feature image photo by feature image photo by Karwai Tang / Contributor via Getty Images
Lesbian icon and star of stage and screen Cynthia Erivo is defying more than just gravity lately. Erivo ran the London Marathon yesterday, finishing at an impressive 3:21:40, which is over an hour faster than the average recorded time for women running the marathon. It’s also less time than it would take to watch both Wicked movies back to back, which is the only kind of ‘marathon’ you’ll ever catch me doing.
In what had to be an extremely surreal moment, Cynthia Erivo crossed the finish line while her own version of “Defying Gravity” played over the speakers, and in a post-run interview, she doesn’t look all that more out of breath or tired after running a marathon than she does after walking a red carpet. Poised and smiling, she tells an interviewer that she loves running in London specifically because “it’s home, innit” and on top of having fans supporting her throughout the race, her family is there to cheer her on as well.
And I know marathon times don’t account for height and that height doesn’t necessarily correlate with stride and that stride might not specifically correlate with run times (I’m sure someone out there has done the math) but I personally am choosing to be even more impressed by Cynthia’s time because she is only 5’1″! In the video of her crossing the finish line, her fellow runners are towering over her! I know there are probably shorter people who have finished faster but I’m just saying, I’m impressed.
What’s more, she isn’t going to have all that much time to recover. Tonight, literally the day after running her personal best marathon time, she will be back on the West End performing as 23 different roles in her one-woman Dracula show.
Toward the end of the interview, Cynthia says next year she might just be watching the marathon instead of running it, and I don’t blame her. Congrats to her on the PR, and I hope she crushes at Dracula tonight.
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