When she has the will, Ebtehal Badawi makes her way.
As an artist with a strong desire to promote acceptance and understanding, the Jefferson Hills resident launched an initiative called Pittsburgh Builds Bridges, based around her painting of an arched span adorned with clenched hands of various colors and religious symbols from around the world.
As an athlete, she is determined to complete a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bicycle ride and 26.2-mile run in the Ironman Chattanooga Xclsuive Challenge, scheduled for late September in Tennessee.
Such a grueling endeavor would seem to defy expectations for a 43-year-old wife and mother of two who basically had no opportunity to participate in sports while growing up in Saudi Arabia.
“My family taught me how to swim so I don’t drown. That’s it,” Badawi said. “No one in my family or my friends run.”
Nevertheless, she developed an admiration for runners while watching cartoons featuring quick-sprinting characters and, every four years, the Summer Olympics. And when her family moved to the Pittsburgh area a decade ago, she witnessed plenty of people hastening along in jogging outfits.
“Look at all these runners,” she remembers thinking. “They run in all kinds of weather. There’s nothing to stop them.”
She joined their ranks when she began training after a friend asked if she would like to be part of a relay team in the 2022 Pittsburgh Marathon.
“Then she called me back. She said, ‘I’m sorry. The team is full,’” Badawi recalled. “I was devastated when I heard that. And then I said, ‘OK, what can I do? I’m going to register for my first 5K.
“And at the end of the race, I declared to myself: Next year, I’m going to do the full marathon, 26.2 miles.”
‘So supportive’
In the meantime, she met folks from the Fleet Feet Running Club, who invited her to come on board.
“I started practicing with them every Sunday at 7:30 a.m., in all kinds of weather,” Badawi said. “They’ve been so supportive.”
Pittsburgh Marathon’s Run for a Reason program allows participants to raise money for charities they choose, and her selection for the 2023 race was the Homeless Children Education Fund. She completed the course in 6 hours, 45 minutes, promoting Pittsburgh Builds Bridges fly carrying a banner and handing out small flags imprinted with her painting along the way.
Amid unseasonable heat and humidity three weeks before the marathon, she participated in a preview run that took place during Ramadan, a month on the Arabic calendar during which Muslims fast each day from sunrise to sunset.
“Everyone is drinking around me, and I can’t drink,” she said. “And then I thought, what can I do? How can I cool myself down?”
Her answer was to douse herself, and as she made her way along the course, a companion from Fleet Feet shouted at every hydration station, “Pour water on her! Pour water on her!”
“So everyone started pouring water, jugs of water,” Badawi said. “And then I finished 20 miles, and I didn’t die or collapse.”
Another challenge for her as a Muslim is participating in athletics while maintaining her hijab, a head covering she perpetually wears in public.
“It was so hard to find a suit,” she said. “They don’t offer that in a lot of brands.”
Fortunately, a brand called Varlo Sports carries such an item featuring lightweight perforated fabric for optimal cooling and mobility, and Badawi even found a sponsor for her specialized outfit.
After conquering the marathon, she decided to up the ante by taking on the combination of swimming, bicycling and running. Her first was in May, at the Mighty Moraine Man triathlon in Butler County, with distances of 1,500 meters (about 1,640 yards), 40 kilometers (25 miles) and 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), respectively.
‘What I love about the Y’
Beforehand, she joined the Pittsburgh Triathlon Club for guidance and the Spencer Family YMCA in Bethel Park for swim lessons and spin classes. With her friendly demeanor and penchant for making friends, she quickly endeared herself to fellow members.
“That’s what I love about the Y. People here are smiling, connecting, cheering you on and supporting you, encouraging you,” she said. “It empowers me to move forward.”
Further encouragement comes when she works on improving her strength at LEG1ON Training & Performance in East Liberty.
“Strength is a very important part of the training because you are using a lot of your muscles in your legs and around the knee area,” Badawi said. “So if these muscles are not strong, it won’t hold you to finish anything with this intense distance.”
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Further training comes through advanced technology by the way of TriDot, a platform through which she monitors performance for assessment by a coach who uses the data to advise her on how to proceed optimally.
She planned to compete in a September “Half Ironman” triathlon, with a 1.9-kilometer swim, 90- 90-kilometer bike ride and 21-kilometer run.
“Then I got an injury. I got a shin splint, and my whole leg I couldn’t move. So I couldn’t do that race, and it was one of the hardest things, to back out, to listen to my body,” she said. “It was really hard to not do anything for more than a month.”
Now recovered, she has resumed training – Ramadan, which this year starts the evening of Feb. 28, included – in preparation for the Xclsuive Challenge.
“They say it’s the easiest Ironman,” she explained about her choice of events. “The swim there is easy. The current is easier there than at other ones.”
The aquatic leg takes place in the apparently placid Tennessee River, followed by a bicycle course that extends into neighboring Georgia and a marathon through downtown Chattanooga.
“Whenever I think about that,” Badawi said, “I start texting my coach: ‘Do you think I will be ready by then?’ He says, ‘Yeah. That’s why we have a plan.’”
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