After finishing the 2024 Chicago Marathon, The Originals star Alicia Holt reflected on her journey.
“I think one of the most important traits in life is humility, but I’m going to let myself feel proud,” she wrote on Instagram. “I woke up at 4 a.m. all summer to train for this race. It was really f*cking hard and I asked a lot of my family during those four months. I doubted myself more often than not, and I was sick to my stomach at the thought of letting anyone down.”
Holt added, “But today I ran a personal best by 19 minutes (3:44:14), 11 months after having my third kid. I did it because of the unbelievable generosity of friends, family, and kind-hearted strangers. I did it because you believed in me, and the cause. Together we raised over $100,000 to help Boston Children’s Hospital tackle the mental health crisis. I am so beyond grateful to you all. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. One foot in front of the other was my mantra.”
Looking back, Alicia also shared her experience finishing the 2015 marathon in New York City, the concrete jungle where dreams are made of. She notched a time of 5:50:52 that year.
For the Grammy winner, running marathons has always been an energizing challenge. “I’m all about breaking mental boundaries,” she wrote in a Refinery29 blog post, “and training for a marathon falls right into the Jedi mind-training I need.”
In 2015, Alicia ran the Boston Marathon to support the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. During that race, she listened to Sara Bareilles’ “Brave” in tribute to a friend she lost to cancer. “That was her motivator getting through every single day of treatment, every single round of chemo. That was what she was listening to constantly,” she explained. “And I listen to that when I’m training now, and I can hear her telling me, ‘Keep going.'”
In a similar spirit, another experienced marathoner reflected on the mental toughness required to finish. “Running a marathon is not a question of whether it will be painful, but when it will be painful,” he said after completing his third marathon—the Boston race in 2003—in less than four hours. He later told Podium Runner, “People are terribly underwhelmed when they recognize me in a race. There’s nothing funny going on. It’s just a lot of silence and pain.”
Having kept up with running long after completing the Houston course in 1993, former President George W. Bush has been an advocate for making time to exercise. He accepted few excuses from those who said they couldn’t fit workouts into their schedules. “I believe anyone can make the time [to run],” he told Runner’s World during his term. “As a matter of fact, I don’t believe it—I know it. If the President of the United States can make the time, anyone can.”
—
This inspiring journey highlights the physical and mental challenges athletes face and the powerful support networks that help them achieve their goals. Whether running to honor a loved one, raise funds for a cause, or conquer personal barriers, the marathon continues to be a symbol of determination and resilience.
https://www.eonline.com/news/1424380/stars-who-have-run-marathons?cmpid=rss-syndicate-genericrss-us-top_stories