Newtown’s Pereira completes prestigious seventh Abbott World Marathon Major

When a runner joins an exclusive USA-based “running club” which has only 1,170 members, now that’s saying something.
Newtown’s Tony Pereira has joined that prestigious fraternity by recently completing the Sydney Marathon and finishing all seven Abbott World Marathon Majors. He has the official star awards to prove it.
Pereira, 56, a native of Portugal who was raised in Philadelphia, hit the finish line in three hours and 36 minutes. He didn’t start running until age 42 but he’s making up for lost time now.
He can put his latest “star” medal alongside ones from New York, Chicago, Boston, London, Berlin and Tokyo.
Around the world, only 4,401 runners have managed to achieve that feat.
Pereira is justifiably proud of this accomplishment. In fact, he says it was worth the 13-hour airflight from the United States to Australia.
What was the motivation for such a venture? After all, there’s a lot of training involved, not to mention the finances.
“I like the challenge because it’s pretty neat, especially the new ones because they’re all different and you get to know all the cultures,” he said in a recent telephone interview. “It was really exciting to go to a place like Sydney.”
While he was there, Pereira had a chance to soak up some of the local flavor, including a cruise around Sydney Harbor plus some world-class beaches.
Back home, Pereira is active with the Bucks County Roadrunners and takes part in competitions like the club’s Winter Series at Tyler State Park. This sort of running acts as a great training tour for challenges like the Abbott races.
No doubt, he has a lot of club members who were pulling for him to complete this adventure. Tony also runs with the McTuesday night group in Lower Makefield.
“It’s important to have support,” he said. “Otherwise, it’s really hard to train by yourself. The people are great. I enjoy the Winter Series. It kind of prepares you for everything. I love McTuesday. I think it’s just an excellent group. I’ve been with them probably 10 years now.”
There’s talk of adding another marathon or two to the Abbott series, including ones in South Africa (2026) and China (2027).
Meanwhile, he’s decided he wants to run on all seven continents. He’s already done five. The only ones left are South America and Antarctica.
Be sure to bring a coat, Tony.
When Abbott’s decides to make its newest expansion official, Pereira will be ready.
“Abbott’s plans to make it official just after the New York City Marathon in November,” he said. “South Africa (Cape Town) will be in the spring, so they will have four majors in the spring and four in the fall.”