Pico started running and climbing mountains ten years ago, after losing her foot to cancer.

When Kathy Pico reached the summit of Ecuador’s Cotopaxi in September, she took a deep breath of sulfur-tinged air. The amputee, then 47, had been pushing herself so hard, moving for so many hours—and for so many years—that she finally allowed herself a moment of respite on top of one of the world’s highest volcanoes. She peered into the crater and then looked out over the sweep of land before her.

“Miraculous,” she said.

Nine days later, and thousands of miles away, she completed her first marathon, in Chicago, in six hours and seven minutes. Read more at Outside.