The newly minted record-holder and BW business alumna discovered her passion for running after she graduated and worked her way up to go the distance.
Megan Cassidy '05 never ran track or cross country for Baldwin Wallace University. In fact, she didn't start running until she was 28 years old.
Yet, she now holds the Guinness World Record for most consecutive daily ultramarathons completed by a woman. For 23 days in a row, from December 17, 2022, to January 8, 2023, she ran 31.07 miles in a single session with no breaks.
Cassidy ran her first marathon in 2010, five years after she graduated from BW. She first got into running when she joined her sister in a marathon at Disney. She has been an avid runner ever since then, signing up for every marathon she can.
"The runner's high I experienced after my first marathon was so big that I immediately found another race to run," she said. "Running became my reason to travel, and the sense of adventure keeps me going … I've met a lot of people online through various running groups who meet up with me at marathons all over; it's a fantastic community, and I love being a part of it."
Cassidy, who hails from Lorain, Ohio, graduated from BW in 2005 with a degree in business administration. She now serves as the director of product development at Entertainment Outfitters, LLC, a small company based in Orlando, Florida.
When asked how her BW experience helped her along the way in her career, she said, "My class in management science was about the most beneficial class I had ever taken. I never thought that I would use it when I was in school, but economic order quantities and carrying costs helped me a lot when I started in my current company [as a product manager]."
As for her running passion, Cassidy has further world record ambitions. She intends to take a second attempt at breaking the Guinness World Record for marathon running.
A year ago, she tried to run the most daily marathons, but it proved to be too physically taxing, and she fell short of that record.
Despite the disappointment, Cassidy took a lot away from the experience. "That was heartbreaking, but it showed me that I could do FAR more than I ever thought I could (every day past #3 was a celebration, as I had only done 2 in a row before that)," she said. Cassidy remains passionate about running marathons, and she is eager to try to break the record again later this year.
