Running as a way to cope with loss
— -- To her family and friends, Lisa Hallett always has been a woman of iron.
Since her husband, Army Capt. John Hallett, was killed in Afghanistan in 2009, she's fought through grief to raise their three young children, including a daughter John never met. She's built a new life and co-founded a national organization that helps others cope with the loss of loved ones in military service.
"She's got stamina you would not believe," says her mother-in-law, Wendy Hallett. "When she puts her mind to something, she does it."
Her friend, Elizabeth Thiel, wishes she could have "half the strength and courage [Lisa] has."
Still, getting on with life every day after tragedy isn't easy, even for a woman of iron. Hallett's heart was broken. She needed to find a way to endure.
So she ran.
As a military wife, she had often run to relieve the stress of moves and John's deployments. Now it was a necessity, a tunnel of calm through the chaos of her emotions. Her kids -- ages 3, 1 and 3 weeks when John died -- had lost their father, and she knew they couldn't lose her, too. Running kept her sane.
She did marathons, then added ultra runs. Last year she did her first triathlon, Ironman Canada. In June she finished Ironman Coeur d'Alene in Idaho. Then on Oct. 11, Hallett completed the Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The woman of iron was officially an Ironwoman, three times over.
She swam, biked and ran 14 hours, 18 minutes and 43 seconds over 140.6 miles on a hot, windy day in Hawaii to honor John and every other casualty of war. She also did the race for herself and her children, who were waiting at the finish to smother her in hugs and kisses.
"I could have flown through that finish line," says Hallett, who was congratulated by more than a dozen family and friends who had come to cheer her.
"It was amazing. And the kids on the other side waiting for me and cheering for me. It was such a beautiful culmination of honoring John but learning to live a life of my own, empowered in a world that is now without him."
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