Jamie Watts of Arlington has cerebral palsy. If you go to any 5K or 10K race around here, you'll no doubt see her with her cane, her smile, and her tenacity.
Now, the 36-year-old is taking on something not many other people with cerebral palsy have ever done, if at all. She's training to run the New Jersey Marathon.
Watts explains that every person who has cerebral palsy can be affected differently.
"For me, primarily my legs are impacted so I walk with a cane, I run with a cane, but other than that I do everything else," she said.
Jamie started running 5Ks two years ago. She just wanted to prove she could do it.
She's run more than a hundred now. But, she's never taken on a task like this. She trains twice a week at Fitness Together in Alexandria and runs the other five days.
Kabar Harris is her trainer. He says he loves training with Jamie.
"Jamie had no 'I can't' in her. There's zero "I can't" so if she wants to do it, I figure out a way to do it, we get it done," said Harris.
Jamie says she didn't think she could do many of the exercises when she first walked in, but now she's doing many of them.
"It's just like figuring out what your body can do in a different way you've never conceived of it before. I'm just living the best life that I can," she said.
The N.J. Marathon is in April. The Marathon has made accommodations so Jamie and her crew from Fitness Together, Pacers and her other supporters will start the race at 10 p.m. the night before.
