Amy Dodson began developing cancerous tumors in her left foot at age 10. When she was 19, her doctor amputated her leg just below the knee. At 22, Dodson lost her left lung to the same disease.

At that point, she'd never have guessed she would run a marathon, let alone become a world record-holder in that event.

On Oct. 5, 2002, Dodson - now a 40-year-old fifth-grade teacher from Adrian - ran 26.2 miles in 3:53:2, breaking Lindsay Nielsen's record for a woman leg-amputee by 24 minutes, 13 seconds.

As if that weren't enough, Dodson did it at the St. George Marathon in Utah, a course several-thousand feet above sea level that includes a steep climb up the side of a volcano. The marathon glides downhill after mile 22.

In a sense, she did. Just over a month later, Dodson smashed her own world record winning the women's Below-the-Knee national championship at the Silver Strand Half-Marathon in San Diego. Her 1:58:06 eclipsed the 1:59:16 mark she set while claiming the same title in 2000.

"I was hoping to run 1:45," Dodson says. "But I felt terrible and had a pulled muscle in my thigh." (She reached the halfway point at St. George in 1:54:00, but that didn't count.)

Still, two world records in less than two months is a pretty-fair way to end a year.

Dodson set the world leg-amputee 5K record of 23:51 in 2001. She prefers longer races though.

"I like the 10-mile and half-marathon," says Dodson. "But I really love going longer. Every marathon, including the training you do for it, is an adventure." The world record-holder runs 50 to 65 miles a week. Dodson didn't begin with the marathon. "When I started running in 1998," she remembers, "I could barely make it around a 400-meter track."

At that time, she used a walking prosthesis. She ran her first 5K in 45 minutes and her first marathon in 5:30 before moving up to a running prosthesis two years later.

The latter artificial leg helped her run the 2000 Jacksonville Marathon in 4:33, her best until setting her world record at St. George.

Recently, Lansing prosthetist Jan Stokosa designed a new Ossur leg for Dodson, which has helped her run faster, especially in long distances. "In the past, I had to stop every four or five miles to take off the leg and adjust it," says Dodson. "In last year's races I didn't have to stop at all." Every year prostheses seem to improve, says Dodson, who herself has made great improvement in her training, according to running friend Eric Clark.

"I've never run with anyone who has as much determination as Amy," says Clark, who owns the Running With E's store in Adrian. "She has goals she wants to accomplish and doesn't let anything slow her down." Dodson appreciates having Clark as training partner. "He gets up at five in the morning to run with me and gives me a lot of encouragement," she says.

Dodson also receives strong support from her husband, John (who conducts the Adrian Symphony Orchestra), dogs Freeway and Clifford, and from her students at Madison Elementary School.

As for the coming year, "I'd like to break 3:50," says Dodson. "That's the able-bodied Boston Marathon qualifying time for runners in my age group. (As an amputee runner, she has qualified for next year's race and previously run a 4:52 at Boston.)

"I never thought I'd get close to 3:50, but now I can I taste it," Dodson says.

She has other ambitions. "I want to do my first ultra - probably a 50K - in the near future," she envisions. "I'd also like to participate in triathlons with the ultimate goal of competing in the Ironman in Hawaii." Running has bolstered Dodson's self-confidence. "I used to be shy about showing my prosthesis in public," she says. "I tried hiding it from my co-workers.

"But after setting a world record in the marathon, I'm not embarrassed to be an amputee," she continues.

"It's a great feeling to have done this as a cancer survivor," says Dodson. "You never forget the pain caused by cancer or chemotherapy treatments. And you never forget cancer patients who didn't make it." MR