Audra Esper ran all 26.2 miles of the New York City Marathon on Sunday while wearing a shirt featuring TODAY’s Hoda Kotb .”Huge fan of Hoda,” the first line of Esper’s shirt reads, along with a star emoji, above a photo of a grinning Hoda. “Thank you Hoda!!!!” And less than 24 hours after crossing the finish line in Central Park, Esper was waiting to meet Hoda in the TODAY square.

Hoda co-hosted TODAY’s fourth hour with Kathie Lee Gifford for more than 10 years, until Kathie Lee left the show in 2019. At the time, Esper said she was undergoing fertility treatment and in vitro fertilization, so she was not allowed to run. Instead, she’ll go hiking, she said. “I looked up all of her speeches and interviews online, and I loved her message. I would listen to them while I was walking, and it helped a lot,” Esper said of Hoda. “Then I read her book… and it was amazing to read what she went through with breast cancer. Her mantra ‘you can’t scare me’ has stayed with me since then, and it really helped me get through that difficult time.”

In 2018, Esper entered a competition to be featured on TODAY and she was chosen, along with her friend, who volunteered to participate in the Paralympic Games with her. In September, when Hoda announced her departure from TODAY, or “repotting,” Esper noted, Esper thought this might be his last chance to see her before Hoda left the show at the beginning of the year 2025.