Chattanooga’s Truman Smith Runs Marathons All Over the World

Chattanooga-(WDEF-TV) Less than one thousand people, from all across the world, have run a marathon on all seven continents. Chattanooga is home to one. Truman Smith has finished more than 200 marathons, even after life-threatening health scares. News 12’s Angela Moryan has his story.

Said Smith: “Finally seeing that finish line, it was overwhelming.”

Chattanooga native Truman Smith is one of few to finish a marathon in all 50 states. To date, he’s run 218 total marathons. But the quest for each state began in 2003.

Said Smith: “Tupelo, Mississippi? August 31? A marathon? That sounds like a tough man contest. And it intrigued me. It lit something up. I thought, ‘I want to try that!’ After finishing that, it started something up in me… I did four that year. I think I did nine the next year. Then I started doing 12 every year. At least 12. Then there were some years I went out and did like 18. It became a challenge once I got started.”

That challenge didn’t stop within US borders. Smith then graduated to run a marathon in all seven continents — including Antarctica.

Said Smith: “That stuck in in US borders. Smith then graduated to run a marathon in all seven continents — including Antarctica.the back of my mind like Tupelo did on August 31. Antarctica? That sounds like that would be a tough man contest. … There’s some scary things about doing the Antarctica marathon. First, you have to get registered and get in line, and you have to wait two years. On our day it was like 22 degrees, which even though is cold, it wasn’t minus 15 or something like that…. The course is rough. It can be frozen. It can be muddy. It can be windy. … Once you get started, there’s no going back. Once you get some of these continents done, it doesn’t matter if it’s wrong, you got to do it. That’s how I finished all that.”

Smith kept running, even two months after a heart attack.

Said Smith: “When I did my 3:35 marathon, all our friends were doing 3:15s and 3:10s. So nobody ever celebrated with me. I was never really a winner or whatever. So doing all these things kind of puts my name on the map somewhere. … The people in Chattanooga and the Chattanooga Track Club, they were so good to me. I feel obligations whenever something happens to be there. To make it happen, because they did good stuff for me.”