57 Celebrities You Didn’t Know Were Marathoners
57 Celebrities You Didn’t Know Were Marathoners
The next time you’re chasing down a marathon PR, keep your head up, or you might miss some of the famous race faces all around you. Check out the celebrity marathoners who might be in your pace group—and see how they fared at the 2017 NYC Marathon!
Karlie Kloss, 4:41:49
Karlie Kloss, 25, is an American supermodel and founder of Kode with Klossy. The former Victoria’s Secret Angel’s first marathon was New York in November 2017.
Prince Royce, 4:39:30
Prince Royce, 28, is an American singer, songwriter, and Bronx native. The 2017 NYC Marathon marked Royce’s 26.2 debut.
Daniel Humm, 3:12:10
Daniel Humm, 41, is a Swiss chef and the co-owner of 2017’s World’s Best Restaurant, Eleven Madison Park.
Chip Gaines, 5:21:54
Fixer Upper star Chip Gaines completed his first marathon in 5:21:54 at the inaugural Silo District Marathon, Half Marathon, and 5K in May 2018 in Waco, Texas. The performance marked a lifetime achievement for the 43-year-old HGTV personality and a massive fundraising effort for cancer research thanks to a collaboration with Gabriele Grunewald, a cancer survivor and professional runner.
Kevin Hart, 4:05:06
Kevin Hart, 38, is a comedian and recent Runner’s World cover star. The 2017 NYC Marathon was the Philly native’s first 26.2.
Yasir Salem, 4:41:33
Yasir Salem, 40, is a professional competitive eater and Ironman.
Carole Radziwill, 6:42:06
Carole Radziwill, 54, is a journalist, author, and star of The Real Housewives of New York City. Naturally, she chose the Big Apple for her marathon debut.
Candice Huffine, 5:43:03
Candice Huffine, 33, is a model, fashion designer, and founder of Project Start. Huffine’s first marathon was Boston, and she has since run both a half and full 26.2 in NYC.
Ryan Reynolds, 3:50:22
Actor Ryan Reynolds ran the 2008 New York City Marathon to raise money for Parkinson’s in honor of his father, who suffered from the disease. In an eloquent blog entry on the Huffington Post, he pledged to “join thousands of other men and women to march in lockstep solidarity toward searing psychic pain and physical humiliation.” Not a bad race time for someone who claims to be more of a “running joke” than a runner.
Nev Schulman, 3:21:58
Nev Schulman, 33, is best known for his 2010 documentary Catfish and the follow-up MTV series by the same name. Schulman made his marathon debut in 2015 at the New York City Marathon where he ran a 3:34:31—which made him the fastest celebrity to cross the finish line that year.
His goal for the 2016 marathon was to break three hours. Though he missed that mark, he shaved an impressive 12:33 off of his personal record.
Sam Ryan, 4:49:51
Sam Ryan is an award-winning sportscaster with the Major League Baseball network and a dedicated runner who likes to get in at least 30 miles a week. Even when traveling, she still finds time to run wherever she stays. Ryan ran the New York City Marathon in 2016 and 2017.
Joe Strummer, 3:20
Strummer, frontman of seminal British punk band The Clash, actually ran three marathons during the band’s early-’80s heyday, including the 1982 Paris Marathon and 1983 London Marathon. When asked about his training program in a U.S. magazine interview, Strummer laid out this typically rock-star advice (which is not necessarily endorsed by any of Runner’s World’s training plans): “Drink 10 pints of beer the night before the race. Ya got that? And don’t run a single step at least four weeks before the race. …But make sure you put a warning in this article, ‘Do not try this at home.’ I mean, it works for me and Hunter Thompson, but it might not work for others. I can only tell you what I do.” Strummer, pictured here in 1999, passed away in 2002 at age 50.
George W. Bush, 3:44:52
“I ran the first mile in 8:30 and the last mile in 8:30,” Bush told Runner’s World about his experience carefully pacing the 1993 Houston Marathon. “It was one of the great experiences of my life. I learned that running can make you feel 10 years younger the day of the race and 10 years older the day after the race.”
Edward Norton, 3:48:01
How did actor Edward Norton get so fast? Well, for one, he trained in Kenya. Norton ran the 2009 New York City Marathon to raise money for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, an organization promoting sustainable development and protecting the Maasai tribe’s home and way of life.
Cynthia Erivo, 3:57:07
Tony-Award-Winning actor Cynthia Erivo ran the 2016 New York City Marathon, after singing the National Anthem at the race’s start. 2016 was a good year for Erivo; she won Best Actress for her role in The Color Purple in 2016.
Erivo completed her 13.1-mile race in May of 2016, at the Brooklyn Half Marathon. After a small asthma attack at mile 11, she finished in 1:47:19 and returned to Broadway to for two performances that evening.
Theo Rossi, 3:35:48
Theo Rossi, an actor and producer most well known for his role as Juice in the TV show Sons of Anarchy, made his marathon debut in 2016, at the New York City Marathon.
Rossi started running back in 2009 after he decided to lose weight for a role, and he’s been an avid runner ever since. Rossi has said that running helps his creative process, and he sets aside time, no matter what, to run before an important day.
Jax, 5:17:37
After Jax, a singer and 2014 American Idol finalist, ran her first New York City Marathon, she performed at Bar Nine in Manhattan, wearing her finisher’s medal proudly around her neck.
Jax’s race was particularly important to her. She had returned to running after a public battle with thyroid cancer.
Will Reeve, 4:36:15
Will Reeve, the son of Superman actor Christopher Reeve and a television personality for ESPN, made his marathon debut at the 2016 New York City Marathon.
The 25-year-old ran for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which provides research grants and aid for people with severe spinal cord injuries.
The foundation has fielded a charity team in the NYC Marathon since 2005. Reeve raised over $36,000 for the foundation.
Marion Bartoli, 5:40:04
2013 Wimbledon Singles Champion, Marion Bartoli, made her marathon debut at the 2016 New York City Marathon. She had set the goal to run over the summer while suffering from a serious viral illness that had kept her in the hospital for weeks.
Bartoli ran and raised funds for New York Road Runners Team for Kids, the marathon’s largest charity running team.
Pippa Middleton, 3:56:33
The younger sister to British Royal Kate Middleton is an active runner, but prefers to complete marathons in exotic locales. Her PR and 26.2 debut came at the 2015 Safaricom Marathon in Kenya, where she finished in 3:56:33. She was the seventh overall female.
More recently, Middleton completed the 2016 Great Wall Marathon in China. Her time of 4:54:51 on the grueling course was the 13th fastest female finish.
Natalie Dormer, 3:50:57
Natalie Dormer, who plays Margaery Tyrell on the HBO series Game of Thrones, ran 3:51:21 in the 2016 London Marathon.
“I’m a tiny bit peeved,” she told reporters after the marathon. She ran 24 seconds slower than her marathon debut of 3:50:57 in the 2014 race.
The British actress, 36, was one of 900 runners raising money for The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children’s ChildLine service, according to the Telegraph. When asked about the cause, she said she didn’t care about her time because her race was for children in need. Dormer raised about $7,200 for the charity.
Andrea Barber, 4:58:02
Kimmy Gibbler’s only way to relate to runners may be her famously pungent feet. Yet Andrea Barber, who played the Tanner family’s zany neighbor on the ’90s sitcom Full House, is a veteran full and half marathoner. She completed her fourth 26.2 in the 2016 Los Angeles Marathon. Barber says she signed up for her first race, the Tinker Bell Half Marathon, out of peer pressure from some friends. “Something happened out there around mile nine where I felt the runner’s high for the first time. When I crossed the finish line I cried. I was changed. I signed up for my next race that night.”
Alicia Keys, 5:50:52
Alicia Keys joined nearly 50,000 runners through the “concrete jungle where dreams are made of” for the 2015 New York City Marathon. The race was the second attempt at 26.2 miles for the Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and actress. Keys wrote in a blog post on Refinery29. “I’m all about breaking mental boundaries, and training for a marathon falls right into the Jedi mind-training I need.” Keys ran to raise funds for an organization she cofounded called Keep a Child Alive, which works to get HIV medications to children and families in Africa.
James Blake, 3:51:19
James Blake, once the No. 4-ranked tennis player in the world, ran the 2015 New York City Marathon. In what was his first crack at 26.2 miles, Blake succeeded at his goal of breaking four hours. The Connecticut native ran for the James Blake Foundation and the Thomas Blake Sr. Memorial Research Fund at Memorial Sloan Kettering in honor of his father, who died of stomach cancer in 2004.
Christy Turlington Burns, 3:46:35
Though the supermodel lives in New York City, Christy Turlington Burns had never experienced the marathon festivities until she ran it herself in 2011. “I couldn’t believe I missed out on that side of it because it is an extraordinary day in New York,” she told Runner’s World. “But I’m also happy I saved it to experience from the inside out. It is overwhelming how many people come out. It is one thing to have people support friends and loved ones, but all of the New Yorkers that come out to inspire and motivate you—complete strangers in every borough.”
Uzo Aduba, 5:01
At the 2013 New York City Marathon, the Orange is the New Black actor heard spectators screaming her on-screen moniker of “Crazy Eyes” more often than her own name, she revealed on the late night show Conan. It comes with the territory when you play one of Netflix’s most popular characters. She also ran the Boston Marathon in 2015 in a time of 5:03.
Pamela Anderson, 5:41:03
The Baywatch television star and model ran her first 26.2 at the 2013 New York City Marathon with her signature blonde hair tucked back in a blue baseball cap. She ran for the J/P Haitian Relief Organization, a nonprofit organization founded by the actor Sean Penn.
Drew Carey, 4:37:11
Carey, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve for six years, ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 2011 as part of his weight-loss journey. Carey said he trained based on his heart rate: “Some days I just do an easy 45 minutes,” he told Runner’s World. “Other days I do high-intensity speed or hill work that gets my heart rate as high as it can go. The only high mileage I do is on weekends—I’m never out there jogging for the heck of it.”
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Kirk Acevedo, 3:00:08
“At the 2010 New York City Marathon, I was 15 miles in and tore my posterior tibialis [lower-leg muscle] going over the 59th Street Bridge,” Acevedo told Runner’s World. “I still finished with a 3:00 PR, but that led to two years of injuries. I was so depressed, because I knew I was in the best shape of my life.” In 2014, he set out to run sub-3:00 in New York, but had to drop out.
Jennie Finch, 4:05:26
The former Olympic softball player started in last place at the 2011 New York City Marathon. For every runner she passed, Timex donated a dollar to the New York Road Runner’s youth programs. She finished ahead of 30,397 participants. “I understand why people do it over and over and put themselves through this incredible pain to experience it,” she told Bleacher Report. “It’s so empowering.”
Joe Bastianich, 3:42:36
A restaurateur and star on the CNBC show Restaurant Startup, Bastianich is a frequent marathoner who didn’t start running until 2006 as a means to lose the extra 60 pounds on his frame. A year later, he ran his first New York City Marathon. The race served as a testament “to how far I’d come,” Bastianich told Runner’s World, “and how I really changed my life.” He ran his personal best at the same race in 2009.
Tedy Bruschi, 4:47:44
The former New England Patriots linebacker ran the Boston Marathon in 2012, a year known for it’s searing temperatures that reached 89 degrees by 12:30 p.m. “At 3 a.m. that night I had to go to the hospital to get IVs,” he told Runner’s World. “I was like, ‘Holy smokes, how could anyone do this!’”
Dan Mullen, 4:28:35
When you’re in Starkville, Mississippi, on a Saturday night in the fall, there’s no place louder than Davis Wade Stadium—home of the Mississippi State Bulldogs football team. The crowd of more than 60,000 clangs cowbells for a majority of the game, making it a unique atmosphere in college football.
But for Dan Mullen, the head coach ruling the sidelines for the Bulldogs since 2008, the left turn from Hereford Street onto Boylston for the Boston Marathon was just as invigorating as running out of the tunnel.
In his first marathon—and the first time wearing a race bib ever—Mullen completed his journey from Hopkinton to downtown Boston in 4:28:35. It is believed he is the first Division I college football coach to run the Boston Marathon.
Bobby Flay, 4:01:37
The celebrity chef hoped to finish the 2010 New York City Marathon in under four hours, he told Runner’s World. “Usually by mile 18 or 19 I’m hitting not just one but 10 brick walls,” he said before the race. “Part of the problem before was that I didn’t train well enough. I remember in 2002 I hit the halfway mark ahead of schedule, thinking that if I walked from here I’d still be doing okay. But then I just absolutely got crushed [he finished in 4:08:45].”
Ben Gibbard, 3:56:34
The lead singer for Death Cab for Cutie became a runner to reverse an unhealthy lifestyle and ran his first marathon—the 2011 L.A. Marathon—four years later. “We often end up on these long tours, when we’re away from home, playing shows, doing press, getting sick, missing people back home—wives, or kids for some of us,” Gibbard told Runner’s World. “I started to look at what I do for a living through the lens of doing a marathon. The marathon was the most difficult thing I’ve done in my life. To get through that, it made me realize I can get through anything.”
Gordon Ramsay, 3:30:37
The restaurateur known for hosting the TV series Hell’s Kitchen ran his fastest 26.2 at the London Marathon in 2004. He’s also an Ironman finisher.
Doug Flutie, 4:50:11
Flutie, the Heisman-winning quarterback from Boston College in 1984, ran a 23-minute personal best at the 2015 Boston Marathon in 5:00:12 despite a sprained right calf and a battered left knee from years of football. “All the autographs along the way had to have wasted 10 to 15 minutes,” he joked to Runner’s World. “If I can get in a position to condition for the race without killing myself, I think I can run a decent time.” He was back at the Boston Marathon in 2017 to knock another 10 minutes off his PR.
Summer Sanders, 3:17:05
Olympic gold medalist Sanders started running soon after she hung up her swimsuit in the early 1990s. In 2002, she ran the New York City Marathon. “I think every marathon hurts,” Sanders told Runner’s World. “But it was definitely better [than my first marathon]. I had a faster pace; I still fell off on the back half—the second half of the marathon I was much slower. But I still enjoyed every second of it. It was awesome.”
Flea, 3:41:49
The bass player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers said he was never really a runner until he read the book Born to Run. “It affected me profoundly—the concept of our bodies being used for their real purpose when they’re running,” he told Runner’s World. “I thought, ‘F--k it. I’m gonna run a marathon and raise money for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music.’”
Bill Rancic, 4:31:31
An entrepreneur who won the first season of the TV show, The Apprentice, Rancic ran his fastest marathon at the 2001 Chicago Marathon. He has since run a handful of 26.2s for charities, including the 2013 New York City Marathon in 4:57 for his wife Giuliana’s organization, Fab-U-Wish. “In my late 20s, my buddy made a bet with me that I couldn’t run the Chicago Marathon. It was about nine weeks out, and I started training and I did it,” Rancic told Runner’s World in 2013.
Teri Hatcher, 5:06:42
Hatcher is a Golden Globe Award-winning actress known for playing Susan Mayer on the TV series Desperate Housewives. Before she ran the 2014 New York City Marathon, she told Women’s Running Magazine: “I’ve been told by people who have done a few marathons that the first one is great, because there’s this excitement in the adventure of not knowing. There’s so much I can’t even anticipate, and so much that I’m super excited to experience. But honestly, I’m nervous.”
Valerie Bertinelli, 5:14:37
The actor, famous for her roles on the TV shows One Day at a Time, Touched by an Angel, and Hot in Cleveland, ran the 2010 Boston Marathon to benefit the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute just four days before her 50th birthday. After the race, she told People magazine: “I wonder if it’s anything like childbirth where you forget how painful it was. I think I had a pretty amazing time!”
Caroline Wozniacki, 3:26:33
Despite battling a vanilla milkshake craving, headwinds, and “The Wall” around mile 20, Caroline Wozniacki, the eighth-ranked tennis player in the world at the time, “kept grinding” through Central Park to finish the 2014 New York City Marathon in her first attempt at the distance. “I’ve never tried anything this hard,” Wozniacki said about comparing the race to playing tennis matches. “This is the toughest physical test ever. Every time I go out onto a tennis court, I know what to expect. But this was completely different.”
Apolo Ohno, 3:25:12
After the eight-time Olympic medal winner retired from speed skating, he ran his first 26.2, the New York City Marathon, in 2011. “I went from short, ballistic-type one-and-a-half minute training to something that lasts three hours, 24 minutes longer,” he told Extra after the race. “The last 6.2 miles are gruesome, my body isn’t designed for this.”
Michelle Beadle, 6:08
The ESPN host used the 2013 New York City Marathon to make her debut. “I’ve always said to myself that I’m going to run a marathon before I die,” she told Runner’s World before the race. “For my first to be New York City is amazing and intimidating. It’s bragging rights for life. It’s the marathon everyone wants to run.”
Al Roker, 7:09:44
The Today show cohost didn’t realize how many hills were in New York City until he did the marathon in 2010. “I remember looking at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and thinking, “What have I signed up for here?” he told Runner’s World. “It’s one of those things where you’re like, ‘Okay, here we go!’ Your corral starts off and you start running, and I guess the adrenaline kind of gets you going, and you’re literally off to the races; you’re fine. It wasn’t until I was running through Brooklyn that I realized just how many hills are in New York.”
Tiki Barber, 4:28:26
The former NFL running back, who is the all-time rushing leader for the New York Giants, spoke with the Daily News about how at the 2016 New York City Marathon he got caught up in the excitement of the race and ran too fast over the Verrazano Bridge. “I ran that first mile in 7:24,” he told the Daily News. “Maybe it was the fact that I was in the first wave of runners, which pulled me along too fast. I cramped up by mile 13.” Although Barber set his PR at the race in 2016, he was back again in 2017, finishing in a time of 4:38:15.
Bryan Cranston, 3:20:45
Walter White has some wheels. The Breaking Bad actor ran the New York City Marathon in 1985. According to a piece in the New Yorker, Cranston watched the race the year before and was inspired to run it himself. “…old people, children, people in bunny costumes, people who’d lost their legs, this amazing menagerie of humanity,” he told the New Yorker.
Katie Holmes, 5:29:58
After stopping to greet then-husband Tom Cruise and daughter Suri at Mile 23, Katie Holmes went on to cross the finish line of the 2007 New York City Marathon looking so strong and photogenic it launched an elaborate conspiracy theory as to whether she had run the race at all. Her split times should lay speculation to rest, but the mystery of how she managed 26.2 miles in boot-cut yoga pants lives on.
Mario Lopez, 4:23:29
The former teen heartthrob from Saved by the Bell and current host of Extra ran the New York City Marathon in 2011. “Running is my alone time,” he told Runner’s World. “I have people around me all the time, all day. The only time I have alone is when I’m running, or when I’m at church. Running’s easier to fit in.”
Eddie Izzard, 5:00:30
In 2009, actor and comedian Eddie Izzard not only ran a marathon, he ran 43 marathons in 51 days (after just five weeks of training!) to raise money for Sport Relief. He recorded his best time—5:00:30—on his last marathon, completing a 1,100-mile journey around Britain. He blogs about his epic running adventures here.
Al Gore, 4:58:25
Want to run 26.2, but feel like you don’t have enough time to train? That’s a hard excuse to sell considering Al Gore ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 1997 while he was still vice president of the United States (which means a few Secret Service officers probably had to get in long-distance shape, too). Gore reportedly ran the race on a dare from his daughters and finished in just under five hours.
Shia LaBeouf, 4:35:31
Transformers star Shia LaBeouf ran the 2010 Los Angeles Marathon—his first—on behalf of the nonprofit U.S. Vets, which provides services to veterans in need. LaBeouf said he was inspired to run for the cause in support of his father, a Vietnam veteran, and his grandfather, who was a Green Beret.
Sean Astin, 4:04
The 2012 Los Angeles Marathon was actually Lord of the Rings star Astin’s third L.A. 26.2—he ran a 4:04 PR in 1998, and finished the 2010 marathon in 5:16 on a pulled calf muscle. Astin shared his thoughts on marathoning with Runner’s World in our March 2012 issue: “A perfect run has nothing to do with distance. It’s when your stride feels comfortable. You’re on your toes trying to push it. Suddenly you realize you can open it up a bit more. I feel it in my chest. I always look fat in running pictures because my shoulders go back to open my chest up, and it makes my belly stick out. But you know you’re at one with yourself and the environment. You’re a little more alive than before you started.”
Oprah, 4:29:15
It should come as no surprise Oprah ran a marathon, considering she helped kick off the “Anyone can do it!” mentality back in 1994, but her Marine Corps Marathon time is worth including because it has since developed special significance as one of those benchmark goals for many runners. Boston-qualifying time out of reach? Consider shooting for your Oprah qualifier, AKA the “Oprah line,” first.
Sean Combs, 4:14:54
Rapper and entrepreneur Sean Combs entered the New York City Marathon in 2003 with one expressed goal: crushing Oprah’s marathon time. After only two months of training and on an injured knee, Combs not only finished the race in 4:14:54—well under his time goal—but he also raised over $2 million for children’s charities and New York City public schools.
Will Ferrell, 3:56:12
While the 2003 Boston Marathon wasn’t Will Ferrell’s first marathon, the comedian and former Runner’s World cover model got serious about training for the big race. “Running a marathon is not a question of whether it will be painful, but when it will be painful,” he told reporters after crossing the finish line. “It does help to have a sense of humor, but I’m also respectful of the race.”
From Kevin Hart to George W. Bush, these celebs have all checked 26.2 miles off their bucket list.