Former Virginia state champion Keira D'Amato (formerly Carlstrom) set the 10 mile American record Tuesday morning with her clocking of 51:23.
That beat the former record of 52:12 by a staggering 49 seconds in what became a runaway race for D'Amato.
She set the record in Washington, D.C. at the Up Dawg Ten Miler, which was run at an undisclosed location to help keep the crowd down and comply with COVID-19 restrictions. D'Amato has had quite the year and has also risen to be nationally known. She began her year attempting to make the U.S. Olympic Marathon team, which she just missed during the February trials in Atlanta.
From there, she had the option to put up her shoes and relax or lace them up even tighter and keep on pushing.
Then in June, the 35 year old (now 36) mother of two totally shocked the entire running world with a viral race video of her dropping a 15:04 5K time trial performance on the track during a pandemic that would be under the Olympic A qualifying standard in the event.
D'Amato's run was a PR of over a minute from her college days at American University over a decade ago and the 7th fastest time ever by a woman in World history at age 35 or older as well.
She has been on a tear since this eye-opening run going undefeated against other pro elites head to head and setting more jaw-dropping personal bests at the mile (4:33), 5K (15:04), and half marathon (1:08:57) distances. The native of Oakton, Virginia, D'Amato also beat a few professionals in the ten miler today including Molly Seidel.
Her winning pace today was 5:09.
