Tuedon (Tee)
Omatsola Morgan is British with Nigerian parents, and has been living in Qatar
for the past 10 years. She has been married for 21 years and is the mother of
four sons aged 19, 17, 15 and 7.
In 2007
following the birth of her youngest son, she tipped the scale at 121kg/266
pounds and wore a UK size 26. She was also struggling with her health and
living with constant pain in her legs due to her excess weight.
Having
previously weighed 63 kg, this was a big wakeup call for her. The result was
that she vowed to change her sedentary lifestyle as well as her relationship
with food.
Even though
she was embarrassed by her size, she timidly entered a gym in Doha for the
first time and swore to herself that her commitment was real and long term.
When she
started out, there was no one to encourage her so she had to encourage herself
in the pursuit of her goal. It was challenging at first but she was not to be
dissuaded.
She also
found that she was not alone in the struggle to lose weight. That same year,
Tee joined the Doha Bay Running Club where she discovered the world of long
distance running and found a new love, the pavement. Here, she received the
“Most Determined Newcomer” Award during her first year of running.
In three
short years she has managed to accomplish such amazing feats and this year the
club named her “The Greatest Achiever” and rightfully so.
Shortly
after she started running, she decided that she would run a marathon (42.2 km).
She discussed her goal with a fellow runner and he practically laughed at her.
He asked her if she knew the distance of a marathon and condescendingly let her
know that he had been running for 10 years and had not run a marathon.
She just
shrugged and let him know, “You’re not me. I’m Tee, a child of God and I will
run a marathon. Just watch me!”
Training for
a marathon is like taking on a second full-time job but she was unfazed by the
requirements and she committed to putting in the work to make it happen.
By the end
of the year, she was standing at the start line of the Johnson Arabia Dubai
Creek Striders Half Marathon ready to make her dream come true. A mere seven
weeks later in January 2012, she was back in Dubai towing the start line of the
Chartered Dubai City Marathon. She finished in the very respectable time of
4:40:53.
While Tee
could have been satisfied with her accomplishment of successfully completing
both a half marathon and a marathon that was far from the case.
She got the
wild idea that she would become the face of Nigeria in long distance running
and set her sights on the prestigious London Marathon.
For most
runners, even those who have been running for decades, the very thought of
running the London Marathon would have been a pipe dream.
Since Tee is
not “most runners”, true to her Wonder Woman ways, in April of 2012 she laced
up her trainers and joined approximately 37,000 runners at the start line of
this dream race and crossed the finish line with a time of 5:04.
Certainly
that should have been enough but of course it wasn’t. Six months later she
lined up half way around the world in Chicago with another 37,000 runners to
take on the Bank of America Chicago Marathon.
In less than
one year, Tee accomplished what most lifelong runners can barely dare to dream
about; she had completed two of the most prestigious races in the marathon
world. London and Chicago are part of the group of six races which bear the
esteemed title of World Majors.
The other
races are Boston, New York, Berlin and Tokyo. Since she was one third of the
way to completing the whole series, it came as no surprise to anyone who knows
her that her dream had grown from completing one marathon to completing the
World Majors.
Yes, the
idea was wild and far-fetched but for someone with Tee’s faith, grit and
commitment, it was not impossible.
In February
2013 she finished the Tokyo Marathon with a personal best time of 4:20:00 which
brought her even closer to her World Majors goal.
She really
doesn’t like to push her body that hard because of a slight disability she
carries in one of her legs, which requires a special running shoe.
It was while
running the Tokyo Marathon that she met fellow runner, Abisoye Adekamnbi. They
discussed the idea of running a marathon on each of the seven continents.
Ultimately, they became the first Nigerians and fifth Black runners in the
world to accomplish this.
Her next
challenge was to tackle the Holy Grail of distance running, the Boston
Marathon. This race is almost every long distance runner’s dream and for about
90% it remains a dream. Unlike its lottery-based counterparts, it is the only
race in the series that is exclusively the domain of time qualifiers (even
among the amateur runners) with a small amount of slots reserved for charity
runners. As if by some miracle, Tee secured a slot via PHAB Kids. http://www.phabkids.co.uk/
On April 15,
2013 – a day that was soon to become one for the history books – surrounded by
23,000 runners, she stepped up the start line in Hopkinson. Thankfully,
she was able to cross the finish line before the unfortunate bombings
occurred. She was now half way to completing the World Majors. By November
2013, with the completion of the New York City Marathon, she would accomplish
this demanding feat and don a new identity as a runner, World Majors Finisher.
If it were
anyone else, that would have been the pinnacle of their running career but by
now we are clear that Tee is in a league of her own.
In her mind,
if completing the World Majors is considered a big deal, then she wanted to go
above and beyond that.
She managed
to go way beyond by completing a marathon on all seven continents thereby
securing a spot amongst other runners who have accomplished this outstanding
achievement.
Source – twooceansmarathon.org.za
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