When Anastasia Pursel crossed the finish line of the Bakersfield Half Marathon, she did it with a team by her side.
As she ran through the straightaway the morning of November 18, her friends Bryan Matthews and James Miller held each of her hands. While the crowd cheered enthusiastically, Matthews carried a hand-painted sign with the message, “Victory Is Mine.”
Only 8 years old, Pursel is already a fighter. At 17 months, she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a cancer that starts in the bone marrow. After six months in the hospital and another six months in isolation, she went into remission, and there is currently no evidence of the disease in her body.
The victory was hers at the Bakersfield finish line, just as it has been for her entire life. And running has played a big part for more than half of it.
When she was in preschool, her teacher Bethel Matthews (Bryan’s wife), encouraged Pursel’s mother Belinda to start running with her in the mornings. Soon, the whole family became immersed in the local running scene. Belinda started competing in 5K races, and began encouraging her three children to run alongside her during training runs around the neighborhood.
Just a few years after she learned how to walk, Anastasia was running. Now, it’s her favorite activity—the mornings she’s set to pound the pavement, she jumps out of bed eager to begin her day.
“I feel big when I run,” she told Runner’s World.
“I felt like it was important to expose her to some kind of physical activity that was fun, because Down syndrome kids are prone to be overweight and I didn’t want that for her,” her mother said. “I wanted her to grow up with a healthy mindset. This kind of helped develop that in her.”
Anastasia has participated in jog-a-thons at school, turkey trots, and other local road races, where she ran portions of the course and her father Scott pushed her in a running stroller for the remaining miles.
While Anastasia hasn’t completed an entire race by herself yet, Bethel acts as her “running buddy” for the races that she finishes. After every competition, she gives her participant medal to Anastasia.
[Want to start running? How a New Running Mom Prioritizes Her Life will take you through everything you need to know to get started, step by step.]
Anastasia’s goal to complete a half marathon became a reality when Miller, who is also a cancer survivor, offered to help get her to the finish line.
He met the Pursels through the 321 Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering people with Down syndrome. Last year, he was running the San Luis Obispo Marathon when he saw a guide leading a runner with visual impairment through the race. He was so moved by their teamwork that he offered his services to Anastasia, and enlisted the help of Bryan Matthews in the process.
Belinda credits that act of kindness from Miller and Matthews as a spark that helped build a dream for her daughter.
“It was analogous to her entire life because her life has been so rigorous. I compare it to when she was in the hospital. There is mental fatigue, physical fatigue, just emotional highs, and lows. Running is kind of the same way,” she said. “I was able to see the analogy between her running with these guys and how they helped her. It’s the same with her life, we’ve had help along the way. Yes, it was tough, but it was all victorious.”
Just as they finished, the trio started the race running and holding hands together. For the middle portion of the 13.1-mile course, Miller and Matthews pushed her in a running stroller until Anastasia wanted to get out and run with her fellow competitors into the finish line.
The three are already planning on completing the race again next year, and Anastasia’s long-term goal is to run an entire race by herself one day. No matter what, the victory will be hers.
“We want her to have no limits. Whatever her mind can think of, we just want her to go out and go for it,” Belinda said.
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
