Wicked star Cynthia Erivo runs the London Marathon in 3:21

The British star made a statement in her third marathon, clocking 3:21:40 for a personal best. Goal all but achieved. She was aiming for 3:15. She ran 3:21. In an interview with Runner’s World on March 31, she had set a more modest target: “Given that I ran 3:35 last time… if I could get down to 3:30 or 3:25, I’d be very happy as well.”

Six minutes shy of her dream time, there was not a hint of frustration. The PB had fallen. And that was what mattered. At the finish, Cynthia Erivo savored the moment. This second London outing tasted like fulfillment. Not one to dwell on the past, she keeps moving forward. One step at a time. And for the Tony and Grammy Award winner, performance is not the whole story. It is also about where you come from and how far you have traveled. “I think the idea is simply to start where you are and understand that you don’t start at the end. You start at the beginning and move step by step toward your goal”, she told journalist Amanda Furrer. It is a mindset she applies everywhere. Onstage. On screen. And over 42.195 km.

A decade of marathons

One day, Cynthia Erivo came across a poster in a park advertising a 5K for cancer research. She had never run before. Still, an idea took hold: she could get involved in the cause. But doubts quickly overwhelmed her: “I’m not going to make it”, she thought. In the end, she listened to her first instinct. The simplest one. The most instinctive. And she started running. “I haven’t stopped since. It may be one of the most important lessons I’ve learned. Our deepest desires lead us where we want to go. Where we’re meant to be”, she writes in her book, Simply More, subtitled A Book for Anyone Who’s Ever Been Told They’re Too Much, published in November 2025.

She still remembers those first strides. And yet, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since that 5K, which felt like a mountain at the time. In 2016, she took another step forward by finishing her first marathon in New York in 3:57. Already under the symbolic four-hour mark. Since then, she has continued to lower her benchmark. In 2022, on her London debut, she finished in 3:35. And surprised herself: “I only realized I’d run fairly fast when I saw the half-marathon clock showing 1:21 and thought: How did I run that in an hour and a half?”, she recalled in Runner’s World.

That time, more than 20 minutes faster, was no fluke. It was the result of steady determination, structured training… and a start that was a little too ambitious. “I was placed with the elite runners, who ran the first kilometer in about five minutes; I simply followed them without realizing that would be the pace to maintain. But I felt really good, so I didn’t feel like I was running fast”, she explained. And then there is the latest chapter: just a few days ago, she knocked nearly 15 minutes off her record again. Cynthia Erivo does not do things by halves.

At the heart of London

There was a reason she was determined to return to the UK capital. Born and raised in the city on the Thames, she saw it as the obvious choice. Especially with her loved ones there, including her mother, Edith Erivo, who was waiting at the finish with a bouquet of flowers. “I will remember this moment forever”, she wrote on social media, visibly moved, before turning her attention to her performance in Dracula, which she was giving that Sunday evening in London’s West End. The actress plays the title role in the current production, a vertiginous one-woman show in which she takes on 23 characters.

“It was instinct. It was desire. So I found a path and started running. I haven’t stopped since.

Running through her veins

Every morning, despite the busy day ahead, the Wicked Witch of the West laces up her running shoes. If she misses that appointment with herself, it means the schedule has been poorly planned, so essential is the practice to her equilibrium.

On one level, she experiences it as a form of meditation. A moment to recenter, whatever the format: music, an audiobook, a podcast, or simply the rhythm of the sounds around her. Looking at the images from London, it was impossible to miss her bone-conduction headphones. And just as you start wondering what she listens to when she races, Cynthia Erivo answered on social media. “Whether it’s a long run or THE race of your life… I’m leaving this here for anyone who needs a playlist. This one got me to the finish line. Maybe it can help you too”, she shared the day after the spectacular marathon.

On another level, running also feeds into her work as an actress. “I discovered that running allowed me to absorb certain aspects of performing and reconnect with my physical identity, because my body was taking on the character”, she explained in the Runner’s World article.