At 6:50 a.m., María Elena Morocho, a 46-year-old mother of two from Ecuador, wandered through cop-infested Staten Island, as busloads of marathon runners disembarked. Lines formed, hugging the edges of Fort Wadsworth as jittery professional and amateur athletes pinned race number stickers on their chests.
“For the love of the sport,” Morocho said. “I love long-distance races.”
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The former hairstylist, Cuenca native, and ultra marathoner scoped out a spot to spectate, cheer on her friend, and possibly jump in the race, too. She was clad in a personalized long-sleeve track shirt, printed with her name “Helen” and the Ecuadorian flag.
For Morocho, this wasn’t only a 26.2-mile New York City Marathon. It was a 2,000-mile journey and her first time in the Big Apple.
María Elena Morocho started running with “Club a Correr” in Cuenca, Ecuador in 2004 and hasn’t stopped since. “A lifetime of training,” she said. “Twelve years of continuous hard work and growth.”
As an aficionado of the sport, she joined as a beginner and gradually developed an athletic routine and rhythm. “I am now not only a fan but an addict,” Morocho said. “With various marked end times and race experiences.” She participated in recreational and competitive races in different neighborhoods of Ecuador and in South America, including Guayaquil, Ecuador; Lima, Peru; Argentina. In 2013, Morocho marked the end of the 100km Ultramarathon in Argentina, her longest distance so far.
Nowadays, Morocho trains alongside professional athletes in the “Escuela de Marcha” in Quito, Ecuador, founded by the two-time Olympian gold-medalist Jefferson Pérez. His trainer and Olympic race-walking specialist, Luis Chocho Sanmartín, currently directs it.
She conditions on a rigorous schedule, which she calls a doble hornada: twice a day, seven days a week from 5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m., followed by a 40-minute night session.
Morocho proposes to gain sponsorship for the 2017 Berlin Marathon, and will compete “until God permits me.”
