Women's Running Stories

Claire Bartholic shares how she went from being a first-time marathoner trying for, but not quite reaching, a goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon, to running a sub-3-hour marathon: for context, only 1% of women marathoners have achieved this sub-3-hour milestone. It all started when Bartholic was in her mid-30s looking to get in shape for a high school reunion. It was then that she decided to start running. Then she got the running bug, and started marathoning: she was 38, the mother of two children, working as a real estate agent when she ran her first marathon. Four years later, she would reach her sub-3-hour goal. This story gets into the details of how Bartholic became a passionate student of the marathon on her way to achieving her big time goal. She tells about how she mastered pacing and mental toughness, the mis-steps along the way, and the great satisfaction of figuring out the complex puzzle of how to run a marathon really well. Today, Bartholic continues to run and has found tremendous passion in helping others achieve their running goals through her coaching business. She is also the host of the running podcast The Planted Runner, where each episode, she shares one actionable topic that runners can apply to their own training. In addition, Bartholic is the author of the book The Planted Runner: Plant Based Nutrition for Running at Your Best. Keep up with Claire Bartholic and The Planted Runner Instagram: @theplantedrunner Website: theplantedrunner.com Offers, Freebies, Discounts from Bartholic: theplantedrunner.com/link Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running Stories Instagram: @womensrunningstories Twitter: @WomenRunStories Website: womensrunningstories.com Email host Cherie: [email protected] Women's Running Stories is a member of the Evergreen network: https://evergreenpodcasts.com/

Carolyn Su is a runner and the founder of Diverse We Run, a space to build racial diversity and amplify diverse voices and stories in running on Instagram. Until 2020, Su was a road runner. She hadn't run on the trails, let alone race. And when she documented her friend's experiences at the 2019 Trans Rockies, a multi-day trail running stage race, she thought it looked amazing, but it didn't even occur to her that this was something she'd be capable of. But then, on one fateful day, she got a call from her friend Mirna Valerio. Valerio had an invitation for Su to participate in the 2021 version of the Trans Rockies, that same multi-day race Su's friend had done. That invitation sparked something in Su's curious, adventurous spirit, and she decided to say yes. No doubt, Su, who is Chinese-American, was excited to embark on an epic adventure. In addition, she was strongly motived to help create space in this sport for people who look like her: she wanted to represent and to be seen. This is the story of Su's fears and joys, as well as her triumphs and exhaustion, navigating the predominantly white and male world of trail running, helping to carve out space for BIPOC runners. Su's story elevates concerns, racism, danger, and frustrations that white runners can largely overlook or don't even notice, but which make this sport far less welcoming and more laborious for BIPOC runners. Su's story is testament to why diverse voices and representation in running, especially trail running, matter. Keep up with Carolyn Su Instagram: @IRunForTheGlory Website: irunfortheglory.com Making Strides Podcast on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-strides/id1687742311 Keep Up with Diverse We Run Instagram: @DiverseWeRun Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running Stories Instagram: @womensrunningstories Twitter: @WomenRunStories Website: womensrunningstories.com Email host Cherie: [email protected] Women's Running Stories is a member of the Evergreen network: https://evergreenpodcasts.com/

Professional runner for Team ZAP Endurance Tristin Van Ord tells the story of how it all went down from her viewpoint racing in the 2023 USATF 20km National Championships, which just took place September 4 in New Haven, CT. This 2023 season has been full of success as well as learning experiences for Van Ord. She started the year running her fastest marathon ever—she set a PB by over two minutes—placing first American and fourth woman at the Houston Marathon in January. Going into the summer, however, Van Ord, who has OCD, began to experience worsening symptoms of the disorder. In particular, those manifested in intense performance anxiety and insomnia. But through the summer to now, more race experience and therapeutic work has put Van Ord on a path to better manage the impact of OCD, to the benefit of her running and racing. The story of the 20k champs is testament to Van Ord's progress and also to her growing savvy and strength in the elite ranks of US road running. Van Ord tells the whole story in this episode, about experiencing and managing OCD, how she's learned and grown from her challenges, how she's improved as a competitor, and how the 20k champs unfolded, to an excellent result. The USATF 20km National Championships is a part of the championship series of races, for various different distances, that happen around the country throughout the year. Racers have a chance to earn a national title, as well as to earn prize money and points based on finishing places; points go toward the overall series placing. The top three places in the series after the 20km champs are Ednah Kurgat, Nell Rojas, and Emily Sisson. Both Kurgat and Rojas have been featured in our Race Report episodes this year. You can catch up on earlier road races in the series through our Race Reports. Each report features one runner's perspective on how it all went down, to give you an inside look at these championship events. Stay tuned for the next race in the series, the USATF 10km National Championships taking place in Northpoint, NY, September 23, 2023. That will be followed by the final race on the circuit this season, the USATF 5km National Champions, which take place November 4, 2023, in New York City. Keep Up with Tristin Van Ord Instagram: @tristinvanord Twitter: @tristinvanord Previous Women's Running Stories Race Report Episodes: https://womensrunningstories.com/podcast/women-running-stories Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running Stories Instagram: @womensrunningstories Twitter: @WomenRunStories Website: womensrunningstories.com Email host Cherie: [email protected] Women's Running Stories is a member of the Evergreen network: https://evergreenpodcasts.com/

At 53 years old, Women's Running Stories host Cherie Turner has found a whole new focus for her running pursuits: she's working toward breaking 20 minutes in the 5km. This is the first phase of the journey, setting a baseline 5k time. In this episode Cherie shares how she got to this point, how the lessons she's learned throughout her many years of running are starting to reap benefits she's never felt before, and how she's as excited as ever to push her limits as an athlete. She briefly traces her running journey through to a recent 5k effort that both surprised her and set the jumping off point for this project. Cherie has been running for years, and has primarily focused on longer distances, like the marathon and ultras. She started running after years of bicycle racing, where she'd earned her way on to a professional domestic team. As the years rolled on, the messaging that she absorbed was: you get slower as you age, so run longer. But in Cherie's heart of hearts, she's always known that her strong suit was short, intense racing. So, she's decided to decrease the mileage and up the speed. While she's had incredible experiences throughout all of her running pursuits, Cherie decided going into 2023 that after running the Boston Marathon in April and then the 56-mile Comrades Marathon on June 11, she was going to close this long-distance chapter on her running. A primary interest for this project is to contribute to the growing number of examples of aging woman athletes showing what's possible, as well as fun, rewarding, and exciting. So was created the Over 50, Sub 20, 5k project. The journey starts here. Keep up with Hear Her Sports Instagram: @hearhersports Twitter: @hearhersports Website: hearhersports.com Cheryl Cooky: Looking into 4% Sports Media Coverage: hearhersports.com/#/episode-71-cheryl-cooky/ Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running Stories Instagram: @womensrunningstories Twitter: @WomenRunStories Website: womensrunningstories.com Email host Cherie: [email protected] Women's Running Stories is a member of the Evergreen network: https://evergreenpodcasts.com/

Early in her life, Celeste Yvonne had decided she wasn't a runner. She felt like she didn't look like a runner or have a runner's mindset. Furthermore, running didn't feel good. Enter, her first child, who was colicky; Celeste struggled mightily to get him to calm down. In an act of exhausted desperation, she tried jogging. And, it worked. As someone who always enjoyed working out, this also filled the need for Celeste to incorporate meaningful movement into her new life as a mom. While Celeste had cleared that parenting hurdle, being a mom was still stressful, so she did what so many overtaxed moms do: she drank. She joined Mommy Wine Culture. Over time, however, as she continued to up both her running game and her drinking game, she began to realize the ways that drinking was doing more harm than good, and she stopped. This is Celeste Yvonne's running story, from those early days of desperately looking for ways to calm down her son, to it's connection to justifying her heavy drinking, and then to it's role in her sobriety journey, through to today, as her running continues to evolve. In addition to being a runner and a mother, Celeste Yvonne is a writer, blogger, and sobriety coach. Her first published book It's Not about the Wine: The Loaded Truth behind Mommy Wine Culture, is available September 12, 2023. Keep up with Celeste Yvonne Website: celesteyvonne.com Instagram: @theultimatemomchallenge Keep up with Hear Her Sports Instagram: @hearhersports Twitter: @hearhersports Website: hearhersports.com Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running Stories Instagram: @womensrunningstories Twitter: @WomenRunStories Website: womensrunningstories.com Email host Cherie: [email protected] Women's Running Stories is a member of the Evergreen network: https://evergreenpodcasts.com/

Ruby Wyles is an elite level runner and athlete who has worked through significant health challenges. She is currently pursuing the exciting new world of multisport, as a triathlete. From an early age, Wyles experienced serious challenges with disordered eating. While her health was stabilized, Wyles' fraught relationship with body image and food wasn't completely healed, especially when it came to the mental health facet of that process. Over time, Wyles, who is British, also found a passion for running. She developed into an elite level runner and earned an athlete scholarship to run in the US. Then, COVID hit. Wyles behaviors around disordered eating and body dysmorphia began to escalate, until, as she describes it, she was at rock bottom. Ultimately, Wyles sought help from sports dietician and nutrition coach Lindsey Cortes, founder/owner of Rise Up Nutrition, where Cortes and her team focus on helping women athletes with disordered eating habits recover and regain health and wellness. In this episode, we hear from Wyles, telling her story, as well as Cortes, who shares her thinking and strategies for helping athletes like Wyles get on a path to health. This is a unique look at what the healing process from body dysmorphia and disordered eating can look like, from both the first-person perspective, as well as from the perspective of someone experienced in coaching people through these fragile and difficult times. Keep Up with Ruby Wyles Instagram: www.instagram.com/rwyles_ Keep Up with Lindsey Cortes Rise Up Nutrition website: www.riseupnutritionrun.com Female Athlete Nutrition podcast: www.riseupnutritionrun.com/podcast Instagram: instagram.com/female.athlete.nutrition Mentioned in this episode Olympian Sonia Samuels with Movement Expert Jae Gruenke: Recovering Skillful, Pain-Free Running Keep up with The Planted Runner Instagram: @theplantedrunner Website: theplantedrunner.com Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running Stories Instagram: @womensrunningstories Twitter: @WomenRunStories Website: womensrunningstories.com Email host Cherie: [email protected] Women's Running Stories is a member of the Evergreen network: https://evergreenpodcasts.com/

Women's Running Stories host and producer Cherie Turner tells the story of her return to the 56-mile Comrades Marathon in South Africa. This is Cherie's second running of this, the world's oldest and largest ultra distance race in the world. And this for running, she had the goal of running better, both physically and mentally: she wanted to finish in under 10 hours (in 2022, she ran it in 10:25) and with a more positive, less fearful mindset. She wanted to fully soak in the magic of this one-of-a-kind event. Cherie tells the story of what she did different to prepare for Comrades 2023 and how it all went down. The Comrades Marathon has been a great interest to Cherie for the past several years. This podcast started with stories of women's experiences at the race. But Cherie had never intended to participate in the event herself. That is, until she heard, over and over again from the women she interviewed, that to really understand Comrades, you must experience it for yourself. So, in 2022, she did just that. While her first Comrades experience was incredible, she knew there were improvements that she could make that would result in an even more outstanding race. That's exactly what this story is all about. Mentioned in This Episode Cherie Turner + Comrades Marathon, A Hear Her Sports Special Collaboration: https://womensrunningstories.com/cherie-turner-comrades-marathon-a-hear-her-sports-special-collaboration Jae Gruenke, The Balanced Runner: https://www.balancedrunner.com/ The Balanced Runner, breathing protocol: https://www.balancedrunner.com/how-to-breathe-when-you-run-part-1/ Verity Breen on Women's Running Stories: https://womensrunningstories.com/verity-breen-running-far-and-fast-a-life-long-love Comrades Marathon episodes on Women's Running Stories: https://womensrunningstories.com/podcast/women-comrades-marathon Coach Parry Comrades Down Run Description: https://blog.coachparry.com/comrades-marathon-route-down-run/ Customizable Pace Chart: https://www.irenerunner.co.za/comrades.html Keep up with Hear Her Sports Instagram: @hearhersports Twitter: @hearhersports Website: hearhersports.com Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running Stories Instagram: @womensrunningstories Twitter: @WomenRunStories Website: womensrunningstories.com Email host Cherie: [email protected] Women's Running Stories is a member of the Evergreen network: https://evergreenpodcasts.com/

Jasmine Santiago is a runner and podcaster: she's the host of Brown Girl Running, where she shares her own running story and interviews other BIPOC runners about their experiences. Santiago is one of the few BIPOC women to host a running podcast. But getting to this point has been a journey, with very steep ups and downs. In this episode, Santiago shares it all: the breaking point of trauma fueled addiction, finding running as a way to heal and discover her authentic voice, discovering the beauty of a supportive running community, experiencing racist, threatening backlash for speaking out about being a BIPOC runner in a predominantly white running community, and finally finding a safe space and communities in the running world where she feels free to be herself, speak out, and provide a platform where others can do the same. As part of her running pursuit, Santiago has begun to delve deeper into and more fully embrace her Puerto Rican, Mexican, Indigenous culture and ancestry. She is also now an active member of Latinos Run Raleigh, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Keep Up With Jasmine Santiago Instagram: @jasminetherunnertracey Brown Girl Running Podcast Mentioned in This Episode Native Land App: for Android, for Apple Diverse We Run, Instagram: @DiverseWeRun Latinos Run: https://www.latinosrun.com/ Keep up with Hear Her Sports Instagram: @hearhersports Twitter: @hearhersports Website: hearhersports.com Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running Stories Instagram: @womensrunningstories Twitter: @WomenRunStories Website: womensrunningstories.com Email host Cherie: [email protected] Women's Running Stories is a member of the Evergreen network: https://evergreenpodcasts.com/

Kassie Parker just finished one of the most successful NCAA DIII careers on record. On the indoor and outdoor track and in cross country, racing for Loras College, she set records, helped her team reach its first national title, and won numerous national titles herself. Parker graduated in May 2023 and immediately moved into her pro career. She ran her first post-collegiate pro-elite race at the USATF 6km National Championships, earning a solid eighth place. Then, she set her sights on the Bix 7, this year the 7-mile USATF National Championships, which took place on July 29, 2023, in Davenport, Iowa. Kassie tells the story of her incredible collegiate career and then, how it all went down at the 7-mile champs. She also announces her next big move, becoming a member of the Hansons Brooks ODP Professional Running Team. The USATF 7-mile National Championships is a part of the championship series of races, for various different distances, that happen around the country throughout the year. Racers earn points based on finishing places that go toward the overall series placing. The top three places after the 7-mile champs are Ednah Kurgat, Nell Rojas, and Emma Grace Hurley, each of whom have been featured in our Race Report episodes this year. You can catch up on earlier road races in the series through our Race Reports. Each report features one runner's perspective on how it all went down. Stay tuned for the next race in the series, the USATF 20km National Championships taking place in New Haven, CT, September 4, 2023. Keep up with The Planted Runner Instagram: @theplantedrunner Website: theplantedrunner.com Previous Women's Running Stories Race Report Episodes https://womensrunningstories.com/podcast/women-running-stories Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running Stories Instagram: @womensrunningstories Twitter: @WomenRunStories Website: womensrunningstories.com Email host Cherie: [email protected] Women's Running Stories is a member of the Evergreen network: https://evergreenpodcasts.com/

Sgt. Ednah Kurgat tells how it all went down at the recent USATF 6km National Championships in Canton, OH, July 15. Krugat runs as a member of the US Army's WCAP (World Class Athlete Program) and has primarily focused on cross-country and distance track racing, with a particular focus on the 10,000-meter. In January 2023, she won the USATF Cross-Country National Championships; this earned Kurgat her first spot on an international team, representing the US at the Cross Country World Championships that took place in February in Australia. Kurgat is relatively new to road racing, having only started last year, but she's clearly learning quickly. Listen to hear how, despite a busy race calendar coming into the 6k Championships, Krugat ran a smart, decisive race. A special note of thanks here to race founder and director Tina Oprean Ryee, who is also the director of Cross-Country and Track and Field at Malone University. This is the only women's-only event on the Grand Prix Circuit (the men have a corresponding 8km race in Tennessee), and Krugat was mindful of how the energy felt different at this race and it felt empowering. The USATF 6km National Championships is a part of the championship series of races that happen throughout the year, beginning with the Cross-Country National Championships. Racers earn points based on finishing places that go toward the overall series placing. Kurgat is current in second place overall, behind Nell Rojas. You can catch up on earlier road races in the series through our Race Reports. Each report features one runner's perspective on how it all went down. Stay tuned for the next race in the series, happening this weekend, Saturday, July 29: the USATF 7-mile National Championships in Davenport, IA. Keep up with Ednah Kurgat Instagram: @ednah_kurgat Keep up with The Planted Runner Instagram: @theplantedrunner Website: theplantedrunner.com Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running Stories Instagram: @womensrunningstories Twitter: @WomenRunStories Website: womensrunningstories.com Email host Cherie: [email protected] Women's Running Stories is a member of the Evergreen network: https://evergreenpodcasts.com/