers to being a parent, and a single parent, to do the things you want to do. I think for me, this was an important lesson to show me that I can still do a lot of the things that I want to do," Puttkammer said.
