Marathons are run by people from all walks of life, not only by professional athletes. Many well-known people famous for other exploits than running have finished a marathon in their lives.

There are quite a few celebrities who have gotten into running marathons, for one reason or another. Often they do it, at least in part, for fundraising purposes or for supporting charities. For instance, American actress Pamela Anderson, ran the 2013 New York City Marathon to raise money for the poor residents of Haiti. Anderson, who was 46 at the time, finished the race at 5:41:03 and reported hurting pretty badly afterwards having suffered a minor leg injury.

Another fundraising runner is Eddie Izzard, British standup comedian, actor and writer, who ran 43 marathons in 51 days in 2010, raising money for the charity Sport Relief. The 47-year-old Izzard had only trained for five weeks before he started running through the UK. During the first days it took about 10 hours for him to run the distance but by the end he had doubled his speed, finishing the last marathon in 5 hours and 30 seconds. Izzard, who was a few toenails short after the feat, did not consider what he did that spectacular and, according to Daily Mail, commented that “anyone can do it”.

For some, running marathons has more personal reasons. The former President of the USA, George W. Bush, decided to train for a marathon as a way to overcome his father’s defeat in the 1992 presidential elections. A year later, at age 46, he ran the Houston Marathon, finishing at 3 hours and 44 minutes. Other marathon-running politicians include the former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who did his personal best at age 26, finishing the 1980 Marathon de l’Essonne at a respectable 2:57:06, and Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands, who competed in the New York City Marathon under a pseudonym in 1992, finishing with a time of 4:27:00.

British TV-cook Gordon Ramsay, got into marathon running by what seems to have been a matter of coincidence: his father-in-law thought he needed to lose some weight and entered him for the London Marathon. For Ramsay, who by now has finished a number of marathons, running became a great way of de-stressing and counterbalancing his hectic work routine. He did his personal best in Los Angeles in 2010, where he finished in 3 hours and 36 minutes.

Marathon running is no unexplored area for musicians either. One running musician is Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Michael “Flea” Balzary, who found his inspiration from the book Born to Run. He did his personal best, 3:41:49, in Los Angeles in 2012 after which he tweeted: “Running a marathon is the closest feeling to being on acid without actual LSD consumption that I know of”.

Perhaps the most surprising group where marathon runners are found is scientists. You might have heard of Alan Turing, who was a British mathematician, cryptanalyst and computer scientist among other things, known for his research on computers and the Turing test. But did you know that he was also an avid marathon and ultra runner? He did his best time in the Amateur Athletic Championships Marathon in 1947, where he finished with a respectable time of 2:46:03.

People who are into marathon running are indeed found from different backgrounds. But the biggest group of all is, of course, regular people, among whom marathon running has become more and more popular. For all you know, your neighbor or co-worker might actually be a marathon runner.

Check out the list of non-professional marathon runners in Wikipedia for a more comprehensive listing.