MOTIVATION MAKETH THE MARATHONER
Anna Maltby was never an athlete. A recovering drug addict, the 30-year-old once compared the notion
of running a marathon to “visiting Mars or petting a dinosaur.” Her former addiction, once destructive, now
drives her.
“I honestly don’t think I would still be clean if I hadn’t found something that fuels my soul like running
does,” Maltby says.
Pamela Dieffenbauch runs marathons despite bronchiectasis, a rare lung disease that impairs breathing, but
she runs to set an example for her children.
“I want them to see that they can do hard things, that nothing is out of reach. I want them to understand
that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard,” Dieffenbauch says.
Peyton Chitty, 50, has a pacemaker to treat a congenital defect that caused his heart to beat too slowly
and even stop. He refuses to allow this to slow him down. Currently ranked among the top 10 cardiac
athletes in the world, he has qualified for the 2019 Boston Marathon.
“Feeling sorry for myself is not an option,” Chitty says. “I choose to control my attitude as that is the
only thing I can control. My condition is a challenge, yes, but I use it to inspire others not to allow them-selves
march 2019
to be overcome by limitations.”
Twenty-eight-year-old Brittany
Copeland Perkins recently ran
a scorching 2-hour, 44-minute
marathon to qualify for the Olympic
Marathon Trials.
These runners are motivated,
and that motivation sparks the fire
of desire to train for hours a day,
day after day, for years, for a life-time.
Nothing compares, they say,
to the sense of accomplishment
they feel upon reaching a marathon
finish line.
GOALS, GOALS, GOALS
Marathoners are highly motivated, goal-oriented overachievers by nature. Rather than discouraging them,
injuries and illnesses drive them to push ever harder toward their goals. Despite her chronic lung condition,
Dieffenbauch, 44, will run the Tokyo Marathon in March. In her bid to qualify for Boston, she must com-plete
a marathon in less than 3 hours and 50 minutes — a pace of 8 minutes, 45 seconds per mile. Boston,
a bucket-list race for many marathoners, has taken on close to a holy significance since being bombed by ter-rorists
in 2013.
Shortly after Maltby began running for her health, her boss upped the ante, surprising her with an entry
into the Quintiles Wrightsville Beach Half Marathon. This sent her on a journey she never thought possible.
“My previous idea of running was huffing and puffing out a mile around the neighborhood before collaps-ing
into a heap at my doorstep,” Maltby says. “But I don’t need a lot of convincing or logic to be talked into
crazy nonsense; I have an addictive personality and I love a challenge.”
After finishing her first half marathon, Maltby turned her attention to the marathon, completing
Wrightsville Beach in 2017 and New York in 2018, where she broke her personal record by 23 minutes. Now
hooked, she plans to run two major international marathons and an ultramarathon in 2019.
Copeland Perkins, who will compete in the Olympic Trials in early 2020, prefers to let her feet do the talking.
“With running, I’ve always been nervous and skeptical to state my goals out loud,” she says. “I have a
personal fear of failure and I worry about what others would think if I didn’t hit my goals. But I’ve recently
found a confidence and mental toughness that have enabled me to push myself in ways I haven’t in years.”
Chitty’s bid to break 1 hour and 30 minutes at the Quintiles Wrightsville Beach Half Marathon will
require he maintain a pace of 6 minutes, 50 seconds per mile, a feat tough even for athletes without
pacemakers.
Above, from left:
Anna Maltby
celebrates the
moment at the
2019 Uwharrie
Mountain Run,
savors along with
coach Kristen Jeno
the experience at
the 2018 Carolina
Beach State Park
Trail Half Marathon;
and is encouraged
by friends and
family at the 2018
New York City
Marathon. Opposite:
Maltby trains on
the downtown
Wilmington
Riverwalk after
work.
22
WBM
COURTESY OF ANNA MALTBY
BETH BRAMPTON
COURTESY OF ANNA MALTBY