With about 800 meters left in Monday's Boston Marathon, Shirley Reilly made her move.
The 26-year-old Tucsonan passed Wakako Tsuchida, the five-time Boston Marathon women's wheelchair champion.
"It was really about hope," she said. "I was hoping I could pull it off."
The former UA student and wheelchair racing team competitor hauled off toward the finish line.
"We were both real tired at that point," she said. "I tried to wait as much as I felt as I could, then sprinted."
Reilly beat Tsuchida by less than a second, with a time of 1 hour 37 minutes and 36 seconds over 26.2 miles, for her first Boston Marathon title.
She was overwhelmed afterward, surrounded by her family. Her father had never seen her in a major race until Monday.
"I was kind of in shock," she said. "I actually burst into tears. I'm kind of embarrassed about that. β¦ I'm not really the emotional type. I try to be strong."
Reilly credited weather that might best be described as, well, Arizona-like.
By midafternoon, Boston temperatures reached a record 87 degrees - tough marathon weather.
"Nice and warm, like Arizona," she said. "It's always really cold here in Boston. It was really good weather."
Tsuchida and Reilly were neck-and-neck throughout the race, though the Japanese competitor native took a lead around the 18-mile mark.
The defending champion beat Reilly by seven minutes last year; Reilly had never defeated her until Monday.
Reilly, who won the LA Marathon last month, said a new coach helped her bridge the gap. Reilly is training under Wendy Gumbert of Texas, though Tucson remains her home base.
"I've had better training, I guess," she said. "It really has worked well for me."
Reilly was born three weeks premature, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.
The Alaska-born Reilly graduated from high school in Los Gatos, Calif., in 2003, and enrolled at the UA.
"She keeps going and going and going, like the Energizer bunny," said Pete Hughes, who coached her at the UA until 2008. "She had better endurance than the whole track team.
"Our whole goal when I was coaching her was, 'How do we get Shirley to chase people?' She was our fastest person. We had volunteers on bikes to make sure she could chase them."
Reilly has represented the United States in the past two Paralympics, and will do so again in London this summer.
She leaves for England today, to participate in the London Marathon on Sunday.
Monday night, to celebrate, she went out for the quintessential Boston treat - clam chowder.
"My hard work just paid off," Reilly said. "It's good competition here. It's exciting."
