MISSOULA — Thousands of people hit the pavement Sunday for the Missoula Marathon and among them was one young runner from Huson who completed her first half marathon. It was a triumph as doctors once feared she would never be able to walk or talk.
Maddie Schiedermayer lives with vision impairment and with an intellectual disability that stems from a stroke in the womb.
"Maddie lives with cortical vision impairment," Barb Schiedermayer, Maddie's mother, said. "That means that her eyes take great pictures, but she has a pretty bad photo mat, so her brain cannot process the pictures."
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Maddie's circumstances, however, do not stop her from striding past the finish line in any race. At her parent's home in Huson, Maddie builds her endurance along a well-worn route.
"In our loop here that she uses for practice, she has mapped it over the past ten years, so she just knows somehow where she's going with a few cues that she can see out of a little window," Barb said.
The recent Frenchtown High School graduate trained for the Missoula Half Marathon from home six days a week with support from her parents and favorite music too.
"I like to listen to my tunes. It helps me to go a little faster," she said. "Right now I'm listening to Taylor [Swift]."
While Maddie's home loop allowed her to train alone, exploring a new course, such as the Missoula Marathon's route, called for some guide runners. That's where Kenny Cox and Lori Miskar joined the race.
"Maddie has a tiny amount of peripheral vision and she can see bright colors," Cox said. "So we have a bright vest and bright shoes and so that's usually how she sees us while we're running. Then whenever it's tough terrain, she'll just hold onto your arm."
But on Sunday, Maddie's cross country and track roots helped her accomplish most of the half marathon on her own, according to her guides.
"I can't keep up with Maddie. She's so fast," Miskar said.
Cox was Maddie's teacher in Frenchtown. The pair have been running together for two years now.
“She doesn't complain. She'll ask me why I'm going so slow. That's about the extent of the complaints," he said.
Now that Maddie's earned her first Missoula Marathon victory, she's ready for more.
"We're just, we're happy and she said she's gonna do it again next year," Barb said. "We'll call that a win."
