march 22, 2025

Support Sydney’s Run!

Show your support of Sydney as she takes on the Blackbeard’s Revenge 100-mile race. Proceeds will support Uncommon Grit Foundation. Learn more about UGF here.

Sydney was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. She’s the daughter of a former professional hockey player and a Virginia Tech cheerleader and has one brother, Spencer. She is newly married to her husband, Brenden, who also competes in marathons and half Ironmans.

Sydney swam competitively for 20+ years of her life, earning 10 individual Virginia state championship titles in high school, which then led to a scholarship to swim at the Division 1 level at Virginia Tech. She swam in all middle-distance and distance events throughout her career, specializing in butterfly, backstroke, and freestyle. She was a two-time Virginia Tech letterman, a member of the ACC championship team, and was elected to be the Virginia Tech athletics department’s nutrition captain her senior year.

Post college, she quickly became intrigued with endurance racing, specifically ultra marathons and triathlons. Sydney completed her first marathon—with no training—in 2021. Shortly after she decided to take it a step further and challenge herself to a 50k ultra distance race. Sydney completed this and many other marathons after. She trained for and completed her first Ironman in September of 2023, qualifying for the Women’s Ironman World Championships in Nice, France. In November 2023, she qualified for the Boston Marathon by running a 3:28 in the Richmond Marathon. In June of 2024, she competed in her longest run, the BPN Survive the Night 50-miler. This was a lottery race, where only 100 racers were selected to travel to Texas to participate. She completed the trail course in 11 hours.

Sydney is training for her next and furthest run this March 22, the Blackbeard’s Revenge 100-miler in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. For this race, she approached Uncommon Grit Foundation about raising money as a way to take her passion for running and turn it into support of military and first responders. We are excited to back Sydney as she prepares for her 100-mile race and are so proud of her commitment to honor others. She embodies what having “uncommon grit” is all about.

You can support the foundation by donating an amount for each mile of the race Sydney will be running. Use the donation form below to show Sydney you’ve got her back as she takes on this incredible challenge. We’ll let you know the results of the race.

Go crush it, Sydney!

If you have any questions or want to send Sydney some love, email bearpaw@uncommongritfoundation.org.

Blackbeard’s revenge 100-mile race

Saturday, March 22, 2025
Outer Banks, North Carolina

SECURE ONLINE donation

Use the secure donation box below to choose your level of support for Sydney’s 100-mile run. Please consider covering the cost of fees, which will allow the full amount to go toward the mission of the foundation.

If you have questions or need assistance, please email bearpaw@uncommongritfoundation.org. You may also contact us using our contact form.