The Sunday Today host helps raise more than $400,000 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease while participating in the 2021 New York City Marathon.
The Bachelor stars head toward the finish line of the New York City Marathon on Nov. 7, 2021
"Singlehandedly the hardest thing I've ever done," the model said of taking on the race in her adopted city of New York. She crushed the 2017 outing in four hours, 41 minutes, and then trained to walk the Victoria's Secret runway in Shanghai weeks later.
"One foot in front of the other was my mantra!" Keys posted about finishing the 2015 course in the concrete jungle where dreams are made of. (She notched a time of 5:50:52.) For her, the race was 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."
Though the Game of Thrones star insisted she didn't much care about her time in the 2016 London event because she raised upwards of $7,000 for The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children's ChildLine service, she admitted to reporters she was "a tiny bit peeved," about her three-hour, 54-minute finish as it was 24 seconds slower than her 2014 debut.
Seeing his dad battle Parkinson's inspired the actor to run New York City in 2008. Finishing in three hours, 50 minutes, he also raised money to help fight the disease, teaming up with Michael J. Fox's Team Fox.
Having kept up with the sport long after he ran the Houston course in 1993, Bush accepted few excuses from people who said they simply couldn't squeeze a workout in. "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."
"Running a marathon is not a question of whether it will be painful, but when it will be painful," the actor said after finishing his third marathon—Boston's 2003 race—in less than four hours. He later noted to Podium Runner that 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."
With the help of Kanye West's "Stronger", the actress finished the NYC marathon in 2007, and then turned up (in heels!) alongside then-husband Tom Cruise at his Lions for Lambs premiere.
Before the Tony winner ran the 2016 New York City Marathon in three hours and 57 minutes, she tackled another feat of endurance, opening the race by belting out the National Anthem.
After vowing to take on a marathon before she turned 40, the queen of daytime television ran 26.2 miles in Washington, D.C. in 1994. In the pouring rain. As two National Enquirer reporters tagged along tracking her every move. She finished in an impressive four hours, 29 minutes.
A year after he tackled his first marathon in NYC, the comedian participated in the 2018 Chicago Marathon to raise funds to help send kids to college. "The reason behind this run is simply first and foremost personal greatness, personal achievement but also what I can bring awareness to, what I can raise money for," he shared on Instagram, shouting, "Education!"
Running the Boston Marathon in 2015 for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Orange Is the New Black star listened to Sara Bareilles' "Brave" in tribute to a friend she lost to the disease. "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.'"
Though the former Bachelorette told People her goal was simply to finish the hilly 26.2-mile course in New York City ("I don't want to be disappointed," she explained of getting her heart set on a specific time) the reality star walked away from the 2019 event with an impressive sub-four-hour finish time.