What’s a 40-year-old Virginia mother of four doing in Myrtle Beach? Winning a marathon
Shortly after Heather Zealand of Forest, Va., completed the 23rd Myrtle Beach Marathon on Saturday, a man who participated in the half marathon and ran alongside her for part of the race caught up to her.
“You’re Super Mom from Virginia, right?”
Yep, that she is.
Zealand, a 40-year-old mother of four, won the women’s division of the marathon, completing 26.2 miles in a time of 2 hours, 57 minutes and 38 seconds.
It was her first marathon, as she devoted more than a decade to raising and home-schooling her children.
“It’s pretty amazing. The whole time, the last five miles I was thinking, ‘I’m doing it. I’m actually doing it.’ So that was great,” Zealand said. “The last 10 years I’ve sort of been doing the mom life and running for fun.”
Zealand competed in the mile and 5-kilometer races in college and she has recently run a few trail half marathons and a 10-mile race as she has reinvested in more competitive running.
Zealand’s children are 13, 11, 9 and 7, and she often trains with her husband, who enjoys running as well.
“Now that my kids are a little older I’ve had more time to train. The oldest one is old enough to babysit, so that’s a blessing,” Zealand said. “I get up early. I train. I have a supportive family and I have a group of friends that help me and run with me. The training commitment is tough but it’s also what I love to do so it’s like my hobby and time to get out.” She turned 40 last week so this was also her first race in the master category.
A friend suggested that their entire group of friends attempt to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and Zealand got that accomplished Saturday. “So that was the goal today,” Zealand said. “Then a bunch of us friends are going to meet in Boston and run together, so that’s what got me out here.”
Her husband and four children were rooting her on and waiting for her at the finish line Saturday, along with some other family members, some of whom also ran.
“It was a good chance to see how effective training hard is. I followed a training plan, I put in miles and it was really good to see, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s paying off,’ ” Zealand said. “I wasn’t expecting to enjoy the marathon, and so now that I enjoyed my race I have to evaluate what I want to do now. It was difficult, but I thought I would hate it more because it’s longer than I like to do.”
Zealand said a few men helped pace her throughout the race, “which was really critical to be able to run what I did, so that was really nice,” Zealand said. “It was just a really great challenge, is what I enjoyed.”
Matthew Leonard of Johnson City, Tenn., 29, was the overall marathon winner in 2:36:13.
It was his second time running the race, and he improved a spot and 11 minutes from his runner-up finish in 2016. “I’m just trying to get faster,” said Leonard, a research assistant at a trauma center.
The win is Leonard’s third in marathons, along with races in Chattanooga, Tennessee and West Virginia, and he considers Myrtle Beach to be the most competitive of the three.
It took him four years to return because he wanted to participate in other marathons including in Boston and Berlin, Germany.
Matt Shock of Greenville won Saturday’s 5K race by nearly 2 minutes in a time of 16 minutes flat.
This story was originally published March 7, 2020 at 12:30 PM.
