Woman runs 95 marathons in 95 days, earns Guinness World Record

Nov. 10 (UPI) -- A woman who decided to run the distance of a marathon every day during COVID-19 lockdown earned a Guinness World Record by running 95 marathon distances in 95 days.

Alyssa Clark, who is originally from Burlington, Vt., said she was living in Italy in March 2020 when the government issued its first stay-at-home order and she soon discovered the summer marathons she had been training for were canceled.

Clark said she decided to run the distance of a marathon during every day of lockdown, expecting the project to last for about 15 days, but she kept it going, even finding time to run while moving to Naples, Fla.

Clark, who used a treadmill some days and ran outside when possible, ended up running 95 marathon distances in 95 days.

The runner said she had started a 96th marathon run, but decided to stop partway through when she felt ill.

"I always said that if I felt that I was going to be putting myself in a position of being a burden on the medical system, I would stop immediately," Clark told the Williams Record. "So as soon as things started going downhill, I pulled away from it."

Clark only later learned that she was experiencing symptoms of COVID-19.

She recently received word from Guinness World Records that she was the record holder for most consecutive days to run a marathon distance.

"I was and am definitely proud to have the record, but I hope someone will go out and break it one day soon," she said.