Adam Prudhomme
Editor
When Napanee’s Tammy Coghlan Pigion crossed the finish line of the Tokyo Marathon on March 5, she accomplished a feat fewer than 12,000 people world wide have accomplished-and had her name etched in the Guinness World Record in the process.
By completing the Tokyo Marathon, Coghlan Pigion has now officially finished all six of the major marathons needed to earn an Abbott World Marathon Major Six Star medal. This prestigious medal is awarded to anyone who completes the Boston, Chicago, New York, Berlin, London and Tokyo Marathons in their lifetime. She also happened to be one of 3,033 runners to earn their Six Star medal that day, establishing a new Guinness World Record.
All told a pretty impressive accomplishment for someone who didn’t take up long-distance running until the age of 40 and didn’t compete in her first marathon until the age of 42. Working with a personal trainer, she practiced for two years to build up the stamina needed to run a full 42 km race.
Coghlan Pigion admits she didn’t even know about the Six Star challenge until she completed her first major, the Boston Marathon, in 2017.
“Once I ran there, that’s where I found out the Abbot World Marathon Majors challenge,” she recalled. “I saw a guy with this crazy medal and I asked him what it was and he said ‘you run all the majors and then you become part of a group of very few people world wide that will do it.’ It’s kind of life golf or tennis, they have majors. The thing that’s unique about the running majors is regular people like me, working at a flower shop and being a mom, you can run these majors too.”
The six medals earned for each individual medals with the Six Star medal in the centre. Submitted photo.
After completing the Boston Marathon in three hours and 50 minutes, she took part in the Chicago Marathon in 2018, finishing in three hours and 44 minutes, her best finish at a major to date. In 2019 she ran the Berlin and New York Marathons, finishing in three hours and 56 minutes and four hours and one minute respectively.
That left her with just two races left-London and Tokyo-needed to complete the challenge. Just as she was preparing to fly to Tokyo in March of 2020, the world shutdown due to COVID-19.
Her dream was put on hold but she didn’t give up, continuing to train throughout the pandemic. In late 2022 she ran the London Marathon in just over four hours. Earlier this month she completed the circuit by finishing Tokyo’s race in four hours.
“It’s difficult because you have so many people running and travelling and jet lag,” she said of competing in some of the international marathons, noting that upwards of 30,000 people finish the races. Boston saw over 55,000 people cross the finish line-and that doesn’t event account for the people who start the race but ultimately drop out for one reason or another. “I’m pretty happy with how things went. I’m pretty consistent.”
Aside from the six majors, Coghlan Pigion has run nine marathons total in the last seven years.
After earning her Six Star medal, she’s showing no signs of slowing down, having already signed up for the Toronto Marathon this coming May.
“I’ll always do something with running now that I’ve fallen in love with it,” she said. “Even if I decide not to do marathons anymore I’ll still do local stuff and run just with friends. I’ve met a lot of friends along the way, it’s a social thing too.”