Associate physics professor Chamaree de Silva completed the 2026 Run Jekyll marathon in January, finishing her first marathon after months of personal and physical challenges.
De Silva finished the race after roughly six hours despite difficult conditions. She said the weather was cold, rainy and windy: "I couldn't feel my hands," she said of running on the barrier island.
And after her phone unexpectedly died that morning, de Silva had to complete the marathon without any music in her ear to distract her from the miles ahead.
But the feat was a milestone in a journey that began with small steps. following surgery to remove cancer. After recovering from cancer and navigating a divorce, de Silva began making an effort to walk a few miles a day.
She set a goal to walk 10,000 steps daily in 2021.
“It was something I could check off my list every day – something consistent in my life,” de Silva said. “It gave me much needed peace.”
Amid traveling for work and personal trips, de Silva stuck to her goal. Her determination to reach her daily total led her, at times, to walk laps in hotel lobbies before she could go to sleep.
Erika Thomas, a former student, introduced her to the Nike Run Club, a popular running app that directs users through basic training exercises for new runners and offers more extensive training programs as users log more miles. De Silva said she used the app to log her progress and goals, including her first run, which she completed in 2022.
“I did a guided three-minute run. Just because I could,” de Silva said. “It was the first time I had run since I was a teenager.”
Since her first run, she has completed five-day treks in Colombian jungles, hiked in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador, completed a six-day, 150-mile bike trip in Spain, scuba dived in Honduras and gone spelunking in Vietnam.
“I started to have immense peace and clarity within me,” de Silva said. ”Taking the initiative to consistently walk every day in 2021 gave me confidence to try other activities, and I have done so many, ‘I can’t believe I did that,’ moments in the past three years.”
Running, she said, became a personal and mental achievement rather than an intentional one.
“I am achieving a goal that was never a goal,” de Silva said as she eyes setting new expectations for herself.
“The mindset of long-distance running is mental endurance for six hours in the freezing rain,” de Silva said. “You can endure the other parts of life without getting frustrated.”
She is a firm believer that running is “mainly a mental limitation rather than physical one.”
“Overcoming the mental story is the most difficult part,” de Silva said.
She recommends that beginners start their journey slowly.
“Just a speed-walking pace for two minutes. That is your goal for the day,” de Silva said. “Be consistent. Do the two minutes every day for a week and see how you feel.”
She runs three to four times a week. Even if she doesn’t do anything else for that day, de Silva said she feels accomplished.
“I see people in their 70s and 80s carry the same distance and often they finish faster than me,” she said. “I aspire to make it to the level they are at that age.”
