The two connected and stayed in touch, and ultimately, Simmons-Foster and some of her South Fulton teammates accompanied Reed for his 50th marathon. In a conference presentation, Reed mentioned his goal of running 50 marathons before turning 50 years old, which caught the interest of Charlotte Simmons-Foster, a conference attendee and then-president of South Fulton Running Partners in Atlanta, the oldest African American running club in the country. Jennifer McFarlane Gibson Promoting Black Inclusion in Distance Runningįor decades, Reed had logged most of his miles alone, having “never really thought about running with other Black runners, because I was used to doing it by myself.” Not until a chance meeting at the 2001 National Black Data Processing Association’s annual conference did Reed’s passions for running and Black inclusion collide. He has experienced firsthand Black people’s chronic underrepresentation and persistent isolation in distance running. Yet since that first 26.2, nearly every time Reed has laced up for a marathon, he has been one of relatively few Black participants, if not the only one. Before then, Reed had never heard of any Black people who ran-never mind won-marathons, but has said that he “came away from the race thinking it was normal for Black Americans to run marathons and to win marathons.” He noticed at least five other Black runners milling around the start line, one of whom, Ricky Cox, ended up winning the race. After years of consistently logging miles, he trained for and ran the 1982 Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth, Texas. Habitual running is often a gateway to marathoning, and Reed’s trajectory is no exception. As a college freshman he formalized his commitment to running and set a lifetime goal of averaging three running miles per day. In high school, Reed joined the cross country team, and later switched to track, to manage his pre-diabetes that he was diagnosed with at 8 years old. → Join Runner’s World+ to get the latest running news, training tips, and exclusive workouts! From Prediabetic to Globetrotting Marathoner It’s always about sharing somebody else’s accomplishments.” “He literally runs just for fun,” she told Runner’s World. Lisa Davis, NBMA member and 192-time marathoner, can confirm. And that’s the thing I love about the sport,” Reed said. “The more you know about the accomplishments of other people, the smaller your ego becomes. (And just for good measure, he’s also finished 131 marathons, including one in all 50 states.) However, Reed is much more inclined toward touting the NBMA and Black American distance running history than his own personal running achievements. He’s also the first Black person to have completed a marathon on each of the seven continents. Reed, 66, is the co-founder and executive director of the National Black Marathoners’ Association (NBMA) and a proprietor of the National Black Distance Running Hall of Fame. “A lot of African American distance runners had not thought about pursuing different running goals until they saw another African American was pursuing that goal or had completed it,” Reed said. That encounter and subsequent realization are among Reed’s many steps taken toward championing distance running for Black Americans-an endeavor that has become a lifelong marathon in every sense of the word. Reed realized that if one of those kids had even a fleeting thought that “Wow, this Black guy can run a marathon, maybe I can too,” then he had made a small stride toward getting a young Black person thinking about distance running. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play
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