Who isn’t impressed by watching a marathon — or working one? The grit required to tackle this 26.2-mile problem is exceptional, whether or not you’re an elite athlete aiming to guide the pack or an odd particular person decided to finish the course nevertheless lengthy it takes.
This helps clarify why marathoning has been on the rise because the COVID-19 pandemic, with participation rising by 5 %, in accordance with some estimates.
Celebrities are additionally feeling drawn to compete. Whether or not chasing a private greatest, supporting a trigger, or checking off a objective on their bucket record — or all three — stars like Harry Types and Cythia Erivo are going the gap.
Harry Types
Pop celebrity Harry Types formally started his marathon journey in 2025, however he already boasts spectacular working stats, with a 3:24:07 end in Tokyo, then a 2:59:13 end in Berlin simply six months later — a large enchancment that put him in sub-3 territory.
In an interview with Runner’s World, Types cited the novel What I Speak About After I Speak About Operating by Japanese writer and marathoner Haruki Murakami as an inspiration to tackle the problem.
“If you wish to run a marathon, it takes numerous self-discipline. You possibly can’t go too quick too shortly,” Types stated.
Types additionally drew a parallel between marathoning and music. “Whenever you’re coaching for a marathon, which is the loneliest half, you simply form of set out for a run, and three hours later you come again. However there’s an actual synergy between that and digital music. It’s form of hypnotic and turns into like a mantra virtually.”
Types was already in high bodily situation previous to taking over marathoning. Talking to The Unbiased in 2025, private coach Thibo David stated that prematurely of Types’ Love on Excursions present in 2021 the 2 males would meet frequently for 12-mile runs and two-hour health club classes together with 20-minute conditioning protocols impressed by David’s background in blended martial arts (MMA).
Cynthia Erivo
Depraved star Cynthia Erivo knocked out a powerful 3:35:36 end on the 2022 London Marathon — and he or she’s not stopping there, with plans to tackle the 2026 London Marathon in late April.
Erivo is significantly sooner than she was 10 years in the past, when she ran the New York Metropolis Marathon in 3:57:07.
Erivo lately shared her structured coaching schedule with Ladies’s Well being:
Monday: a brief, fast “shake-out” run or hour on a motorcycle “simply to get my legs turned over”
Tuesday: a longish run at a relaxed tempo
Wednesday: “Fartlek” classes combining “comfortably arduous” working with brief, intense bursts of pace
Thursday: one other longish run (probably 10 or 11 miles)
Friday: a shorter run (about 6 miles)
Saturday: one other longish run
Sunday: a future, wherever from a half marathon to twenty or so miles
Erivo additionally prioritizes intentional relaxation and vitamin to assist preserve herself marathon-ready. She described herself to Ladies’s Well being as “like just a little squirrel” fueling herself with nuts, protein bars, gels, water, nutritional vitamins (together with a multivitamin, vitamin D, B12, and magnesium), and electrolytes.
Colin Farrell
When Colin Farrell ran the Dublin Marathon in 2024, it wasn’t about tempo — it was about objective.
The famend actor pushed a pal in a wheelchair for the ultimate miles to lift funds and consciousness across the incurable genetic situation epidermolysis bullosa (EB) — turning his 4:06:45 end time into an particularly memorable act.
“That run was nothing in comparison with the ache she is pressured to endure each single day, despite the fact that she doesn’t present it,” Farrell informed U.Okay. information company PA Media. “It was an honor to see her ready for me with 4 kilometers to go, every of these representing a decade of her life, and to do the ultimate stretch collectively. I’ll always remember it.”
Farrell has additionally run the 2021 Brisbane Marathon, clocking in at 3:53:14.
Jennifer Connelly
Actress and Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly laced up in 2024 on the New York Metropolis Marathon, coming in at a powerful 3:45:47.
That sub-4 efficiency locations her properly forward of the typical leisure runner — suggesting critical beginning line preparation, even whereas balancing a demanding performing profession.
Publish-race, Connelly took to social media with a hat tip to supporters, thanking “the unbelievable crowd that supported us all the best way” together with buddies, household, volunteers, and organizers who made the race attainable.
She gave a particular shout-out to Fred’s Workforce, the official charity working program for New York Metropolis’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Most cancers Middle, which has raised over $131 million {dollars} for most cancers analysis.
Randall Park
Actor and comic Randall Park, greatest identified for his position within the sitcom Contemporary Off the Boat, joined the marathon ranks when he ran the 2024 New York Metropolis Marathon — clocking a end time of 4:16.
Simply earlier than his first 26.2, Park revealed to GQ what his greatest coaching problem was — alongside together with his motivation to coach for his first marathon at age 50.
“It was about altering my mindset by difficult myself incrementally, and conquering these little challenges,” Park stated. “I’ve gotten much more into health generally, significantly with my father passing away and seeing his decline. It’s actually made me take into consideration my daughter and the way I need to be there for her so long as attainable and I need to be as wholesome as attainable.”
Ashton Kutcher
In 2022 actor Ashton Kutcher revealed he’d been recognized with an autoimmune illness referred to as vasculitis that incapacitated him. “Like two years in the past, I had this bizarre, tremendous uncommon type of vasculitis, that knocked out my imaginative and prescient, it knocked out my listening to, it knocked out like all my equilibrium,” Kutcher revealed on an episode of Nationwide Geographic’s Operating Wild with Bear Grylls: The Problem. “It took me like a 12 months to construct all of it again up.”
Construct it up he did, after which some: He not solely ran his first marathon, the 2022 New York Metropolis marathon, however he accomplished it in underneath 4 hours.
As notable as his 3:54:01 end time was his partnership different runners to lift greater than $1 million for his tech-focused nonprofit Thorn, devoted to defending kids from sexual abuse.
In an interview with GQ days earlier than the race, Kutcher supplied this recommendation to folks fascinated about becoming a member of the ranks of marathon runners: “It is only one step at a time. Operating is only a managed fall. That’s it,” he stated.
Kevin Hart
Marathons aren’t a brand new problem for comedian-actor Kevin Hart. He completed his first race in New York Metropolis again in 2017, clocking in at 4:05:06. The subsequent 12 months, Hart checked one other 26.2 off his record — crossing the end line on the 2018 Chicago Marathon at 4:13.
“I’m doing this to be an instance which you can be something that you just put your thoughts to. I put my thoughts to it, and I’m going to get it executed. That straightforward,” he stated.
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is a star marathoning legend. The previous speak present host and media mogul made headlines together with her 4:29:15 end on the 1994 Marine Corps Marathon, a time that grew to become iconic in working tradition.
In later reflections on the marathon-running journey, Oprah has embraced a easy — but highly effective — philosophy, and has been quoted as referring to types of train as “an excellent metaphor for all times.”
Oprah’s run helped demystify distance working for folks throughout the nation, inspiring a technology of first-time marathoners who associated to her everywoman quest for well being and wellness.
Natalie Dormer
Recognized for her position as Margaery Tyrell within the HBO collection Sport of Thrones, actress Natalie Dormer completed the 2014 London Marathon in a powerful 3:50:27.
That sub-4 end places her among the many sooner movie star runners — and displays critical coaching behind the scenes.
Dormer confirmed up on the London Marathon once more in 2016, coming in simply shy of her earlier end time. Talking to UK information outlet The Guardian on the time, Dormer underscored the significance of getting a help system throughout these robust coaching moments.
“Your help community if you prepare for a marathon must be sympathetic. Your family and friends — they’re doing it with you. So at any time when somebody tells you that they’re going to do it, give them as a lot encouragement as attainable after which give the folks of their life as a lot encouragement as attainable, as a result of I do know it’s actually arduous on the opposite folks in the home as properly,” Dormer stated.
Alicia Keys
R&B singer Alicia Keys took on the New York Metropolis marathon in 2015, ending in 5:50:52, and embracing the psychological problem as a lot because the bodily one.
In a Refinery29 weblog on the time, Keys famous what saved her impressed in the course of the race.
“What acquired me by was seeing unbelievable runners with prosthetic legs, or a person main a blind runner, or an older girl strolling with a cane to make it. These have been the surges of energy that I wanted,” Keys stated. “And the reminder that my thoughts is powerful, even stronger than my physique — essentially the most intimate instance of thoughts over matter.”
Carl Radke
Tv character and Summer time Home star Carl Radke crossed the 2025 New York Metropolis Marathon end line in 4:04:25 — and this milestone marked greater than a health achievement.
For Radke, the race is a part of a broader wellness objective, because the star has been open on social media and within the public sphere about how working suits into his sobriety journey targeted on well being and accountability.
“I form of crave the runner’s excessive,” Radke stated in an interview on the time with the Zac Clark Present podcast. “I used to crave different highs again within the day. However this one, particularly, there’s one thing about, I don’t know … I really feel like I’m assured, extra assured, I’m extra happier. And I don’t at all times really feel that approach pre-run.”
Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell could also be identified for comedy, however his marathon efficiency — 3:56:12 on the 2003 Boston Marathon — was no joke.
He informed media retailers on the time, “Operating marathons just isn’t a query of whether or not will probably be painful, however when will probably be painful. It does assist to have a humorousness, however I’m additionally respectful of the race.”
Ferrell nonetheless runs — proving he’s as dedicated to endurance as he’s to leisure.
