Along with presenting a full academic curriculum, elementary school teacher Amy Dodson gives her students lessons in goal-setting, determination, and celebrating the sheer joy of living.

The academic lessons are conveyed through lectures, blackboard notations, and textbooks. Those that focus on character and quality of life she demonstrates in grueling endurance trials known as marathons.

A fifth grade class at Madison Elementary School in Adrian, Michigan, will get acquainted with both teaching formats this fall as 38- year-old distance runner Amy balances her professional life with the lure of competitive racing. She and her husband John, plus their canines Lady and Freeway (a mutt rescued on Interstate 40) and Yellow the cat recently moved to Adrian, a Great Lakes community near Ann Arbor. Until this summer, the couple had lived for eight years in Cookville, Tennessee, where John conducted the Bryan Symphony Orchestra and Amy worked as a librarian.

After growing up in Tucson where she received her degree from the University of Arizona, Amy is excited about the prospects of life in Michigan and getting to know her new community.

“I understand they’ve got a great running club!” she enthused.

Delighted to be a serious athlete, Amy traveled a long and painful road as an adolescent diagnosed with a cancerous growth in the arch of her left foot. Termed an undifferentiated sarcoma, the soft tissue cancer was monitored for years as doctors periodically removed portions but were never able to eradicate the entire mass. She was told that her rare and horribly painful variety of “kid cancer” would likely travel from her foot to her lungs — which it did. In 1983, three years after having a below knee amputation at age 20, Amy faced the same disease in her left lung. It was also removed. Asked about the difficulty of running a marathon with one sound leg and a single lung, she responded happily, “I can really feel it — especially those last few miles when you’ve hit the wall already....”

Regardless of obstacles, running is definitely where it’s at for this below knee amputee with designs on setting a new world marathon record. A relative latecomer to the sport, she didn’t start distance training until three years ago, although she reports that running always held an appeal. Amy entered her first marathon at Disney World in Orlando, in January, 2000, followed by the June, 2000, “Marathon to Marathon” — from the town of Storm Lake, Iowa, to Marathon, Iowa.

“It was terrific — there were about 200 of us in the race. All along the route, people were watching, sitting on tractors and clanging cowbells as we went by — past cornfields and through the countryside. Everyone was so friendly — I absolutely loved it!”

That same year, she completed marathons in Portland, Oregon, in October, and in Jacksonville, Florida, in December. Then she geared up for the “big time,” the Boston Marathon this past April, finishing fourth among the amputee entrants.

“I’d had an injury shortly before Boston and I couldn’t train as intensely as I wanted. But I was thrilled just to complete Boston,” she noted brightly. “It’s a tough course!”

Her time in Boston was four hours and 52 minutes, not up to the four hours and 33 minutes that she registered in Jacksonville last year. Her shining moment, however, was winning her division in the first Silver Strand Half-Marathon held in San Diego, California, last November. In that competition sponsored by Athletes Helping Athletes, Amy set a new official half-marathon record of one hour, 59 minutes, and 14 seconds.

“I’ll definitely be back there this fall to defend my title,” she laughed.

Further plans this year include the Detroit Marathon in October and the Tucson Marathon in December.

“That’s where my family lives, so I’ll be running in the Tucson event along with my dad and my sister. I’m really looking forward to that,” Amy added.

Her normal regimen is logging 40 miles per week, generally after work. Four months before a race, she builds up to 70 miles per week, still working out with weights and doing her stretching exercises.

“Running takes a tremendous amount of time. I certainly couldn’t do it without the help of my husband. He does the cooking and he’s incredibly supportive in other areas, too. He travels with me to most of my races — he doesn’t care if it’s a big or small one — he’s always proud of me,” she laughed.

Another great fan of Amy’s is her longtime practitioner, Chuck Dillard, a certified prosthetist who heads Dillard Prosthetics in Nashville. Despite the Dodsons’ move to Michigan, Amy has no plans to shop for another prosthetist.

“No way! That relationship is just too important! Chuck has even traveled to some of my races — he gets even more nervous than I do before an event,” she chuckled.

For competition, Amy wears a Flex-Foot C-Sprint along with an Össur Iceross socket. The latest addition to her prosthesis is a new “Iceross Sport,” a sleeve designed for athletes that she finds extremely beneficial.

She hopes that persistence, coupled with training and excellent prosthetic backup, will help her set new records in the world of amputee marathon — as in ‘Watch out, Lindsay Nielsen!’ Even more, Amy Dodson hopes that one day the Paralympics will offer a marathon with a qualifying time that leg amputees can hope to meet.

Meanwhile, she’s focused on upcoming marathons and excited at the prospect of seeing a new television commercial Blue Cross/Blue Shield health insurers filmed this spring of her running in Tennessee.

“I think it’s going to be so good for disabled sports and especially for amputee athletes — to let people see we’re out there competing!”

Demonstrating the value of sports participation despite a physical disability is just another one of those Life Lessons in which this vibrant and highly motivated school teacher excels. Those fifth graders in Michigan are in for a terrific surprise!

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