Former Orienteer Puts Sweden on Marathon Map
Isabellah Andersson
By her own admission, Isabellah Andersson was not much of a runner when she was growing up in Kenya. “I was not good at all,” she says. That changed seven years ago, and all because of her interest in another sport.
The former Isabellah Amoro was introduced to orienteering when a school group from Sweden, where the sport is popular, visited her country. Orienteering involves running while finding one’s way on a course with map and compass. “When they saw I was interested and good, they invited me to Sweden,” recalls Andersson, now 30.
She went alone to Sweden in 2004, travelling outside Kenya for the first time. Her sense of adventure would lead her to meet her future husband, Lars, who was an instructor in a high school for orienteering where Isabellah went to deepen her knowledge of the sport.
Lars quickly realized that his student had great potential as a runner. “He advised me to stop orienteering and put more into running,” she says.
In February 2006, Andersson moved permanently to Sweden. She shifted her concentration fully to running, married Lars, and made her marathon debut in 2:51:10. Her nine marathons since then have included four successive victories in Stockholm (2008–2011). She became a Swedish citizen in 2009 and has set the Swedish record three times, most recently this past January in Dubai (2:23:41).
After her daughter, Beyoncé, was born in January 2009, Andersson won the Stockholm Marathon for the second time only four months later. When she lines up for her New York debut, it will be her fourth marathon of 2011 and her eighth in 22 months. Don’t put it past this determined woman to break the tape and become the race’s first-ever Swedish champion.
