Holly Smith Abbott (HF897)
My name is Holly Abbott (HF#897) and I reside in Carmel, Indiana. I joined Half Fanatics in March 2011 after learning about the awesome group and meeting Tony at a race expo. At that time I was working towards running a half marathon in every US state and Washington DC. I had already run a full marathon and realized that half marathoning was much more fun and conducive to my work/life/family balance! I finished my half marathons in all of the states and DC (sub 2:00 hours) in December 2012 by the age of 30. I then ran a few half marathons such as Big Sur, Cowtown and Rock-n-Roll Savannah and Arizona. I also did a series of half marathon races in Texas called the Four Seasons Half Marathon Challenge.
In 2014 I decided to set a second goal of running a half marathon in all of the Canadian provinces. While this goal almost took me 10 years to achieve due to a variety of external life factors (job relocations, IVF procedures, two children and of course COVID-19), I completed my final province, Newfoundland and Labrador, this past weekend! I was very excited and happy to have achieved this long-term goal. An added bonus was getting to see the beautiful country of Canada and all that it has to offer. My favorite races were the Banff Half Marathon in Alberta and the Prince Edward Island Half Marathon in the city of Charlottetown, PEI.
I am currently working towards my last goal of completing a half marathon on every continent. I completed the Antarctica Half Marathon in 2019 where I was the first place female, and the Generali Munich Half Marathon in Germany in 2021. I am looking forward to racing in Africa, Asia, Australia and South America in the near future!
Photo and Post Credit Marathon Maniacs/Half Fanatics Newsletter