The word 'marathon' comes from the Greek legend of Pheidippides, a messenger that ran 26 miles from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to announce the Persians had been defeated. Upon his arrival, he made his announcement and fell dead.
Now imagine doing that for fun, for 95 consecutive days.
Alyssa Clark, a Vermont ultra runner, decided to run a marathon every day for 95 consecutive days, setting a female world record.
Clark, 28, completed the feat, most consecutive days spent running a marathon distance, while the world was in lockdown from the coronavirus last year.
Don't worry, Clark is just as amazed as everyone else, saying that she finds "the whole thing a bit unbelievable," CNN reported.
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"I never started the journey of running 95 marathons thinking that I would be a world record-holder," Clark said. "Every day was a gift and kind of ending up with this. I'm still kind of shocked that it happened, and I just feel very grateful for it."
Clark was in Naples, Italy, when the world went into lockdown, as her husband, a member of the U.S. Navy, was stationed there. The runner started her marathon journey, trying to think of a new way to challenge herself after her ultra races were canceled.
As we all remember, lockdown was initially expected to last just two weeks, so Clark didn't think anything of breaking a record as she thought she would only run 14 or 15 consecutive days.
But just like quarantine, her running goal was quickly extended, and she had to make sure that she could keep pace.
"There's no take-backs on this ... If you mess one up or if you don't finish it or anything like that, then you don't get tomorrow," she said of the record.
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After 25 days of consecutive marathons, Clark started to look into the record— 60 consecutive days set in 2015 by Alice Burch of England.
Like any competitive person, she went for the record...and then went 34 more days.
She even kept the streak alive while moving from Italy to Florida, running a marathon at 1 a.m. in Germany during a layover.
Despite setting a goal of 100 days, Clark was unable to finish her 96th marathon due to a positive COVID-19 test.
While she doesn't plan on breaking the record anytime soon, she will continue to run and is planning on attempting the fastest time at the Pinhoti Trail, a 335 stretch from Alabama to Georgia.
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"Running is my constant," Clark said. "I'm the best version of myself when I'm running."
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