Runner from Maryland completes all 6 marathon majors after COVID delayed his plans
Runner from Maryland completes all 6 marathon majors after pandemic delay
We’ve all heard the saying – life is a marathon, not a sprint. But it’s not often you can say it and mean it quite like this. FOX 5’s Josh Rosenthal is in Silver Spring with a story about a marathon runner making up for lost time almost exactly three years after the first confirmed COVID case in D.C.
SILVER SPRING, Md. - It’s been a long road for Antar Johnson.
He first spoke with FOX 5 DC on February 25, 2020.
Johnson had been working to run all six of the Abbott World Marathon Majors and having already completed the races in Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York, he only had Tokyo to go.
"It’s like they pulled the rug from under me one week beforehand," he said at the time.
Because of the nascent pandemic, all the training, the money, the family vacation Johnson had already booked – was gone.
"The pandemic, I mean it was just, it was a game changer," Johnson said Wednesday from his Silver Spring home. "It really just changed everyone’s priorities."
That is, until now.
This past Sunday, three whole years later, Johnson completed the Tokyo Marathon with his wife Tonia, and importantly, his daughter Karis looking on.
"I’m trying to instill in [Karis] the ethics of hard work and just trying to obtain a goal and no matter what, you know, don’t let things get in your way, you find a way to make it happen," Johnson said.
"He got this done," Karis would go on to tell FOX 5. "It’s such a major accomplishment, and I’m really proud of him."
Johnson finally got his Six Star medal to go with all the others he picked up along the way. He also set a personal record in Tokyo, finishing the race in 4 hours, 49 minutes, give-or-take, those crazy three years.
"The journey was the reward," he said. "So, now I just have to figure out what’s next."