Carla Drumbeater: "I Received the Gift of Resilience from My Ancestors"
Two years ago, if you'd asked Carla Drumbeater whether running 26.2 miles was something she’d ever dream of doing, she probably would have shaken her head and laughed.
But working as a respiratory therapist during the COVID-19 pandemic taught Carla that she has the fight to overcome challenges and the endurance to outlast them. Carla was often the final line of medical defense for patients struggling to take their last breaths. She’d survived things more trying than the marathon.
An Indigenous woman and member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Carla, 50, turned to yoga and meditation to cope with the grief and exhaustion she experienced at her job. Though she'd practiced yoga before, she intensified her practice through Native Strength Revolution (NSR), a nonprofit organization whose mission is “healing Indigenous communities one breath at a time.”
NSR also trains yoga instructors, and Carla received a scholarship to take the training and become an instructor. Now she's training for her first marathon at the TCS New York City Marathon and raising funds for NSR.
“Native Strength Revolution taught me to be a yoga teacher through the pandemic and helped my mind and body get stronger," she said. "I want to continue to get stronger and help raise money for our cause. Our cause is to create healthy communities and examples for Indigenous people to learn and practice yoga.”
Yoga and meditative breathwork, combined with diet changes, helped Carla lose 50 pounds, she said. Since she started training for the marathon, she said she has also see a reversal of her insulin-dependent diabetes.
The Indian Health Service (an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services) reports that diabetes and diseases of the heart are among the leading causes of mortality in this population, and that American Indians die at higher rates than other Americans from these conditions. Lower life expectancy and a disproportionate disease burden may exist because of inadequate education, disproportionate poverty, discrimination in the delivery of health services, and cultural differences, according to the agency.
“I am hoping to be an example for other Native people that they can be in charge of their health and reverse their diabetes with self-care, yoga, meditation, diet, and exercise,” said Carla.
When Carla joined the U.S Army 32 years ago, she finished basic training with the ability to run 10 miles at one time. She stopped running when she was pregnant with her son 18 years ago and didn’t pick it back up until April 2022, when NSR invited her to join their marathon training team.
“I thought the opportunity to run the marathon is a chance of a lifetime and it’s changing my life,” said Carla. “I have been off insulin for three weeks now. I was on insulin for 15 years. I have shed a lot of joyful tears during my training.”
Training for a marathon while managing diabetes is no easy feat. Drumbeater confesses it’s “freaking hard” to start her runs but the effort is worth the trouble of keeping her blood sugar from dropping too low during long runs. When she’s awash in endorphins after running, she sees that her ankles don’t swell anymore, her resting heart rate is down, and she’s stopped needing to take insulin to regulate her blood sugar.
These experiences give Carla confidence for running 26.2 miles. “We worked crazy hours to help people [during the pandemic,” she said. “So, I can run for six hours. I will not be the fastest but I will complete it.”
She added, “When I get tired, I remember I received the gift of resilience from my ancestors." It’s a mantra she’ll repeat when she’s running through the five boroughs on November 6.
Carla is part of #TeamInspire at the 2022 TCS New York City Marathon, a diverse group of runners whose stories capture the power of running to change lives.
