Albuquerque teacher turns to running after battling alcoholism. Now, she's competing in the Boston Marathon.

For long-distance runners the opportunity to compete in the prestigious Boston Marathon is a huge feather in their headband. On April 21 there will be 54 invited athletes from New Mexico scheduled to run in this year’s race among 30,000 from around the globe.

A major achievement for many next Monday will be to finish the 26.2-mile event after enduring energy-sapping Heartbreak Hill in the latter stages. And for those performing extra well it will be a chest-pounding accomplishment. It’s been that way since 1897, when 15 men competed.

There was plenty of chest-pounding locally in the late 1980s and early ‘90s when University of New Mexico grad Ibrahim Hussein, a native of Kenya, won the marathon in 1988, 1991 and 1992, benefiting from high-elevation training.

Dukes Track Club co-founder/coach Jesse Armijo, a three-time Boston Marathon runner and 2012 entrant in the U.S. Olympic Trials, knows all about that.

“(Hussein) would train with his group along Route 66 and head east toward Tijeras, which is exactly what our (Albuquerque) team has been doing since 2008,” he said. “That hilly route makes runners tough.”

Another past top Albuquerque performer in Boston was Caroline Rotich. She was the women’s winner in 2015.

This year, among New Mexico runners entered are Jonathan Grimm of Los Alamos and Zachary Alhamra of Santa Fe. More on them later.

Then there’s Mary Fortuin, a 37-year-old Albuquerque Public Schools special education teacher who’s a recent UNM grad and single mom of a 16-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. Her journey to Boston is particularly remarkable since it isn’t often a runner qualifies soon after a life-threatening bout with alcoholism.

An arduous climb

Fortuin said that just four years ago, before she became an educator, she would return from work each day and drink to excess — and always at home because she wanted to keep her habit a secret.

“I still was a great mom, taking my kids to all their doctor appointments and was on the PTA,” she said. “I didn’t have any DUIs. I didn’t drink and drive. It was just something I did because I was very, very unhappy.”

This went on for 10 years, except for an extended stretch while pregnant with her son.

Word of her addiction spread quickly, however, after she was hospitalized with pancreatitis, which was largely the result of the alcohol consumption.

“When I got out of the hospital,” she said, “it was like, ‘OK, this is scary. This is a problem.’ That’s when everybody found out about my drinking. It was time to ask for help.”

That came at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. “They saved my life,” she said. “Now I’m hoping I can help erase the stigma of alcohol addiction for others.”

Her lifestyle turnaround

Fortuin turned sober April 28, 2021. Six months later she developed a new addiction — running.

“My older brother was coming to town to run the Duke City Marathon and he said, ‘You should run the half.’ So I was like, ‘OK.’

“I went out the next day and ran about 10 miles and said to myself, ‘I can run a marathon. He’s older than me. If he can do it, I can do it.’”

And she did in 3 hours, 59 minutes.

“Running really has helped me stay sober,” she said earlier this month before a training run at Academy Hills Park in Northeast Albuquerque. “I feel proud of myself. I feel like I’m taking care of my body again.”

How it all came about

Fortuin said she was about 14 when she began dealing with an eating disorder. That issue eventually contributed to her penchant for drinking: “I’m not quite sure why it all started. Something triggered it while I was in high school.”

Not coincidentally, that’s about when her family moved from her childhood home of Columbus, Georgia, to Danville, Kentucky. On top of that her mother was dealing with cancer, which she eventually beat.

Before Fortuin’s senior year the family was on the move again, this time to Albuquerque, where Mary attended Eldorado High and graduated in 2006. She then enrolled at UNM.

By next spring, however, she dropped out “after majoring in partying.”

It got worse from there.

“Then I had my daughter (Aubrey) and her dad introduced me to the world of drugs being OK and drinking being OK,” Fortuin said regarding her then-boyfriend. “Then I got out of there and I met my husband. Everything was OK and then I had my son (Andrew). But it just kind of spiraled from there. The drinking became an everyday thing.”

But those troubles are now behind her.

“I got a divorce last year. two years after being sober,” she said. “I wanted to get sober so I could get that divorce. I then went back to school (UNM) for three years straight while working full time at APS.” She graduated last spring.

Now busy with training

On a typical weekday Fortuin will run seven to eight miles at Academy Hills Park and nearby neighborhoods before sunrise.

“I get lit up like a Christmas tree with all my gear on,” she said. She once shared the park with a “jaywalking mountain lion.”

“On weekends I’ll be down at San Mateo and run up way past Tramway. That elevation change helps me prepare for Heartbreak Hill. I’ve been exhausting myself on runs and then doing those hills.

“My goal for Boston, to be realistic, is a time of 3:28,” she said. “But if I want to be really realistic, it’s 3:45.”

Training at high, high elevation

Grimm, 28, is a research and development engineer at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

“I typically run after work,” he said, noting the elevation there is upward of 7,300 feet. “Training for Boston is tough since you have to train through the middle of winter with harsh weather and running in darkness.

“I have trained for several marathons but have gotten injured towards the end of each training plan.”

But not this time.

“I have found running consistently has really helped me stay injury-free,” he said. “I am at my peak running condition.”

His goal next Monday: “I would love to run a Boston qualifying time.” His aim is roughly 2 hours, 50 minutes.

Back in the groove

Alhamra, also 28, is a systems engineer at LANL. He will be making his first appearance in Boston after a stellar distance-running prep career in Colorado Springs. He was Colorado’s 2013 Gatorade Cross-Country Athlete of the Year as a junior.

But his body screamed enough’s enough in his senior year.

“I was leading the race in the state championship when my body broke down,” he said. “It was from overtraining and burnout. It was like I was running in concrete.”

He then put distance-running competition in his rearview mirror until Utah’s St. George Marathon in 2021.

Nowadays, while training for Boston, he topped out at 90 miles a week, including his Albuquerque Half Marathon victory April 5.

Next week? He’s aiming for the low 2:20s. And to finish injury-free.