The chill in the wind and the prospect of flat tires proved no match for senior Tatyana McFadden as she finished first in Sunday’s ING New York Marathon women’s wheelchair division, achieving an unprecedented Grand Slam of the Boston, London, Chicago and New York marathons in the same year.   

Setting a personal course record, Illinois’ McFadden won the race in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 13 seconds, finishing nearly four minutes ahead of runner-up Wakako Tsuchida of Japan.

Teammate Amanda McGrory, who won the race when it was last held in 2011, finished fourth at 2:05:06.

McFadden was hoping to avoid a flat tire Sunday, which plagued her in the 2009 and 2011 races of the New York Marathon.

“I mean, a few times during the race, as I hit a few bumps, I was like: ‘Oh, no, this is going to come again; I’m going to get a flat; this is great,’” McFadden said in a press release. “But I just quickly looked at my tires and saw (the tires) were still rolling and saw they were OK.

“Then I just had to stay calm. If I flat, I flat. I have time to change it since I was in the lead.”

She added that she always straps on a spare tire. 

This win is another addition to McFadden’s growing list of athletic accomplishments, which includes a 2010 New York Marathon victory.

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, with spina bifida, a congenital disease that paralyzed her from the waist down, McFadden was adopted by Debbie McFadden in 1994. After coming to the U.S., she dived right into sports, including swimming, basketball and track and has since become an exceptional all-around athlete.

A 10-time Paralympics track medalist with three gold medals to her name, McFadden has competed in the Athens, Beijing and London Paralympics games. But it was not until 2009 that she started racing marathons.

“It’s taken me a long time to get where I am,” McFadden said. “I didn’t just wake up and this all happened. So it’s just about the training and taking the time and to really develop my muscles and develop the sprint aspect and developing endurance and try to put those together.”

The hours of training and dedication have paid off with McFadden becoming the first person — paralyzed or otherwise — to complete a marathon Grand Slam.

Balancing the life of a full-time student at the University with her athletics, McFadden faced fatigue and a rib injury before the Chicago race. In addition, the London marathon was merely six days after the Boston race, while the New York race took place only weeks after Chicago.

Nervous that the pain would return, McFadden spent the time in between managing her nutrition and getting plenty of rest.

“The training the past couple of weeks were really good, so I felt confident,” McFadden said. “And whatever happened, I told myself on Sunday, I did everything that I could do; just believe in myself and just hit all the strength on the course.”

Charlotte can be reached at [email protected].