Erin Sprague

By Alex Kochon

Residence: Boulder, CO
Hometown: Queensbury
Age: 41
Family: Husband, Peter; Daughters: Maisie, 7, Annabel, 5
Occupation: Nonprofit CEO
Primary Sports: Running (Trail, Road), Skiing (Nordic, Alpine, Ski Mountaineering), Cycling, Strength Training

If you’ve been following local athletes for some time, Erin Sprague’s feat of becoming the youngest woman to run a marathon in every continent may ring a bell. The Queensbury native did so in 2008 at the age of 24, a Guinness World Record she achieved in less than two years while raising over $100,000 for charities around the world. 

That record has been broken many times over, Erin, now 41, explained with a laugh. Back when a fellow runner presented the idea to her – before social media put that kind of information at people’s fingertips – she researched it and connected with the Guinness World Records to get started.

“It came from being open to an unexpected conversation and being in the racing community,” said Erin, who ran cross-country and track and Nordic skied at Queensbury High School and ran cross-country and track at Harvard University. “You never know what serendipity is going to deliver to you when you show up and just kind of see what happens.” 

Today, Erin lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her husband, Pete, and 5- and 7-year-old daughters. She is the CEO of Protect Our Winters, a nonprofit focused on climate change, particularly within the outdoor sports community. By combining the efforts of influential athletes and scientists, they lobby lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to advocate for policies that protect the outdoors during all seasons, not just winter.

Since graduating from Harvard with a degree in history and later an MBA from Stanford University’s School of Business, Erin has worked in finance on Wall Street, headed the women’s product division at Specialized, launched a running-event company with British business mogul Sir Richard Branson, and served as Chief Brand Officer for the Aspen Skiing Company. 

She began her philanthropic journey out of college, creating a nonprofit called “In The Running” with some fellow Harvard grads. Their mission was to raise money for grassroots charities through endurance challenges – to give back while chasing a goal – and they blew away their $70,000 target by donating more than $100,000 to local causes in the seven countries and continents Erin ran in. 

Looking back, she described In The Running as a “side hustle” she enjoyed while working full time in Manhattan.

“It was an early experience in the importance of philanthropy and in grassroots organizations, and it definitely fed into the model that I’m working in now,” she said.

After running accredited 26.2-mile races in North America (New York), South America (Brazil), Africa (Tanzania), Antarctica, Asia (Beijing), Australia (Gold Coast), and Europe (Dublin), Erin completed the longest cycling stage race in the world: the Tour d’Afrique. Over four months, she rode more than 7,450 miles from Cairo to Cape Town while continuing to raise money for In the Running and youth fitness initiatives. Erin, who is six feet tall, went on to complete four Ironman triathlons.

“I grew up as a runner and skier, and I really credit the Adirondacks with that life experience and building that joy and connection,” she reflected. “When you’re a lifelong athlete and you graduate from college, there’s this moment if you’re not turning pro, which most of us aren’t, where you’re sort of like, ‘How do I stay active?’ So, I started getting into marathons and did the continents.”

She raced in Tanzania, then climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with her brother, Kevin, afterward. She traveled through turbulent waters on a ship to Antarctica, then ran two 13.1-mile loops on an island devoid of human life except for researchers and, once a year, less than 100 marathoners.

“You can’t come out of that experience and not be an environmentalist and not appreciate this incredible place,” Erin reflected. 

“At the time, I was really focused on fitness and the importance of getting people active and the role that it had played in my life. … It was all about leveraging these challenges to raise money for youth fitness initiatives around the world,” she explained. “That was really when I discovered there’s a real passion here, and the outdoors are probably where I want to apply most of my time and energy and also connect it to a service component with gratitude for having grown up in the Adirondacks and what it had done for me in my life.”

Her life experiences drove her in the direction of climate work, and she served on the Protect Our Winters (POW) Board of Directors for two years before becoming its CEO in January 2024.

“It is a hard and necessary time for climate work,” Erin said, acknowledging the recent devastation and destruction of western wildfires and southern hurricanes. “I feel this is the challenge of our lifetime, and it takes so much work to get people to take action on it. That’s what we’re all about, so it’s been an awesome challenge.”

POW collaborates with more than 100 pro athletes and Olympians, including legendary big-mountain snowboarder and POW founder Jeremy Jones, Academy Award-winning filmmaker, climber, and skier Jimmy Chin, and Olympic gold medalist cross-country skier Jessie Diggins. These athletes donate their time and platforms to raise awareness and meet with lawmakers in person.

Last month, several Summer Olympians traveled to D.C. to attend meetings and advocate for POW.

“We roll in with people who are showing off their gold medals from Olympic Games, and that certainly opens doors,” Erin explained.

When she’s not overseeing a multimillion-dollar nonprofit, Erin enjoys running, biking, skiing, and strength training. She described herself as a “mom jogger” who has stayed active at a “pedestrian level.”

“It is the best part of my day, and it enables me to be a successful leader,” she said. “It’s a way that I connect with my friends and family and community in Boulder.”

Meanwhile, she’s working toward a goal of running a marathon in all 50 US states. She’s done 20 so far, including six last year. In addition to 26.2-mile marathons, she has also run ultramarathons up to 100 miles in length.

“I’ve always been involved in endurance sports in some way, but the role that it’s had has changed,” she explained. “It started being performance-focused, then it became service-focused, and I would say now it’s connection-focused.”

Her parents, Bill and Gerri, and sister, Colleen, still live in Queensbury, while her other younger sister, Cara, is an emergency room physician in Flagstaff, Arizona, and her brother, Kevin, works in Tanzania – the first place he flew on a plane to with Erin nearly 20 years ago.

“He had never even been on a plane, and we just went to Africa together,” Erin recalled with a laugh, questioning her parents’ decision. “I’ll take credit.”

Alex Kochon (alexkochon@gmail.com) of Gansevoort is a freelance writer, editor, and outdoor lover who enjoys adventuring in the Adirondacks. A journalist and former ski reporter, she has covered Olympics, world championships, and athletes of all calibers. She’s the co-founder of Ride On! Mountain Bike Trail Guide and copy editor for The Orvis Company.