Gabriela Beltre has always wanted to be a marathoner. And this weekend, she finally made that dream come true.

Last month, Beltre was nearing the end of her training for Chicago. Advertisement

"I feel like a whole new person," the Lynn mom said at the time. "I feel alive."

But that was not always the case. Beltre said she has struggled with her weight most of her life, which made her desire to be a runner incredibly difficult.

She said she'd tried everything to lose weight, but nothing seemed to work. So, after doing research, she turned to weight loss surgery.

"I recognized that I really needed to get some help," she said.

Beltre had a procedure called a duodenal switch, which reduces the size of the stomach and bypasses a section of the small intestine to reduce how many calorie

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