About

I'm Yasir. I've run 105 marathons.

My wife Gweneviere and I started running marathons together after she survived a brain tumor in 2008. We ran New York every year after that. In 2018 she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and died two months later, at 47. She had never smoked.

To honor her, I started the Gweneviere Mann Foundation and ran a marathon in every state in 50 weeks to raise money for early detection of lung cancer and brain tumors. It started at the New York City Marathon in November 2018 and ended with a 50K at the Marine Corps Marathon in October 2019, alongside Dean Karnazes. The story has been covered by NPR's StoryCorps, Runner's World, Men's Health, ESPN and CNN.

Since then I've kept going: 105 marathons, three Six Star medals from the World Marathon Majors, and races in more than 40 countries. I also hold a few competitive eating records and Tour de Donut titles, which is a different story.

The hardest part of the 50-state year wasn't the running. It was the planning: knowing when every race opened, which ones were worth the trip, and how to string three states into one weekend. This site is everything I wish I'd had.

105marathons
50states in 50 weeks
3×Six Star finisher
40+countries

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More about me at yasirsalem.com. Learn about the foundation at gwenmann.org.