Peyton Thomas is an elite runner and PhD student in Marine Biology at the University of Northern Carolina Wilmington. She ran a PR of 2:42:54 to place 78th at the US 2020 Olympic Marathon trials, and was the only American born black female to start. She qualified for the trials at CIM, which was her first road marathon. She has also run the Bigfoot 40 miler, a sister race to the Bigfoot 200 miler.