El trayecto de Deb Marcuccilli hasta llegar a la meta de la New York City Marathon y más allá

When Deb Marcuccilli finished the 1994 New York City Marathon in a time of 13 hours and 58 minutes, she entered the history books. By crossing the finish line on that cold November evening, Deb became the first known female bilateral amputee to complete a marathon. 

Today, at age 66, Deb looks back on a life in which she's embraced challenges with courage, humor, and determination and never let her disability limit or define her.

A Life-Changing Accident

As a young girl growing up in Seneca Falls, NY, Deb dreamed of becoming a dancer, or maybe an astronaut. But those childhood ambitions changed when Deb was involved in a devastating school bus accident at age 7 that severely injured both legs and resulted in a double amputation. Six months later she was learning to walk on prosthetic limbs.

“As horrible as it was, as a kid you just accept it and move forward,” says Deb. In fact, the accident and resulting disability left her wanting more out of life as she adapted an “I’ll show you” attitude to do all the things she was told she couldn’t.

Deb shunned labels such as “handicapped” and later “disabled” and came to identify herself as “differently abled.” She graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1978 and became a mechanical engineer, a predominantly male field at the time. She found sports she enjoyed, including competitive hunter/jumper horseback riding where she excelled in her 20s.

A New Challenge

When a friend ran the New York City Marathon and showed her his finish line photo, she decided she could do that, too. “He was a normal guy, not elite or fast, and I thought it would be so cool do it,” says Deb. “So I started walking long distances. How hard could it be?” At age 39, she signed up to run the 1994 race.

Like many first-time marathoners, Deb found her first experience over 26.2 miles harder than she anticipated. She wanted to quit at mile 20 but pushed herself to finish, accompanied in the later miles by her brother. “I’m not a quitter—never have been,” she says. Central Park was dark, nearly empty, and cold when she finished but she knew she had accomplished something special. Several of her Achilles International teammates were at the finish line to welcome her and celebrate.

“It really hurt,” she recalls. “I didn’t have high-end racing prosthetics and I endured rubbing and soreness. At times we weren't sure we were actually on the right course. I was starving when I finished. Someone from Achilles handed me a box with a sandwich in it. The crowds were long gone.”

She continued doing shorter races but then discovered handcycling and another new sport opened up for her. “I never rode a bike before, so this was a new and exciting experience for me,” she says. She returned to the 2016 New York City Marathon as a handcyclist, finishing in 5:19 at age 61. In 2019 she finished the Detroit Marathon in 3:42 and last year she did the virtual Boilermaker 15K in 1:10.

Overdue Recognition

Deb’s accomplishment in 1994 was not recorded at the time because she finished after the cutoff point for timed competitors. For this reason, another female bilateral amputee who finished the 2018 TCS New York City Marathon was until recently considered the first to complete the marathon distance. But now Deb, 27 years after she crossed the New York City Marathon finish line, is getting the recognition she deserves.

Deb still rides horses, handcycles, and takes long walks. She also canoes—she’s the current U.S. canoe disabled female sprint champion—and has inspired her daughter, Alyxandra, to take up running and even complete several marathons. Deb retired from her engineering career in 2011 and she and her husband live in Honeoye Falls, NY, about 40 miles from her childhood home in a house with a yard that opens onto miles of trails.

“I don’t have the legs I was born with, but I have legs,” she says, “and they have taken me on an incredible life journey.”