Armstrong’s ex-wife runs for healing

NEW YORK – Like plenty of people, Lance Armstrong’s former wife took up running as a way to get in shape.

Now, a couple of years later, Kristin Armstrong has other motivations while she prepares for Sunday’s New York City Marathon.

The 33-year-old mother of three wants to raise awareness and money for Fertile Hope, a group that helps cancer patients preserve their chances of having a child.

She also hopes to inspire others to dig deep for an inner strength to go beyond where they thought they could.

On a personal note, Armstrong knows that running helped on her road to healing from a broken marriage.

“It’s a spiritual experience,” she said Friday at the Tavern on the Green restaurant, not far from the marathon’s finish line. “It is a way to clear your mind and do something positive for your body and spirit. It makes you feel clean.”

Her five-year marriage to Lance ended in 2003, soon after the cancer survivor returned home to his family after a record-tying fifth consecutive win in the Tour de France. He went on to add a sixth win in cycling’s most prestigious event this summer.

“What he did was on a completely different level,” she said. “He is so amazing. I’m just doing my own private thing in my own way.”

The resident of Austin, Texas, runs 5 to 7 miles a day, five times a week, usually while pushing a three-seater baby jogger carrying her son, Luke, 5 and twin girls, Grace and Isabelle, 3.

Armstrong ran in the Dallas White Rock Marathon in January, her first attempt at the 26.2-mile event, after two friends urged her to join them in training for the race. It was a way to get her to take better care of herself when they noticed her losing weight after the divorce.

She finished the Dallas race in 3 hours, 48 minutes, gritting through cramps in her calf muscles.

Armstrong says she would not have been able to have children without a doctor making her husband aware of alternatives such as sperm banks when he had cancer and received chemotherapy treatment.

“That is why I feel so passionately about Fertile Hope,” she said. “It gives those with cancer who want a family a reason to survive, a future, hope.”

Her pre-race ritual: “a prayer and a peanut butter sandwich.”