Since the grand-patriarch’s first marathon, the Lloyd family has been using running as a form of therapy and advocating for long-distance running as a form of wellness.Īhead of this year’s TCS NYC Marathon on Sunday, Lloyd sat down with ESSENCE to share his family’s story, what it means for him to finally run his first marathon this year, and how he associates running with Black fatherhood and community. The Lloyd men, however, are aiming to change the perception and narrative about Black men who run, one generation at a time. Although this disparity is still stark, the numbers becomes less surprising when you consider the fact that “Black men in this country are targets for police aggression and so-called civilian vigilantism.” Yet, even after Ahmaud Arbery was brutally slain while on a run, the stories around Black men who run are still not discussed enough or widely portrayed by the media. This is all the more surprising considering that nearly all the top marathon runners, both male and female, are African.” As “Running USA’s biannual National Runner Survey, reveal…only 1.6% of marathon runners in America are African-American, compared with 90% Caucasian, 5.1% Hispanic and 3.9% Asian/Pacific Islander.”įortunately, diversity in the sport has increased slightly over the past decade, and according to the “Running USA’s 2020 National Runner Survey… three percent of all U.S. In 2013, The Guardian asked, “ Why don’t black people run marathons?” which posited that, “when it comes to distance racing: black people do not run marathons.

While Lloyd is certainly no stranger to the iconic race- in years past he’s watched his father and grandfather cross the finish line- he’s now attempting his first full marathon, racing not only for himself, but as a third-generation Black man in his family. When Kenny Lloyd signed up to run the 2022 New York City Marathon, he wanted to use running to connect with both his father and grandfather.

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