Meredith Sanders should not have been able to accomplish what she’s done in running, namely, complete all six of the most prestigious marathons in the world. The thirty-two-year-old holds medals from marathons in Boston, New York, London, Berlin, Chicago, and Tokyo, a challenge she completed in just four years between 2019 and 2023. If you’re wondering if that’s a big deal, consider she’s not only one of just a handful of runners in the state who have pulled it off, she’s the youngest Arkansan ever to do it.
While the accomplishments are impressive, the most incredible part is the regard she’d traditionally held for the very sport by which she is now enshrined in infamy.
“I absolutely detested running,” she says. “I was in sports in high school mostly because it was a small town and they kinda had to take me. I am not coordinated, I’m not graceful, I didn’t play very much.
“Back in high school you couldn’t pay me to run a mile. I would almost get to the point where I would make myself sick to avoid running. I just didn’t like it at all.”
Meredith would have been perfectly happy to live out her days avoiding athletic activity, especially running – and she did, at least until she graduated college and landed at her first job with Goodyear in Houston. Which is where our story begins.
“After I moved to Houston, I saw a number on my scale that really freaked me out. That’s what did it,” she says. “I knew I had to do something, and I knew that diet would only get me so far because I love chocolate, so I needed more help. I went online and found a personal trainer.”
That trainer, Catherine Turley, was an avid runner whose ears perked right up during initial discussions of Meredith’s fitness goals.
“First meeting, I was talking about weight loss, and I just happened to mention, ‘Well, one of my short-term goals is to run a 5K without stopping,’ which I thought was pretty ambitious for me,” Meredith says. “When we talked long-term, I threw out how I would love to do the Disney Princess half-marathon. And Catherine’s eyes lit up.”
As anyone who’s ever tried knows, the simple act of running for exercise is at once one of the most fundamental yet most challenging forms of physical exercise there is. Many people have gone on an initial run only to never return for a second, unable to fathom how the intense burning of the lungs and legs could ever become tolerable, even familiar.
Meredith, committed to losing weight, dutifully complied with the training Catherine prescribed, which was heavy on running. It was no easy feat, considering Meredith’s loathing of the activity made her a prime candidate for the one-run-and-done club.
“It was definitely a challenge when I first started because, after the first week, my apartment building’s treadmill was broken or unavailable,” she says. “We’re talking Houston heat; it was almost always hot and humid. And this was before I knew about the wonders of body glide [lubricant applied to prevent chafing]. So, I was the heaviest I ever was out there in the heat without body glide.”
Despite it all, and the fact she was assigned to complete the runs on her own – a neon flashing QUIT sign for many of the run-averse – Meredith hung in there. About ninety days later, she entered her first 5K, and true to her goal, she finished the three-point-one-mile course without stopping.
“It wasn’t a fast time by any means, but I was really proud of it,” she says.
It would be easy to say the accomplishment lit a long-dormant competitive fire that propelled her to compete most weekends and ascend in distance from there, but that’s not entirely true.
“Part of my weight loss goal was because I was engaged, so I was looking to lose weight for the wedding,” she said. “I got married in 2014, and then I thought, ‘Well, I’m off the hook.’ I had lost about eighty pounds, and I gained all but about five of that back. I was like, ‘OK, well, I guess I’ve got to begin again.’”
Meredith returned to running, this time determined to reach her second goal of the Disney half-marathon. By 2017, three years after she moved to Fort Smith, she ran her first 10K (six-point-two miles) and. in early 2018, completed the Fairy Tale Challenge at Disney World comprised of a 5K, 10K, and half-marathon (thirteen-point-one miles) on successive days.
Over time, her runs got longer, and her times fell as running became more and more a part of her daily routine. Today, maintenance runs equal two or three miles a few times a week with training tailored for the demands of longer races.
“I was seeing my friends graduating to full marathons, and I thought, ‘You know, that’s the logical next step. I think I could do that,’” she says. “I wanted my first marathon to be special to motivate me. You only run your first full marathon once. I narrowed it down to London or Chicago for my first full marathon. I’d studied abroad in London during college and fell in love with the city. And so off I went, and I ran London in April 2019.”
It was while researching the London race that Meredith discovered the six “marathon majors” and completing them became her new goal in the sport. One by one, she tracked down the remaining five prestigious medals, twenty-six-point-two miles at a time. After London, she ran the New York Marathon in fall 2019 before the world shut down under COVID. She returned in 2021 to complete Berlin, then ran Boston and Chicago last year. She finished her quest earlier this year in Tokyo, where she was part of a Guinness Book record for the number of six-star finishers among the runners.
Along the way, she discovered each race has its own personality and presented unique challenges. Most she took in stride – running in costume, no less, which became her trademark. Of the six, she says Boston was the most stressful while Berlin was the most difficult.
“Running is eighty percent mental and forty percent physical,” she says with a droll chuckle. “That’s exactly what running is. It’s almost entirely mental, especially for the marathons. Anything can happen; you can train for it and be as prepared as you can be, and then you show up, and it’s not your day. Boston was huge for me because it was the oldest marathon, and I’m a back-of-the-packer. I’m not fast, and their time limits were the strictest I’d faced.
“My biggest struggle came in Berlin; I don’t know if it was jet lag, it was warmer and humid, or I went out too fast. But it was just a pounding, a struggle from about the half-marathon point on. All I could think was, ‘I just want this to be over. I’m never doing this again. Not a marathon; I’m not even doing a 5K. I’m done with this whole running thing.’ It was just pure misery.”
Having completed in four short years what many lifelong runners never even approach, Meredith has made peace with the activity she once avoided at all costs. Even if that peace is an uneasy one at times.
“There are still lots of days where I dread going for a run because I just don’t feel like it,” she said. “But after I go, I feel so good it makes it all worth it.”
As for future goals, she’s got some exciting things up her sleeve. “My next goal is to go after an individual Guinness Book record which I was hoping to set back in Berlin,” she says. “It’s the fastest marathon wearing a dirndl, a classic German beer maiden-looking dress. I’m taking it down from the full to the half-marathon, and I’m hoping to do it at the River Valley Run in November, where I ran my first 10K.
“I’m also looking to run a half marathon or more in all fifty states and that one will take me multiple, multiple years ‘cause I’m not even to ten states yet. That’s a long-term goal. And I’ve journaled and written a lot of my experiences down, so maybe I’ll write a book. It seems like something people can relate to or at least want to get inside my mind to see, am I really that crazy?”
Meredith’s Tips for Beginners
GET FITTED
Visit a local running store for properly fitted shoes to cushion the run, reduce soreness in the joints, and avoid blisters which can interrupt training and kill your motivation.
START SLOWLY
Set realistic goals and modify workouts at the start to include a combination of running, walking, and jogging to help you stick with it as you build endurance.
ENJOY THE RIDE
Pay attention to your improvement and forget about what everyone else is doing. Don’t compare yourself to others, focus on your progress and enjoyment.
REWARD YOURSELF
Give yourself credit for small wins as motivation to keep going. Running three days in a row or a certain distance without stopping are signs of progress to be rewarded.
Interested in starting your own running journey? Check out our local running resources and groups.
True Grit Running Company
479.434.3571
truegritrunningco.com
Western Arkansas Runners (WAR)
Facebook.com/westernarkansasrunners/
