Ashton Kutcher is known for quite a few things. He’s the mastermind behind the prank series Punk’d and a business and entrepreneur investing in companies as major as Skype, Foursquare and (previously) Uber. He’s known for projects like Two and a Half Men and for being part of the iconic cast of That Seventies Show, not to mention a cameo in the recent That ‘90s Show. Oh, and in his spare time last year, her ran the New York Marathon. He recently told the story of that venture, and it cracks me up.
Speaking in a longer interview answering some of the Internet’s most asked questions about him, Ashton Kutcher talked about running the New York Marathon back in 2022. He wasn’t the only famous name to do so. Tike Barber, Ellie Kemper have run the NY version specifically, and there are plenty of other celebs (my fave may be Chip Gaines running with his toolbelt) who have tackled other marathons. In his Wired interview, I learned some facts, including how the marathon works with celebs to maintain their incognito status as their racing.
Well technically I tried to enter the New York Marathon 2.5 years ago and then Covid hit. Most recently, I ran just this last November, I ran under an alias and then they reset it to my name after the race.
Well, sort of incognito status. His bib clearly read “Ashton.” In addition, Kutcher went on to reveal the NYPD felt he would need a security detail in such a large crowd of people. This is great in theory, but he told a funny story about what happened when he started running with the police.
They had two undercover police officers that were running with me during the marathon. I was like, ‘I don’t think I need security.’ They were like, ‘No, you should just have these people here.’ But halfway through, they disappeared. I think that they had not prepared to run a marathon.
Marathon running isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s 26.2 miles in total and the New York Marathon – while not the wildest of all marathon courses – is known to have some difficulties with hills and bridges. Kutcher doesn’t mention this, but another thing the police officers may not have factored in was the That ‘70s Show actor’s speed. The actor notably crushed out the race and completed his miles in 3:54:01, which means he broke the four-hour barrier and averaged under nine minutes a miles. (Bachelor alum Matt James also broke the 4-hour barrier and his partner Rachael Kirkconnell congratulated him.)
Anyway, at some point he looked up and --poof -- his detail was just gone.
He'd said prior to the race his goal was to break four hours and he did it, also raising a slew of money for the charity Thorn. However, perhaps his security detail was not expecting it. Whatever happened, it seems they fell back or bailed out, leaving him a funny story to boot. Though Kutcher going on to become one of just a few celebrities to finish under the four-hour mark at the 2022 race is a story in and of itself.
