On those mornings when Micaela McMurrough just doesn’t feel like working out, at those moments the Manhattan lawyer needs to muster the motivation to train for the New York City Marathon, she remembers why she’s running Sunday’s race in the first place, a cause bigger than herself: Her former brethren-in-arms.
“I had a personal connection, as I had people who’d been injured in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said McMurrough, a decorated former Army intelligence officer. “Without a doubt. When you’re preparing for something like this, which takes a lot of time, not only are your thoughts with friends and family currently deployed that can’t do this kind of thing because they’re in the service of their country, [but also] people who can’t do it because they didn’t come back or can’t because they have come back and they’re unable.
“When you’re training, it makes obstacles seem small. ‘Oh, it’s so hard to do a 20-mile run today.’ Those thoughts don’t cross your mind, because other people are doing things so much more difficult. It makes training seem easier by comparison.”
She is raising money for The Hope For The Warriors, which provides funds to fly family members to the bedsides of their wounded soldiers, and helps those soldiers themselves change residences to accommodate injuries. It also fulfills “Warrior’s Wishes” for those who are severely injured — lost limbs, sight, hearing, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and severe burns, etc.
Compared to the hazards of war, the marathon — both the 26.2-mile race and the training that goes into it — must seem simple.
But McMurrough has taken a windy road to Sunday, from West Point basketball star in 1998 to winning the Bronze Star as a brigade intelligence officer six years later; from running laps around Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan to running away from the field at this summer’s Lake Placid Marathon in a course-record 3:09:57.
“Running’s always been a big part of my life,” McMurrough said. “I’ve been runner for a long time; I just left it and came back to it.”
At least she had good reason. It was the then-Michaela Hurley’s desire to test herself that led a standout on a state championship cross-country team to go to West Point. She became the captain of the basketball team, but more important learned the leadership skills that made her a captain in the Army years later.
“I wanted to serve and go to someplace that would challenge me, and I’d learn about myself and being part of something bigger than myself,” said McMurrough, who was stationed in Germany from 1999-2001, running four marathons — including a 3:56 in Berlin — while there. But it was her return from Germany that underscored the uncertainty of military life, her wedding nearly canceled by 9/11.
“I was in Germany. There was a lockdown, and everyone was kept where they were; nobody moved. I was married Oct. 6, just a few weeks later. There was uncertainty whether I’d come back to the States or even be able to get married,” McMurrough said. “That’s the uncertainty people in the service live with.”
During her deployment in Afghanistan from 2003-04, she earned the Bronze Star for service as the Brigade Intelligence Officer (S2) for the 10th Aviation Brigade. Her unit provided the helicopter support for the 10th Mountain Division, and it was her intelligence work that helped keep those aircrafts safe. All the while she ran laps around the airfield to keep in top shape.
“It’s even funny to me to think about it,” said McMurrough, who returned stateside in 2004, spending the next three years as a reservist as she went to Cornell’s law school. With a schedule that actually allowed proper practice over the past year, and a job that allowed her to hire a trainer for speed work and strength training, she saw the results this summer.
She determined to run the New York City Marathon, and entered the Lake Placid race as a tuneup. Running her first marathon in nine years, she won in shaving 47 minutes off her personal-best, then took third in the Newport Liberty half-marathon in a blistering 1:25:18.29 that qualified her as a sub-elite.
“Last winter I started running pretty regular and my times [dropped]. And then Lake Placid happens. I was shocked,” McMurrough said. “I have teammates who trained for marathon while they were in active duty. What I do, running around Central Park a couple of times, is easy.”
