First She Ran the New York City Marathon. Then She Raced to Indianapolis for the Eras Tour (Exclusive)

• Runner Kensi Knowling ran the New York City marathon and then flew to Indianapolis to see Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour on Nov. 4, 2024
• Knowling tells PEOPLE about the months of planning it took to get her through the race and to Lucas Oil Stadium before Swift took the stage
• Knowling’s story went viral on TikTok after her roommate shared it

It was a night 26.2 miles in the making … plus 658 more.

Kensi Knowling finally got lucky when, last summer, her mom secured tickets for the Indianapolis stop of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. There was only one problem: the 25-year-old was planning to run the New York City marathon that same day.

Undeterred, Knowling, who lives in New York City and is from Indianapolis, started planning to make both dreams come true at the same time. On Saturday, Nov. 1, her roommate Aisling Johnston shared Knowling’s plan — to run the marathon, then fly immediately to Indianapolis for the concert — on TikTok. The video went viral, with hundreds of Swifties coming together in the comments to cheer the runner on.

But Knowling’s quest for marathon and Eras Tour success started months earlier. To get a spot in the marathon, Knowling took part in the New York Road Runners 9+1 program, in which runners register and complete nine qualifying races and volunteer at one event. Marathon start times are assigned by speed, and if Knowling got the last start time, at 11:30 a.m., she’d have no chance of making it to Indianapolis. She had to increase her speed in the races she ran before the marathon to make sure she got an early enough time on race day.

It worked, and three weeks before the marathon, Knowling learned her race would begin at 9:45 a.m. That day, she finally booked her plane ticket from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport for Indianapolis. Now she just had to run the 26.2-mile race at the pace she’d set for herself, which was no small feat since she’d also spent five months of the year injured. 

As the race started, Knowling let “the crowds and the music” carry her forward for the first section. She tells PEOPLE, “Around mile 14, I finally had the thought of, ‘Oh my gosh, this is still feeling great. I’m going to make it to Taylor Swift.” 

“I realized I could slow down significantly and still make it,” she remembers. Also, before the race began, Johnston had let Knowling know about all the TikTok commenters and Swifties who were cheering her on.

“I was thinking of them at mile 23 when it got hard. All these people are tracking me and they believe in me, I’m going to be able to get there,” she says. “That was a great feeling.”

Knowling had worked out all the logistics from the end of the race to her Indianapolis arrival in advance. Her friends met her at the finish line with a bag she’d packed with an outfit for the plane and her dress for the show. She had asked Reddit users for advice on the best way to get from the finish line to the airport. Once she was in the sky, she changed into her concert outfit on the plane. Of course, she left her marathon medal on for the concert, too. “That was one the thing people kept asking,” she says about the medal. “I was like, ‘Duh, I’ve got to.’ “

Knowling’s flight ultimately landed 40 minutes before Swift took the stage. Her uncle drove her the 15 minutes from the airport to Lucas Oil Stadium, where she ran to meet her mom, her sister and her best friend just moments before the show began.

“I was literally thinking, ‘This is the hardest part of the run, running off the plane into the stadium,’ ” she says. “It was very crazy. Everything was down to the wire.” During the three-hour Eras tour show, she didn’t sit, lest she start to fall asleep.

And it was almost like Swift knew about Knowling’s journey and was celebrating her at the show. 

The dress Swift wore for the surprise song acoustic set matched the one Knowling was wearing, and Swift’s first song in that set combined “Cornelia Street” and “The Bolter,” which both had special significance for her.

“The Bolter,” from The Tortured Poets Department, was the song Johnston used when she posted the video of Knowling greeting her family at the concert, thanks to its lyrics about running. And Knowling would usually run home from her marathon training on the real Cornelia Street in N.Y.C. “I was freaking out,” she says. “And my friends and family were like, ‘Why are you freaking out?’ And I’m like, ‘This is for me.’ It couldn’t have been more perfect.”

Now, Knowling is relaxing and recovering with family in Indianapolis before returning to New York City later this week. 

Many marathon watchers on Sunday’s route held Swift-themed signs, which Knowling says were “amazing” to see. “There was one that said, ‘Taylor Swift is waiting for you at the finish line.’ And I was like, little do they know, she actually is waiting for me.”