{"id":920504,"date":"2026-04-26T21:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T21:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/920504\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T21:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T21:37:16","slug":"cynthia-erivo-ran-321-at-the-london-marathon-and-finished-to-defying-gravity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/920504\/","title":{"rendered":"Cynthia Erivo Ran 3:21 at the London Marathon\u2014and Finished to \u2018Defying Gravity\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 London Marathon delivered big today. Kenya\u2019s Sabastian Sawe<\/a> won in 1:59:30, the first sub-2 in a record-eligible marathon and a new world record, and Ethiopia\u2019s Tigst Assefa<\/a> took the women\u2019s race in 2:15:41, a women\u2019s-only world record.<\/p>\n

Organizers and local coverage pegged this year\u2019s field at about 59,000 runners, a massive turnout that makes the race a full-city event, with crowds packed along the route from start to finish. The course is the classic London sightseeing sprint in reverse, starting in Greenwich, flowing past iconic landmarks like Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf, and finishing on The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n

But through all the record-breaking excitement, one of the more special moments of the day came later in the afternoon: Cynthia Erivo finishing in 3:21:40<\/a> with the song \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d playing as she crossed the line.<\/p>\n

Check out the video here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related Stories<\/p>\n

As the Elphaba in the Wicked film adaptation, this is basically the theater kid version of winning the lottery. And if you\u2019ve ever heard her hit that high note (you know the one I\u2019m talking about), you already know why the internet lost its mind at the idea of her closing out a marathon to the Broadway track most associated with never going down without a fight. The only thing that would\u2019ve made it more on-the-nose is if she\u2019d run the whole thing in full Elphaba green, which \u2026 funny in theory, but likely a nightmare in practice.<\/p>\n

Today was a PR day for Erivo, too, who didn\u2019t just finish\u2014she flew, no broomstick required. She ran 3:35:36 at London in 2022, and when speaking to Runner\u2019s World<\/a> last month, she was open about chasing another PR, with 3:15 as the dream number. She came in a little north of that, but shaving that much time off while living the schedule she\u2019s living is ridiculous in the best way.<\/p>\n

According to Erivo, she always keeps coming back to running even when her work life gets a little hectic because she considers it to be her \u201cmeditation,\u201d adding that it helps her \u201creturn back to myself\u201d after performing. And considering she\u2019s currently starring in Dracula in London\u2014playing the title character and all 23 roles\u2014that reset clearly isn\u2019t optional.<\/p>\n

And somehow, on top of everything, today was still a calm, locked-in, and pretty fast outing for everyone\u2019s favorite Wicked Witch of the West.<\/p>\n

Become a Stronger Runner With These Exclusive Training Programs\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Sean Abrams was the Senior Editor, Growth and Engagement at Men\u2019s Health. He\u2019s a former hip hop dancer who likes long walks on the beach and large glasses of tequila. You can find his previous work at Maxim, Elite Daily, and AskMen. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 London Marathon delivered big today. Kenya\u2019s Sabastian Sawe won in 1:59:30, the first sub-2 in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":920505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,242718,1380,258196,1331,393,4884,1381,257,232364,258195,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-920504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-collection-london-marathon","10":"tag-content-type-news","11":"tag-contentid-ccb1d5ac-1804-4ce2-935c-966a08dc72ce","12":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-locale-us","16":"tag-london","17":"tag-read_time-4","18":"tag-shorttitle-cynthia-erivo-runs-321-at-london-marathon","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116473171230350559","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}