Sara played tennis all through high school, but running stayed casual for her, a mile here or there, until 2023, when she signed up for her first 5K and then got sidelined by a health complication for most of the year. By summer 2024 she was back on the trail outside Chicago, and after watching the para-athletes and half marathoners at a local race, she reached out to a charity for a Chicago Marathon bib almost on impulse. She texted her fiancé that she thought she'd just signed up for 26.2 miles. He wrote back, "You think?"

But by no means was training easy for her. A flooded house sent her and her husband to live with his in-laws for nine weeks that August, running took a back seat to insurance calls and contractors, and her peak mileage never got close to where it needed to be. She made it to the start line anyways, but a chaotic corral search, the Chicago heat, and something that happened to her knee around mile seventeen turned the back half of that race into a fight she wasn't sure she'd win. What got her from that curb to the finish line is a story you're going to want to hear.

Follow along with Sara on Instagram at @thatssosaaraa !

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Julie grew up in a sports-obsessed family, her dad a longtime Broad Street runner, her brother a former D1 lacrosse player turned distance runner. She played soccer growing up, but sports also came with real anxiety for her, and by college she thought that part of her life was over. It wasn't until her senior year of college that she started easing back into running, and she found herself thinking if her dad and brother could run a marathon, she could too.

Philly had already sold out by the time she looked into it, so Julie signed up through a Parkinson's fundraising team inspired by her grandfather and started an 18 week training block while in her second year of medical school.

Race day started strong, but somewhere around the halfway point, Julie hit a wall she wasn't expecting, and was forced to make a decision many of us make in a marathon: Do I keep going?

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Instagram: @juliemsatterthwaite
TikTok: @jms3400

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I took a two month break from running dealing with personal issues we'll get into in this episode. These personal issues forced me to take 2 full months off of running for the first time in my running journey, and today we're breaking down what it's actually looked like to come back from that, not just physically, but mentally too. I'm walking you through the exact plan I built for myself, the mindset shifts that made the biggest difference, and the practical stuff like how I'm structuring my weeks, my long runs, and my strength training as I work my way back up to running continuous miles again. If you've ever had to start over from scratch for any reason, I hope this gives you both a plan to follow and permission to go easy on yourself while you're doing it.

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Besides the dreaded mile in high school PE class, running was fairly casual for Rachel for a long time until the stress of working front lines at a hospital during COVID turned it into a huge stress reliever for her. A few years later she set her sights on a half marathon, and after three tries and a few injuries, she finally got there. Shortly after, she found BAR Run Club, and being surrounded by people just a little further down the road than her helped her believe a marathon was also for people like her.

Training meant fitting three hour long runs around a demanding hospital schedule, and by no means was training easy for her. A rough twenty mile run right before taper shook her confidence, but she showed up to race day anyways. Unseasonable heat, GI issues that hit mid race, and a stretch where she had every reason to stop all showed up before the finish line did. What got her through it, and what she carried into a second marathon just months later, are lessons you're going to want to hear.

Follow along with Rachel Howard: @rachelizhoward

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Gina didn't grow up loving running. In fact, she hated it, right up until a spontaneous half marathon at Disneyland in 2017 changed her mind for good. After two kids and a long break from racing, she found her way back through a run club that pushed her further than she expected, and a new goal started forming in the back of her head: a marathon.

She signed up for the Eugene Marathon and built a training block around long runs, speed work, and whatever pockets of time she could carve out as a mom of two. Her first attempt at the distance came with a rough patch nobody plans for, a wrong turn on course that cost her time and nearly her composure late in the race. She crossed that finish line anyway, but it left her wanting a different ending, and a year later she signed up for Eugene again, determined to get the experience she felt she'd missed the first time.

Race day brought its own last minute scares, a sick household in the days leading up, and a course she swore she knew by heart this time around. What actually happened out there, and whether she finally got the finish she was chasing, is worth hearing straight from her.

Follow along with Gina: @ginalosch

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Jude didn't grow up as an athlete. She spent her childhood with a violin in her hands instead of running shoes, and didn't run her first step until she was 38. From there, the goals kept coming: a 5k, then an 8k, then a half marathon at 40 that she ran through a painful foot injury. After a decade away, she came back to the half at 49, and that race at Melbourne's MCG planted a seed she couldn't shake. Standing at the festival boards scanning for her husband's name among the full marathon runners, one thought wouldn't leave her alone: could she do that too?

Eleven months of training followed, built from research, online coaching, and a plan she pieced together herself. But the road to the start line wasn't smooth, and just two weeks before race day, everything almost fell apart. What happened on the course, the strangers who became part of her story, and the moment she ran into the MCG as a marathoner for the first time, that's all ahead in this episode. Jude is now training for her second marathon with a totally different mindset, and she opens up about what's changed for her this time around.

Follow along with Jude: @Jude.ch.11

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Mikaela Gomez is a mom of three, a Navy veteran, and somehow, until last July, not a runner at all. She found running through the unlikeliest of doors: a dark romance book rabbit hole on TikTok that led her to an ultra runner known as the Ghost Runner. What started as a way to move her body for her mental health turned into something much bigger once Mikaela started processing the loss of her father to suicide, a loss she was carrying while nine months pregnant and unable to be there for her family in the aftermath.

In just eleven months, Mikaela went from her first mile to a 40 mile ultra in Flagstaff, Arizona, training through a breast reduction recovery, an autoimmune disease that once left her unsure if she'd walk again, and a household full of toddlers. She had six weeks to prepare after an invitation from a friend she'd never met in person. What happened on that course, between the blisters, the tears, and a phone call to her mom that changed everything, is the kind of story that reminds you just how strong you actually are.

Follow along with Mikaela Gomez: @findingmika_

Support Mikaela's charity: https://supporting.afsp.org/campaigns/50milesforlife?language=en&referrer=mf%3A3486336%3Ayou-copy

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Maggie Lowenthal grew up a gymnast and a sprinter, but spent most of her life convinced that long distance running just wasn't for her. She ran a couple of halves, got into HYROX, built a strength training foundation, but kept watching the Chicago Marathon from the sidelines every fall. She never planned to run it herself, but that changed when she realized the 2025 race would fall on her actual 30th birthday, and her sister was in too.

Maggie trained through a Chicago summer, logged her long runs along the lakefront with her charity training group, and showed up on race day with a birthday sticker on her shirt and her friends and family spread across the course. The first half felt almost easy. Then came the miles she had never run before, the sun, and that infamous Chicago down-and-back stretch that has a way of making every runner question their life choices.

Follow along with Maggie: @Magggiemoooo (Instagram)

Follow along with the show:
👣 Personal IG/TikTok: @tay.says / @taysays
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📺 YouTube: @MyFirstMarathonPodcast
🌐 Website & extras: myfirstmarathon.co & myfirstmarathon.co/resources

Book a free 1:1 Coaching Call with me! — https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=37408473&appointmentType=85354440
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