A marathon journey

Not long ago, Amie Dworecki was forced to give up running competitively because of bad knees. Her doctor advised her to stop running long distances.\nBut her love for the sport was too great to give it up entirely. \nAfter resting her knees for a while, they regained the strength needed for a standard marathon. Her knees certainly have recuperated nicely. A story right from the pages of "Ripley's Believe It or Not," a soon-to-be IU graduate student will strive to make marathon history later this summer. \nIn August, Dworecki will run a marathon in Asia -- probably Siberia, at which point she will break three world records for the marathon: fastest completion of a marathon on all seven continents by a woman, having the lowest cumulative times and being the youngest person to ever have done so.\nDworecki already has run marathons on six continents, including a race on Antarctica and one through the Sahara Desert. She detailed how she has been able to achieve this amazing undertaking.\n"I'm kind of a goal-oriented person," Dworecki said. "Once I get something in my head, I want to do it. I like to accomplish goals because it's so satisfying." \nDworecki, who has run four marathons in two-and-a-half months, said she quit her job two years ago. In North America, she has run a race in Florida as well as a marathon in Vancouver, Canada. \nDworecki ran the "Last Marathon" on the frozen continent of Antarctica this spring. She said it was like taking the hardest conditions of every race and putting them in one marathon -- the wind was blowing at 40 to 55 mph; she had to run up a glacier; she had to run on thin ice and actually broke through falling in up to her knees in frigid water. She then had to continue for 20 miles after that point in order to finish the marathon. \nShe said there is only one artic marathon every two years, so if she didn't run it this year, she would have had to wait at least two years in an attempt to break the world records.\nJohn Shaughnessy is a marathon runner who ran in Antarctica with Dworecki.\nHe has run the Boston Marathon three times, the New York Marathon once, Hawaii once and has done an Ironman Triathlon, which includes a marathon, once.\n"I certainly appreciate what Amie is doing in terms of running a marathon on\nevery continent," Shaughnessy said. "Frankly, I only did the Antarctica marathon simply to visit Antarctica, as I only want to set foot on each continent. It never occurred to me to run a marathon on every continent."\nShaughnessy said there were snow drifts they had to fight through and a glacier they climbed twice. There were penguins and leopard seals -- "they'll take your hand off on the course," he said. He added that near the glacier, there were birds larger than seagulls called skuas that would dive bomb you while you ran. He said that not many marathoners can say they had to look up most of the time waving their arms to fend off irritable birds. But Dworecki accomplished this astonishing feat. \nAmie's mother, Naomi Dworecki, said traveling the world allows her daughter to have unbelievable learning experiences. \n"I have always said the world is there for people to see and experience and I think that is exactly what Amie is doing," Naomi Dworecki said. "Running the marathons around the world enables her to meet people from all over the world on a different level than a typical tourist would be able to do."\nIn addition to these feats, Amie is doing an awareness campaign for the Global Fund for Women in San Francisco, a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering women's human rights around the world. Dworecki explained her dedication to the women's charity group. \n"I've felt a lot of challenges in my career," Dworecki said. "I grew up (without) a lot of money in my family, yet I still had aspirations of doing great things as a woman. I want to be able to help women achieve their dreams and this is a way to help that cause."\nShaughnessy illustrated Dworecki's personality and her determination when it came to training for a marathon.\n"Amie is a very warm person, but like a duck, there's a lot going on underneath the surface," Shaughnessy said. "We worked out once in the gym on the boat to Antarctica, and I was very impressed with the focus she displayed lifting weights, doing leg lifts and running on the elliptical trainer. Most importantly, she really quizzed me about my own physical fitness and gave me support and advice, which I needed since I've been in a physical rut as of late."\nThe sky seems to be the limit for Amie Dworecki and her mother knows it. She said she is extremely proud of her daughter and knows she is a very dedicated person. \n"It means a great deal, and I am proud of her, but frankly I am not surprised," she said. "One thing I know about Amie is that if she sets her sights on something, she will do it. She could offhandedly say something like 'I want to fly to the moon someday' and the next thing you know, you'll turn on the TV and see her face being broadcast from outer space." \nShaughnessy encapsulated Dworecki's marathon aspirations by referring to Greek mythology. \n"Given that marathoning has ancient Greek roots," Shaughnessy said. "Amie is (becoming) a modern day Odysseus through her world travels"