Father-daughter combo conquers CIM

Despite having done more than 100 ultramarathon runs and played semi-professional soccer, Meadow Vista?s Bogdan Ambrozewicz isn?t one to brag.So why was he calling his performance ?the best run of my life? in the 21st annual California International Marathon on Dec. 6?Because, he said, his 13-year-old daughter, Emily Ambrozewicz, ran with him the entire way ? 26.2 miles from Folsom to the State Capitol Building in downtown Sacramento.?I did this on a whim,? said Emily Ambrozewicz, an eighth-grader at Weimar Hills Middle School. ?Originally I was going to pace my dad for six miles, but kids aren?t allowed to run on the course.?Walking only about 20-percent of the race, the two finished together in five hours, seven minutes and 40 seconds.Emily Ambrozewicz finished 2,603rd and her father 2,604th out of 2,941 overall.?We weren?t going slow,? Emily Ambrozewicz said. ?I started cramping up at 18 miles. But I remembered the saying my dad told me a couple of weeks before the race: You only experience obstacles when you take your eyes off your goal.?Emily Ambrozewicz had competed previously on foot only in four Pioneer Days five-kilometer (3.1-mile) runs, but had never run much more that distance.?The farthest I?ve ever trained was 6-3/4 miles on a trail,? she said.When they went to pick up her father?s bib number at the CIM and were told that pacers weren?t allowed, they were getting ready to go back home when Bogdan Ambrozewicz got an idea.?I didn?t want her to be bummed out,? he recalled. ?So I asked her if she thought she could go the full distance. She smiled and said ?Yes!? over and over again.?While her father picked up Bib No. 305, daughter got the magical No. 1000.Other than a 13-year-old boy from Utah, she was the youngest runner in the race.?We did the course in the car the day before and it didn?t seem like a big deal. But it was,? Emily Ambrozewicz said.?I kept telling my dad to go faster. One time he said ?My legs feel like lead,? and he?d done the race 13 other times.?Her dad, whose personal record for the CIM is a 3:05, said he just wanted her to conserve her energy.?I told her if she wanted to stop at any time, fine, but she didn?t,? he recalled. ?I had to actually hold her back because she was so excited and wanted to run as fast as she could from the start.?Down the stretch, she said, they both had enough energy to sprint to the finish.?The crowd?s cheer lifted my iron legs one at a time,? Emily Ambrozewicz said. ?At the glorious finish line, the announcer didn?t pronounce my name correctly, but I smiled so big my mouth hurt as much as my legs.?Bogdan Ambrozewicz, 50, said his daughter has been involved in his running ?ever since she was tiny and I carried her across the finish line? at a Western States 100-Mile Run.He?s finished four of the eight WS100s from Squaw Valley to Auburn that he?s attempted and run in the last 10 American River 50-milers ? all but the first one ? and finished all 10.He said his daughter, who transfered from Loomis Middle School to Weimar Hills this year, is a straight-A student and has made the Principal?s List and is an honors student.She doesn?t have much television-watching opportunities top keep her from doing her homework.?We only have two channels,? she said.She was asked where she would like to run high school cross country and track.?Maybe Placer,? she said. ?They have a nice track.?When she?s older, Emily Ambrozewicz said she would like to do the WS100, the ?Tevis Cup? Western States 100-Mile horse ride, and even a Ride & Tie event ? all with her dad.Her father thinks she has a big future in running.?To finish a marathon is a milestone of most people?s lives, and she?s done it at 13,? he said. ?She runs real light on her feet, like a deer.?Emily Ambrozewicz said her friends call her ?crazy? for running in a marathon.?I call them crazy, for not trying it,? she said.