We ARE Distance Runners: The Marathon Hat Trick
A marathon is 26.2 miles long and millions of people have finished this race. However, African Americans frequently told, "You're sprinters, not distance runners." However, we ARE distance runners.
Fewer than sixty people in the world have completed the "marathon hat trick," which consists of running
- at least one hundred marathons,
- a marathon in all fifty states, and
- a marathon on all seven continents, including Antarctica.
Tony Reed and retired Marine Corps Major Lisa Davis are two of the three Blacks who achieved this feat. They were inducted into the National Black Distance Running Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2024, respectively. In 2007, Tony became the first Black in the world to finish marathons on the seven continents. Ten years later, in 2017, Lisa set the women’s world record for running marathons on seven continents in seven days, thirty minutes, and twenty-seven seconds. Despite the odds, they had both attended St. Louis’ Clark Elementary School, ten years apart. They went from the projects to making world history and a world record.
