Photos Courtesy of Megan Cassidy
Dubbed the Feisty Runner, Lake Nona’s own Megan Cassidy shows us tenacity and feverish determination toward reaching goals, getting moving, and the value of support. This motivated young lady started out with a simple goal: to beat the world record for consecutive marathons run. What really ended up happening was much greater, much more profound, and way more heroic.
Ohio-native and now Lake Nona-local Megan Cassidy is an athlete of 40 years of age and not a day past her prime. Though she didn’t initially know much about running or marathons, this rapidly changed with the help of people around her and Lake Nona’s thriving running community.
What originally started as a “dare” with her sister, in true sibling rivalry fashion, became an effort that gathered fans and supporters from – literally – all over the globe. A trip to Disney and a ride on the monorail introduced her sister to the Disney marathon series, simply off some guy’s t-shirt. If only “some guy” knew how influential he would turn out to be! Her sister decided to give a Disney marathon a shot and invited Cassidy along for the ride. At the time, Cassidy didn’t even know how long a marathon was, but she was up for the challenge.
She began to train for the marathon and, while her sister chose to partner with nonprofit Team in Training, Cassidy chose to throw on her ancient Nike Shox and tried out the whole “running thing” for 10 miles. It was doable. She wrapped up her run in three hours and 10 minutes and was immensely proud of herself. Through training methods identical to this, she prepared herself for her very first marathon. Not making the podium didn’t phase her because all that mattered to her was beating her sister – which she did. From then on grew the hunger for glory.
Following her first success, Cassidy dove into the running lifestyle headfirst, and she participated in marathons and other races throughout the country, even going international in pursuit of better temperatures and running conditions. She started to run more frequently and ran a marathon-distance every weekend. Curiosity led her to look up records for marathon running. Upon locating the current record of 60 consecutive marathons run, she coolly committed to breaking it. While she was in the application process, a woman raised the record to 96. This didn’t deter her.
Cassidy stayed her course for 41 days before one of the worst things that could’ve happened happened: Her leg gave out. Her dreams of breaking the world record faltered, and she was forced to regroup. This was not a total loss, however; it encouraged people in her life to get moving. Actually, it encouraged people all over the world to get moving.
“Two of my favorite things were (1) a lady in Africa sent me a video of AmaXhosa women dancing in traditional attire as a congratulations for reaching number 20. That was really, really cool and heartwarming. (2) A lady in Jacksonville, Alabama, printed a photo of me from New Year’s Day (Day 29) – it was hot. I had shin splints so bad that I had to tie my leg up mid-run with some pieces of elastic I had on me just to compress the muscles. Any other day, I would have skipped the run or stopped, but that day, I went on a bit of a tireade on social media: ‘Where’s the NEW YEAR, NEW ME attitude this year? Why aren’t more people out? I’m literally tied together. All of you people say I inspire you – well, prove it! Tell me what you’re doing!’ Anyway, she printed that picture and a bit of my rant and taped it to her treadmill with a note ‘If Megan can run a marathon every day, I can do four miles today.’ I loved that,” said Cassidy.
In recovery, Cassidy already has her sights set on another record that will require just as much of her ferocious spirit through endurance running but in fewer days. Friends and family have done everything they can to support the athlete, doing everything from laundry and running prep to reaching out to a running shoe company to sponsor a pair of shoes for Cassidy.
“And then I got support from strangers,” said Cassidy. “Between LinkedIn and some online running groups, people all over the word were applauding me and rooting for me. Australia, South Africa, Scotland, The Netherlands, Ireland, Brazil, Argentina, England, Senegal, Ukraine, The UAE, Egypt, Finland, Morocco. A lady in Spain is going to do her second interview with me soon for the running magazine Corricolari. It makes me feel like an international sports star.”
Keep your eyes on our Lake Nona running rock star when she undoubtedly achieves all the glory she could ask for. A countenance so determined and so hard-working serves as great inspiration for onlookers all around the world, who may hope to be half as great of an athlete as she is.
