By Chris Adams
Special to The 830 Times
A group of local women are conquering roads globally, bringing awareness to children with special needs.
The Del Rio runners recently completed the Tokyo Marathon, the final race in the series of six major marathons.
“For now, the first phase is done. It’s completed…I had personally said that ‘I’m doing my six, and my tennis shoes are going away, that’s it,’” said Brenda Torres, one of the group’s runners.
Torres didn’t get to run in Tokyo, so she has yet to complete the hexalogy of races. Torres plans on running it next year.
The group currently comprises Torres, Veronica Ramón Aguirre, Daniela Vales Morton and Claudia Cano.
“When we started, it was six of us. And since it’s not something easy, a few left the pack…some others came along and decided to do, I think two with us,” Torres said.
Ramón Aguirre, Vales Morton and Cano received a Six-Star Medal from Abbott Laboratories after knocking out the Tokyo marathon.
“They got the Six Star Medal…the numbers are less than 10,000 runners in the world that have that…there are a lot of elite runners who have not done this,” Torres explained.
In 2016, Abbott World Marathon Majors introduced the Six Star Medal to recognize runners who finished all six major marathons.
The Del Rio group began with the New York Marathon in 2016, Chicago in 2017, Berlin in 2018 and London the following year. In 2020, the pandemic disrupted the plan.
“We were all scheduled, confirmed to run Tokyo and then Boston,” Torres said. “So Boston was going to be the sixth star. Because of Covid, everything got canceled. Two weeks before we left to Tokyo…We were ready, and all the training had been done. And it was going to be one after the other. The circumstances changed, and it was just a bummer.”
However, the quartet acquired the fifth star at last year’s Boston Marathon.
The primary objective of their multi-marathon undertaking is to highlight children with needs. The Del Rioans raise awareness and money for the selected organizations through their participation in the six marathons. Torres said the minimum fundraising amount needed for marathon acceptance is $1,500-$3,000. Vale Morton’s son, who has down syndrome, was the catalyst.
“That’s how we started looking for organizations that supported children with needs,” Torres said.
And the marathons haven’t been short on experiences.
“When we did London, that was like a crazy thing…we were having a lot of trouble finding an organization,” Torres said. “There weren’t any available supporting children with needs.”
An animal was available. Rhino conservation. They had to think about it.
“How desperate are we? Do we want to do that?” ‘But we really would like for you to wear a costume.’ It was an actual rhinoceros costume…you’re like, I can barely run with this…a water bottle.”
The races have inspired the four women.
“You see people that are blind, running…you see people that have implants on their legs,” Torres said. “Things like that…if they can do it, we can. Everybody can. We can all do it. You see that, and you’re like, ‘The possibilities are endless.’ It gives you that motivation, like, yes, you can do it.”
