8 celebrities who run marathons, from Oprah and Diplo to Pippa Middleton

Working out in a gym seems to be par for the course for most of the world’s biggest stars, but what about those who take their fitness to another level? Anyone who’s done one will tell you that running a marathon is no mean feat.

Phil Dunster of Ted Lasso fame running a marathon. Photo: @phildunster/Instagram

So which stars decided to forgo looking cool, calm and collected to get sweaty with the general public? And more importantly, how did they do?

1. Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Reynolds ran a marathon over a decade ago to raise money for Parkinson’s. Photo: @ryanreynoldsnews/Instagram

Ryan Reynolds ran the 2008 New York Marathon to raise money for Parkinson’s, which his father suffered from, according to Runner’s World. However, before participating, he wasn’t loving the training. “Why on earth would I wilfully do this?” he wrote in the Huffington Post. “I am not a runner. I am a running joke.” In the end he completed it in an impressive three hours 50 minutes.

2. Diplo

Music producer Diplo ran the marathon on LSD. Photo: @diplo/Instagram

When he ran the Los Angeles Marathon last year, DJ and producer Diplo clocked an equally impressive time of three hours 55 minutes, per Runner’s World – except he did it while on LSD. The “Don’t Forget My Love” artist said on Instagram he’d decided to take the psychedelic drug before competing because he’d never run that far before. “Shout out my knees, which will never be the same … if anyone needs me I’ll be sitting down,” he added.

3. Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey’s standard became the benchmark for amateur runners to reference – and beat. Photo: @MarineCorpsMarathon/X

The queen of self-improvement famously did the Marine Corps marathon back in 1994 after vowing to complete the course before she turned 40, per Mental Floss. Her determination and decent finishing time (4 hours 29 minutes) went on to become a benchmark for amateur runners everywhere. Even Diplo referenced the talk show host after his race nearly 30 years later, saying: “My one goal was to beat Oprah’s time and I ate that (sorry Oprah).”