A Virginia real estate agent hopes her 10-mile record is a springboard to the Olympics

Keira D'Amato was only a mile away from reaching the pinnacle of her running career Tuesday morning, closing in on a national record at a local race called the Up Dawg Ten Miler, when her 36-year-old body started to give out. Her legs were wobbly. She grew dizzy. She wondered how she was going to sprint to the finish in Anacostia Park.

But D'Amato had helped create this race featuring five elite runners - she prepared her body tirelessly for months and invested thousands of dollars of her own money to hold it - so she mustered the strength to run as fast as she could over the last stretch. Her mother and husband were holding the tape at the finish line, and when D'Amato finally crossed, she had shattered the American women's record for a 10-mile race with a time of 51:23.

It had been six years since the record was set by former Olympian Janet Bawcom at the 2014 Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run. Not only was it surreal that D'Amato had crushed that previous mark of 52:12 by 49 seconds, but D'Amato was one of the onlookers holding the tape for Bawcom as she crossed the finish line that spring day in Washington.

A few moments after Tuesday's triumph, D'Amato found herself in the arms of her husband, Anthony, and she told him how much her body hurt before muttering: "I can't believe I did it."

As an unsponsored athlete - she is a real estate agent in Northern Virginia and the mother of two - it was a watershed moment in what has been a remarkable year for D'Amato. A former collegiate standout who drifted from competitive running for nearly a decade, she has continued a career resurgence with a string of impressive finishes in races over the past nine months - and hopes it will be a springboard to accomplish her Olympic dream in 2021.

"This has been a very personal journey for me," D'Amato said. "It was a moment I will never...