Distance runners seem superhuman as a rule. The mental and physical endurance to run one marathon — 26.2 miles in one stretch — is daunting. Some amazing athletes have decided to run this behemoth of a race for consecutive days just to see how many days in a row they can complete the challenge. This past week, Jacky Hunt-Broersma completed her 104th marathon in 104 days, surpassing her goal of 102 marathons.

Marathons have always been a grueling race. Legend has it that in circa 409 BC, the first marathoner, an ancient Greek, was a messenger who ran from Marathon to Athens to deliver the news that the Greeks had won an important battle over the invading Persian Army. After completing this feat of athletic endurance and delivering the news, the messenger collapsed and died of exhaustion. Marathons have been a competitive event in running since 1896. In America, there are thousands of marathon races each year, with the Boston Marathon being the most famous. Women weren’t even allowed to run in the Boston Marathon until 1972, and that was because of one brave woman who disguised herself and ran anyway.

This is the grand legacy of which Hunt-Broersma just became an icon.

Hunt-Broersma is an incredible athlete. Born in South Africa and now living in Arizona, she is a survivor of a rare form of cancer (Ewing’s sarcoma), which resulted in one leg being amputated. She is a dedicated mom who is passing on her love of distance running to her six-year-old. She’s also an avid ultrarunner, which is the ultimate test of endurance. It challenges runners with incredibly difficult terrain plus an outrageous amount of distance. Hunt-Broersma is the first amputee to complete 100 miles (on a treadmill) in under 24 hours.

As impressive as Hunt-Broersma’s résumé is, her latest greatest achievement is her unofficial breaking of the daily consecutive marathon world record.

Hunt-Broersma was inspired to break the woman’s world record in this event after she heard about another runner, Alyssa Amos Clark, using consecutive marathon running as a coping strategy during the COVID pandemic. For perspective, the men’s record in this event is 59 marathons in 59 days and was set by Italian athlete Enzo Caporaso. Clark ran 100 marathons in 100 days — shattering the men’s record.

Hunt-Broersma was determined to beat that mark when earlier this month a British marathoner named Kate Jayden beat Clark’s record with 101 marathons in 101 days. Hunt-Broersma knew that she had to at least get to 102 to have the world record. She completed her goal of 102 and decided to finish out April with a few more, making it 104 marathons in 104 days.

This is an incredible achievement for any athlete. The fact that she is an amputee and cancer survivor makes this story that much more inspiring.