Hoda Kotb Shares How Her Brother Helped Her Get Through the Boston Marathon
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Today host Hoda Kotb opened up about the time she almost didn’t finish running the Boston Marathon.
With six miles to go, her brother Adel stepped in to finish the race with her.
Hoda previously opened up about how she stays in shape at 56.
After 21-year-old Jasmine Harrison became the youngest woman to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean in a 70-day journey, Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager discussed the hardest moments of physical endurance they’ve ever faced in a recent segment for Today with Hoda & Jenna.
Hoda recalled running the Boston Marathon—but she admitted that she almost didn’t finish the race. “The last six miles I was dead. I was thinking I couldn’t make it,” she said.
That’s when Hoda’s brother, Adel, who was cheering her on from the sidelines, decided to join the race and help her finish. “You know Boston has that Heartbreak Hill? My brother, with his street shoes, jumped in and ran the last six miles with me,” she said.
“Wait, what?” Jenna said. “Because you saw him and you just said, ‘I don’t know if I can,’ or he could just read it in your eyes?”
“He just read it,” Hoda replied.
They both also happened to be wearing tributes to their dad, Abdel Kader Kotb, who passed from a heart attack at 51 when Hoda was in college. “We crossed the finish line together and I remember it like it was yesterday,” she said. “But it’s so funny because that was a moment that we still talk about, and I still remember him with those loafers on.”
“That’s simply love at its best,” Jenna replied.
If you’re wondering how the Today co-host got in marathon shape, you can catch her running around Central Park in New York City. In October, Hoda also shared a photo to Instagram with Jenna and SoulCycle trainer Stacey Griffith after taking an outdoor spin class.
Prior to the pandemic, Hoda spoke with Ellen Degeneres about her fitness routine, revealing that she was working with a personal trainer.
“I actually, for the first time, got a trainer,” she shared last January. “And he said, ‘What do you want to do?’” she continued. “I said, ‘I want to get down on the floor and get up 100 times. I want to be able to lift up 35 pounds, and throw 35 pounds in the air.’”
Above all, she wants to be able to keep up with her young daughters, Haley Joy Hope Catherine. “ I think it’s funny, when you want to do something, your energy kicks in,” she said.
Did we mention she gets up at 3:00 a.m.?! Hoda is one motivated individual—but her experience in Boston is also proof that we all need a cheerleader to help us reach our goals sometimes.
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