Women's Running Stories

Liz Derstine is a musician, runner, writer, and as of 2020, a long-distance hiker. On July 7, 2020, she embarked on the life-altering adventure of through-hiking the 2,193-mile Appalachian Trail, as quickly as possible. Now, having had several years to reflect on this epic journey, Derstine tells her whole AT story: from what inspired her to want to hike the entirety of this daunting trail, to how it all went down, through to the many ways her life has changed as a result of transporting herself on foot, through the wilderness, from Georgia to Maine. At its core, this is a journey of self-discovery. Since her record-setting AT hike, Derstine has continued to embark on incredible multiday hiking adventures. She now holds many Fastest Known Time (FKT) records, including among others the Long Trail FKT for a self-supported woman. Most recently, on July 1, 2023, she set the FKT for a self-supported woman on the Via Alpina in Switzerland, finishing in just under seven days. Derstine currently lives and Boston, and when she's away from the trail, she is studying classical piano at the Longy School of Music at Bard College. Keep Up with Liz Derstine Instagram: @pinkfeathers Twitter: @pinkfeathers Website: MercuryOnTheRun.com Derstine's AT hike: MercuryOnTheRun.com/Appalachian-Trail Website: LizDerstine.com Liz Derstine's FKT Page: FastestKnownTime.com/athlete/Liz-Derstine-0 Music Credits Thank you to Liz Derstine for allowing us to use her original piano suite music, inspired by her AT adventure Clip of Gustav Holst's Mercury, was produced by Beta Music All additional music and sound was created by Cormac O'Regan for Women's Running Stories 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/

This is a special bonus episode swap with the excellent woman hosted, women's sports podcast Hear Her Sports. Every other Thursday, Hear Her Sports host Elizabeth Emery brings you long-form interviews with women athletes and women in the sports world. Elizabeth is an excellent interviewer and her conversations are always engaging and informative. I particularly love the way she brings listeners into world of the person she's talking to, bringing out the reasons they're so passionate about their pursuits as well as details about what it takes to do what they do so well. And I always find useful takeaways I can apply to my own athletic adventures and to life in general. The featured Hear Her Sports episode features Jenny Nguyen, founder of the Sports Bra. The episode as described by Hear Her Sports: Jenny Nguyen picked up a basketball right around the same time she put down her milk bottle. From an early age, people called her a tomboy. Instead of playing with dolls and wearing dresses, she climbed trees and rode bikes. But most of all, she loved to play basketball. That love shaped her whole identity and helped her to fit in all the way through high school. When she was 19 years old in her first year playing college ball at Clark College, Nguyen ruptured her ACL. She was devastated by the career-ending injury, but stumbled upon a newfound passion: cooking. She cooked all through college, first for her roommate, then for the whole floor and then for the entire dorm. She landed her first kitchen job at age 22 and fell in love with the craft all over again. After graduating from college, Nguyen enrolled at the Western Culinary Institute in downtown Portland. There she graduated from the expedited program while working full time at a couple of fine dining restaurants. When she was in the kitchen, Nguyen was in her element. The zone. The basketball court and the kitchen have been the only two places she has ever felt like she belonged. Later, she realized that both those places are very male-dominated and that she had struggled, endured and found success in her own way. She went on to work her way up in kitchens for another 15 years, with the last four years as an executive chef at Reed College for Bon Appétit Management Company. The Sports Bra The Sports Bra on IG, Facebook, Twitter Notre Dame vs Miss State, 2018 Womens National Championship (Full Game Highlights) Arike Ogunbowale Carman Ranch Vibrant Living Farm Girls Who Build Order Girls Who Build, (the book) Keep up with Hear Her Sports Instagram: @hearhersports Twitter: @hearhersports Website: hearhersports.com 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/

Sika Henry is a professional triathlete, as well as a marathon and ultra runner. She is the first African American woman to earn her pro card in triathlon, which she did in 2021. And, in 2020, she ran a sub-3-hour marathon which added her name to The List, which accounts for all of the American-born Black women who have broken 3 hours in the marathon. There are currently 30 women on The List. Sika is relatively new to the world of ultra running, and once she'd gotten a taste of the sport, she wanted to choose a meaningful event to aim for. At the suggestion of her mentor, Dan Empfield, she chose to tackle the 90km/56-mile Comrades Marathon in South Africa. This is the story of Sika Henry's experience at this, the world's oldest and largest ultra-distance foot race. Though all didn't go to plan, Sika came away with memories for a lifetime. Keep Up With Sika Henry Instagram: @sikahenry Website: https://www.sikahenry.com/ Mentioned in this Episode Hear Her Sports: http://www.hearhersports.com/ Keeping Track: https://keeping-track.com/ NYT Article Mentioned by Sika Henry: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/04/sports/comrades-marathon-hoseah-tjale.html Episodes featuring women's experiences at the Comrades Marathon Episodes Featuring Women on The List Erica Stanley-Dottin: A Sub-3-Hour Marathon Goal, A Team Dream Soars Erika Kemp: Championships, Challenges, and a Marathon Debut 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/

Christine Yu is a lifelong athlete and a runner, though it took time before she used either of those terms to identify herself. Yu is also a writer, and she focuses on the intersection of sports science and women athletes. These dual passions recently culminated in the much anticipated book Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes. This is ultimately the focus of Yu's story for this episode: where her personal athletic and running journey and her professional writing pursuits meet. Her story is both uniquely personal and touches on experiences many women share: the joy of playing sports with friends and the grounding effect of running, as well as challenges with disordered eating, feelings of not belonging, and struggles with body acceptance. Yu's book stems from an interest in trying to better understand her own body and her realization about how little research exists that specifically focuses on the unique physiology of athletic women. While there is much to lament in this realm, Yu ultimately has hope for the future. So should we. Keep Up with Christine Yu Website: www.christinemyu.com Twitter: @cyu888 Instagram: @cyu888 Mentioned in this Episode Episodes featuring women's experiences at the Comrades Marathon 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/

Nell Rojas is one of the best marathon racers in the U.S. having placed top American at both the 2021 and 2022 Boston Marathon. In this episode she shares how it all went down at the 2023 USATF 25k National Championships, which took place just one month after the 2023 Boston Marathon. But of course, there's so much more to the story than just one race. The 25k race, as it would turn out, was not the day that Nell had hoped it could be. The story behind that stretches back to Nell's build up to Boston 2023, and this episode gets into all of it. It also has to do with where a race like this fits into Nell's larger goals. Along the way we get insight into what it looks like to be a professional marathon runner, how focusing on being the very best at one very long distance plays out over the long haul. One fact that is clear in Nell's journey is that being a professional runner is as much about training and racing as it is about managing the stresses of daily life. Within Nell's thoughtful insights and extensive experience as an elite athlete are valuable takeaways that you can take into your own life adventures, wherever you may be along your journey. For 2023, we are doing Race Reports for each of the USATF Road Circuit races, which are the series of national championship events that take place for various distances all throughout the country throughout the year. Each race is an opportunity to earn a national title and some excellent prize money. Racers also earn points based on their placing that go toward the race series competition. Nell is current in second place in the series, just one point behind Jessa Hanson. Emma Grace Hurley, who we featured in our episode focusing on the 15k championship, is in third. See the links below to catch up with earlier race reports. Ways to Keep Up with Nell Rojas Instagram: @nell_rojas_running Website: https://rojasrunning.com/ Listen to earlier 2023 Race Reports Race Report: Alexina Teubel + 2023 USATF One-Mile National Championships Race Report: Amber Zimmerman + 2023 USATF 10-Mile National Championship Race Report: Emma Grace Hurley + 2023 USATF 15k National Championships Race Report: Lauren Hagans + 2023 USATF Half Marathon National Championships Race Report: Molly Huddle + 2023 New York City Half Marathon Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running Stories Instagram: @womensrunningstories Twitter: @WomenRunStories Website: womensrunningstories.com Email host Cherie: [email protected]

Professional runner Vanessa Fraser has raced at the highest levels of her sport, but then found herself in a prolonged phase where things just weren't clicking. So she decided to switch things up–a lot. Which is why Vanessa, along with her coach Shalane Flanagan, decided to put the 100 x 1-mile Nike San Francisco Women's Miler Club World Record Relay attempt on her racing calendar. The event takes place June 3, 2023. Discover how Vanessa got here, and why choosing to run a huge community event with 99 other women became an excellent fit for her process of continuing to compete at the highest levels of her sport. Vanessa Fraser discovered her love of running in the third grade and has raced for the powerhouse collegiate team at Stanford and the prestigious Nike-sponsored professional team, the Bowerman Track Club. Then last year, in 2020, she decided to strike out on her own as a professional runner and forge a more personalized path in the sport. As part of that, Vanessa will be running the kick-off leg of this incredible 100 x 1-mile World Record Relay attempt, which will take place at Cox Stadium at San Francisco State University. The women of the San Francisco Bay Area set this relay record both in 1977 and again in 1997. Then in 1999, the record was reset by the Canadian Women's Miler Club, with a time of 9:23:39: that averages out to 5:37 minutes per mile. The women of the SF Bay Area are ready to take the record back. All of the 100 women on the relay team have ties to the San Francisco Bay Area, and there is a huge age range: from 13 to 63. Qualifications, other than having ties to the SF Bay Area, are, for runners 50 or under, they have to show that they can run a sub-6:00 minute mile; for those 50 or older, it's a sub-8:00 minute mile. Ways to Keep Up with Vanessa Fraser Instagram: @nessafraser Twitter: @locknessmonster Learn More about the Nike San Francisco Women's Mile Club 100 x 1-mile World Record Relay Attempt Instagram: @sfwomenmilers Website: runsignup.com/Race/CA/SanFrancisco/SFWomens100x1MileRelayWRAttempt Also Mentioned in this Episode Girls On the Run: https://www.girlsontherun.org/ Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running Stories Instagram: @womensrunningstories Twitter: @WomenRunStories Website: womensrunningstories.com Email host Cherie: [email protected]

After a month's long hiatus in 2022 due to a sacral stress fracture—the first major injury of her long running career—Alexina, Alex, Teubel is back and racing better than ever. Teubel has focused on the 3000-meter steeplechase for several years, earning her way into the 2021 Olympic Trails finals. But now she's refocusing on the 1500 and its close cousin, the mile. The USATF One-Mile Road National Championship was Teubel's 2023 season opener and revealed that the 29-year-old pro runner and running coach—for her alma mater, the University of Northern Iowa—hasn't lost a step. In a deeply competitive field, she ran smart and threw down, battling to the line in an extremely close finish. Teubel walked away with a new PR—that after a significant PR here last year, which landed her on the podium. Hear how the race went down from Teubel's perspective and get some insight into how Teubel got to where she is today. How she's set up a pro running career that continues to work for her. As she mentions, even after years of competitive racing, she just keeps getting better. Ways to Keep Up with Alexina Teubel Instagram: @alexinateubel Twitter: @AlexinaWilson Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running Stories Instagram: @womensrunningstories Twitter: @WomenRunStories Website: womensrunningstories.com Email host Cherie: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this, part 2/2, Nicole Pinto shares her running journey from giving birth to completing a half-marathon nine months later. Part 1 of this story features Nicole sharing the journey of how she trained for and ran the Boston Marathon while pregnant with her daughter, who was born in February 2022. We are excited to follow up on Nicole's postpartum journey in this episode. We first featured Nicole as part of our Roads to Boston series and she surprised everyone, including herself, with her pregnancy, which happened leading into the October 2021 event. We've loved keeping up her journey ever since, through this time of big change and discovery. In her professional life, Nicole is a cardiovascular perfusionist, which means that she not only works long, intense shifts at the hospital, but she also has a medical background and curiosity about how the body functions. She brought that same interest and experience to her pregnancy and running journey, and she shares it in her story. We are so thankful to Nicole for sharing her incredible running story, many times. And we love that her journey demonstrates what was possible throughout her pregnancy and beyond. Mentioned in this episode Nicole Pinto: Running Boston While Pregnant (Part 1/2): https://womensrunningstories.com/nicole-pinto-running-the-boston-marathon-while-pregnant Roads to Boston 2021: 9 Runners, 1 Finish Line: https://womensrunningstories.com/podcast/roads-to-boston-9-runners-1-finish-line Keep Up with Nicole Pinto Instagram: @runner_nic 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/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a special live recording of the Podium Pioneers Panel, which took place at the 2023 Boston Marathon Expo live stage. Women's Running Stories host Cherie Turner once again teamed up with Lisa Levins and Julie Sapper of the Run Farther and Faster podcast to co-cost a live Boston Marathon event. This year we welcomed three women who helped form the foundation of marathoning; they have each also placed among the top three at the Boston Marathon. Please enjoy the panel discussion with these three groundbreaking guests: Marilyn Bevans: Marilyn was the first African-American woman to break 3 hours in the marathon and the first Black woman to podium at Boston also in 1977. Two years later, Marilyn ran her PR on the Boston course in 2:49. Among her many honors, just yesterday, Marilyn was inducted into the Springfield College Athletic Hall of Fame. She is also featured in the documentary Breaking Three Hours, and this year, four women ran the Boston Marathon as Team Bevans in Marilyn’s honor. Marilyn resides in Baltimore, Maryland, where she continues to coach youth runners. Jacqueline Hansen: fifty years ago, Jacqueline won the Boston Marathon. After her Boston win, Jacqui set two world marathon records and became the first woman to break 2:40. Jacqui is also a leading advocate for women’s running. Among her many roles, she served as the president of the International Runners Committee, which advocated for more women’s distance races at the Olympic Games, including the addition of the marathon in 1984. Jacqueline resides in California where she continues to coach and advocate for women’s running. Patti Catalano Dillon: Patti started running at age 23 in an effort to lose weight. Just a few years later-in 1980, Patti became the first American woman to break 2:30 in the marathon. She is a three-time Boston Marathon runner-up and a NYC Marathon runner-up. She is also the first Native American woman to achieve all of these accomplishments. Patti is the head coach for the Wings of America Elite Team Program for Native youth athletes, the first team of its kind. Learn more about the Breaking Three Hours documentary: http://mobile.breakingthreehours.com/ Ways to Connect with Run Farther and Faster Instagram: @runfartherandfaster Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RunFartherFaster Twitter: @RunFartherfast Website: https://www.runfartherandfaster.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/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Patty Hung, a retired teacher who now works as a pediatric nurse, never set out to run more consecutive Boston Marathons than any other woman. But that's the position she finds herself today. On April 17, 2023, when Patty crosses the finish line at the marathon, she will have completed her 37th consecutive Boston Marathon, more than any other woman in the history of the event. She'll break the record previously set by Andrea Hatch, who last ran the Boston Marathon in 2013. Patty, who was born and raised in Boston but moved to California many decades ago, turned to running marathons during a challenging time in her life: when she was getting through a divorce and figuring out how to raise her three young sons on her own. Training for and running the Boston Marathon became a way to keep her mentally and physically healthy, and to stay connected with family. Here Patty shares her story: her love of running marathons and what's kept her coming back year after year. Patty was part of our Roads to Boston series, which told the running stories of 9 women all the way through to the finish line of the 2021 Boston Marathon. Listen to the Roads to Boston series here: https://womensrunningstories.com/podcast/roads-to-boston-9-runners-1-finish-line Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running Stories Instagram: @womensrunningstories Twitter: @WomenRunStories Website: womensrunningstories.com Email host Cherie: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices