Celebrities, including Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Hart, have gone the distance and completed 26.2-mile races.
After witnessing the New York City Marathon as a spectator, Reynolds decided to give it a go in 2008. Ahead of his first big race, he penned an essay for the Huffington Post, using humor to explain why he chose to run.
“Every other day I train. I run like a bastard all morning. Not since the discovery of Junior High School has a torture been so effective,” he wrote in November 2008. “Why on earth would I willfully do this? Let it be known at the outset, I am not a runner. I am a running joke. Waking up at 4:30 a.m. and jogging anywhere from 11 to 23 miles has been nothing short of horrifying.”
The Green Lantern actor continued: “Although, I’ve never given birth to a professional basketball player through one of my tear ducts, I can’t imagine a worse way to start the day. Conversely, some people have real problems. I digress …”
Reynolds explained that he willingly signed up for the event after meeting Michael J. Fox and saw his “overwhelming strength” firsthand. The Canadian actor, who earned money for Parkinson’s Disease research with his run, noted that his father’s struggle with Parkinson’s Disease also inspired him to run a marathon.
Bachelorette alum Tayshia Adams, on the other hand, chose to start running again amid the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 after a car accident in college left her with a pelvic injury that affected her ability to run. She ran her first marathon in New York City in 2021.
Scroll down to see which other famous faces have run marathons or half marathons — and find out how long it took them to finish: