52 Half Marathons in a Year – After Heart Surgery

Thanks to our friends at Keepsake Quilts for sharing this amazing and inspiring story with us. Aurora De Lucia was your typical college student. One day she woke up, went to class – not realizing that on that day her life would be changed forever. One minute Aurora is sitting in class, the next she is on the ground surrounded by paramedics. Aurora was taken to the hospital where she was given various tests to help find a diagnosis…

(Janet and her team at Keepsake have offered a special coupon for M&B readers – complimentary shipping through the month of April.) Read the rest of Aurora’s story. 

After a few EKG tests, Aurora was told she had Wolff-Parkinson-White, a rare congenital heart defect where she had an extra pathway in her heart that was not supposed to be there. Aurora spent the next few months in the hospital trying different medicines, procedures and more tests, which were not successful. Finally, Aurora had gotten to the point where she needed open heart surgery in March of 2010.

When she began her recovery, Aurora faced a of of challenges trying to get her life back on track. She had debt fro her surgery and hospital stays, needed to find a job, and more than anything, wanted to find something that made her feel like herself again. She wanted to run again, but wasn’t sure how to start, again.

in December of 2010, Aurora signed up for her first 5k after heart surgery and finished. Aurora realized it was a lot easier to start and finish a race than running on a treadmill because there was a clear finish line and other runners alongside her that motivated her to keep going and not feel sorry for herself.

What Aurora did next was unbelievable. Aurora signed up for a half marathon, followed by another half marathon the next weekend, and she didn’t stop there. Aurora ran a half marathon every week for a year. A feat that many would not dare to attempt, Aurora ran 52 half marathons in 1 year after recovering from a heart defect that let her to open heart surgery.

Keepsake Theme Quilts was so honored to work with Aurora on her t-shirt quilt. We turned each of her half marathon shirts into a beautiful and very large runner’s delight size tshirt quilt. Aurora is still as motivated as ever, looking for the next way she can push herself while motivating others to never give up and always believe in themselves.

For more information on Aurora, visit her blog: http://aurorasblog.com/