Dunkirk Native Again Completes In World Marathon Majors

Every community has its fair share of athletes that have done something special in their career. Not every community has someone as accomplished as Jennifer Giebner-Donato – in fact, hardly anywhere in the world can boast an athlete that matches her accomplishments in the sport of long distance running.

Giebner-Donato, a Dunkirk graduate and Fredonia resident, recently completed the Abbott World Marathon Majors for the third time in early March.

“It is kind of neat to know I’m one of the only people in the world to have three of them,” Giebner-Donato said. “I feel like I really accomplished something.”

That’s a bit of an understatement.

The Abbott World Marathon Majors is the pinnacle of marathon running, in which runners attempt to complete the six major marathons worldwide – the Boston Marathon, the New York City Marathon, and the Chicago Marathon stateside, along with overseas competitions in Tokyo, Japan; Berlin, Germany; and London, England. Giebner-Donato is the second woman ever to accomplish the feat three times.

Accomplishing such a feat even once is hard to imagine, and Giebner-Donato didn’t even have it on her radar when she began long distance running. She ran her first marathon in Las Vegas in December 2009, though she admitted she did so without much time spent training for the event.

“When I didn’t do as good as I thought I could, I decided to take the next one seriously,” Giebner-Donato said.

In 2011, after many months of more serious training, Giebner-Donato ran the Erie Marathon. She knew she performed a lot better than her first marathon, but it took another competitor to point out just how well she actually performed. Her time qualified her for a spot in the Boston Marathon.

“When I was starting, I thought if I could just run Boston one day or New York one day, I would be satisfied as a runner,” Giebner-Donato said. “When I realized I qualified for Boston, I couldn’t believe it.”

So then came Boston, then after that, her sights were set on the next big marathon.

“After running Boston, I was set on running New York City,” Giebner-Donato said.

But Hurricane Sandy struck New York in the fall of 2012 and forced a cancellation of the New York City Marathon. Still, that didn’t deter Giebner-Donato from running the race, it just put her plans on hold. Eventually, she completed the New York City Marathon, and in doing so, the next destination in her journey became apparent.

“That’s when I first heard of the Abbott World Marathon Majors. I had never really traveled before then, I had never even been outside of the country besides Canada,” Giebner-Donato said. But once she completed the third leg of the American portion of the Majors, the Chicago Marathon, she said to herself, “You know what, I’m going to do it.”

Her first trip to compete overseas was in Berlin in 2016. Then in 2017, she completed the Tokyo Marathon. Finally, in the spring of 2017, she finished the tour with the London Marathon.

“It gave me a sense of pride for completing it. The first time I did it, I was emotional, not just because I did it, but I did it on my own. I made friends that I ran with, but I didn’t have anyone going with me as a significant other. … To do that, it really meant a lot to me,” Giebner-Donato said.

But even once wasn’t enough. Giebner-Donato one-upped herself by doing the entire tour of marathons again, only this time, she did all six within the same year.

“I didn’t ever expect to run it again,” Giebner-Donato said. She noted that a friend she met while running had completed all six marathons within a year, so she wanted to be able to say the same.

In 2018, she completed the feat — called the Abbott Slam — making her a two-time winner of the six stars of the Abbott World Marathon Majors.

“It’s a feeling of believing in yourself and going after the things you never thought were possible,” Giebner-Donato said.

After completing the tour twice, including the second time all within a calendar year, a third time would have to wait, as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the way everyone lived their day-to-day lives.

However, it didn’t take running from her.

At one point during the pandemic, Giebner-Donato was averaging 16 miles of running each day. To the former Dunkirk High School basketball and softball star who notably hated running in high school, it has evolved into something she adores, and even craves.

“My coaches say to me now that I didn’t like to run in high school, so what’s going on now? And they were right, I hated running,” Giebner-Donato said. “But after doing it for a while, you become accustomed to it. Now my body craves the long distances.

During the pandemic, Giebner-Donato also continued her marathon running virtually, as both the Boston Marathon and the London Marathon held virtual marathons for runners all across the world. As special as the trips overseas were, the pandemic offered a different experience, as Giebner-Donato was finally able to share her achievements with her family. From her parents to her young nieces, through the finish lines she created in her driveway for each race, she had company. Her family came over to her Fredonia home for both virtual marathons to celebrate with parties featuring music, pizza, and cake.

“Those were just the best days. The pandemic brought everyone down, but those days, it lifted everyone up,” Giebner-Donato said.

Making her family proud — especially her young nieces — motivates Giebner-Donato to continue pushing through the toughest parts of each run.

“With my nieces being so young, I really like to try to set a good example for them. It doesn’t have to be about running, just to have something to put the time and effort into where they see that hard work pays off,” she said.

Post-pandemic, Giebner-Donato continued right along with her stellar running career. She advanced through another tour of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, culminating in her third completion of all six stars after finishing the Tokyo Marathon in early March. She completed the final race despite testing positive for Covid in February.

“I knew I wasn’t going to be able to run my best, but I was determined to do the best I could. When I finished, I really got choked up. I couldn’t believe I did it,” she said.

Along the journey, the support Giebner-Donato received has only grown, along with her medal stand. Even after more than a decade of running, Giebner-Donato recently set a new personal record of 3:19:23.

“I have a lot of people around me that build my confidence up. I’ve met people in the running world who tell me I can do even better than I would ever think on my own,” Giebner-Donato said. “My coach believes I have more potential in me.”

As a teacher for more than two decades at Pine Valley Central School, the faculty and students have shown their support as Giebner-Donato continues to chase her athletic dreams. She focuses on training and traveling in her time off from work and in the summers, but trains all year long and takes the opportunities as they come.

“Pine Valley has been a very supportive district. My coworkers, the students, they all cheer me on,” Giebner-Donato said. “… It isn’t just working as a runner that I work toward; it is also working at my job to be able to afford to go do it.”

Only the marathons in Berlin and Tokyo stand in her way of a fourth completion of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, while stateside she has completed the American major marathons many more times than that. She sits among the highest in total stars across the country.

“All the times I do it, I get really emotional. Even after completing so many, I still think, ‘Am I really going to do this? Am I going to finish this?’,” she said.

Again and again, the answer was ‘yes’ – and as the next finish line looms, her career itself is far from hitting the homestretch.