Holly Kabler spent years cheering for her husband at marathons, convinced running just wasn’t for her. But after spectating the London Marathon and asking the question “how hard could it be?”, she decided to find out for herself. What started with Peloton treadmill classes and a spontaneous half marathon turned into a full training cycle and a start line at the Chicago Marathon.

In this episode, Holly shares how she learned to pace herself for the first time, figured out fueling after years of running without water, and approached her first marathon with one goal: have a damn good time. From dancing through the Chicago course to finishing in 4:36 and immediately wanting to do it again, Holly’s story is a reminder that sometimes the best race strategy is simply letting yourself enjoy the ride.

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

Join THE First Marathoner Community - skool.com/myfirstmarathon

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

Anyone can run a marathon, but running a marathon is not just a race. 

In this episode, I break down how that committing to training for your first marathon builds discipline, resilience, perspective, and a quiet confidence that carries into the rest of your life. You start showing up differently at work. You stop tying your entire identity to your job. You realize it is not selfish to prioritize your health. The finish line is only part of the transformation.

If you are in the thick of training or reflecting on your first finish line, this one is for you.

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

Join the First Marathon Buddy Community (for free!) - skool.com/myfirstmarathon

Kristine Owen Wood grew up in the world of elite ballet, where movement was disciplined, aesthetic, and high pressure from a young age. After earning a spot in Alberta Ballet and ultimately stepping away for the sake of her health, she had to rebuild her relationship with her body from the ground up. Running started quietly, as something private and unstructured, before slowly becoming the place where she reclaimed strength, autonomy, and joy in her 40s.

In this episode, Kristine shares how a half marathon breakthrough pulled her into race culture, what two years of injury taught her about patience, and what it felt like to hit the wall at mile 20 of her first marathon. We talk about shifting goals mid-race, choosing not to walk, and why proving it’s “not too late” might be the most meaningful finish line of all.

Follow along with Kristine on Instagram at @kpow_pow! 

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

Join the First Marathon Buddy Community! - skool.com/myfirstmarathon
Subscribe to the Newsletter! - myfirstmarathon.co/newsletter

In this week’s Wednesday mini episode, I’m walking through Phase Two of the First Marathon Buddy program and breaking down what actually matters during weeks 10 to 15 of a 20 week marathon training plan. This phase isn’t about testing your fitness or grading every long run. It’s about treating those miles like practice, experimenting and refining your fueling, protecting recovery as fatigue builds, and learning how to handle the mental spiral that tends to show up in the middle of a cycle.

This episode is especially helpful if you’re training for your first marathon, but experienced runners will probably recognize a few familiar patterns too. We talk through cumulative fatigue, under fueling, mid cycle doubt, and the importance of zooming out when one rough workout tries to define your entire build. Phase Two is where durability and quiet confidence are built, and where consistency matters more than perfection.

The First Marathon Buddy course is live! Join today for free!

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

Join the First Marathon Buddy Program: skool.com/myfirstmarathon

Annie thought about running a marathon for nearly ten years before finally lining up at the Chicago Marathon in 2025. After withdrawing from the race the year before due to injury, she rebuilt from the ground up, committed to strength training, and found something even bigger than a finish time through Team to End AIDS. What started as a comeback became a summer of long runs on the lakefront, new friendships, and learning how to run smart instead of just hard.

In this episode, Annie shares how Peloton helped her actually learn the fundamentals of running, what it looked like to navigate injury and depression, and how she executed a negative split on her first marathon by trusting her training. We talk race day nerves, hometown crowds, chocolate chip bagels with peanut butter, and why treating your training like rehearsal might be the mindset shift every runner needs. 

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

Join the Skool community for free! - skool.com/myfirstmarathon

Norah St Peter never saw herself as an athlete. She grew up in the performing arts, ran cross country in high school but didn’t connect with it, and later spent years very sick before finally being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Once she reached remission, movement became something to celebrate. Rock climbing led to running, running led to a half marathon, and not long after crossing that finish line she signed up for her first full at the Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth on her birthday weekend.

She trained through a cold Texas winter, only for race day to spike into the 80s. When the half marathoners split off and the course got quiet, the race shifted. The wall hit, the heat took a toll, and she crossed the finish line feeling physically and mentally feeling a bit wrecked. We also talk about taper tantrums, leaning on community, racing in remission, and what it means to do everything right in training and still have a hard day. This episode is a great reminder that even if the finish doesn’t come with fireworks, you still ran a marathon.

Follow along with Norah on Instagram at @norahtriestorun !
Support Norah's local chapter of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation

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

Join the First Marathoner Community! 

What started as a love for reading first marathon race recaps turned into two years of collecting runner stories, and eventually into seeing the first marathon experience from the other side through coaching and helping my mom train for her first. Somewhere in all of that, a pattern became impossible to ignore.

I share the thinking behind the First Marathon Buddy Program, why it’s meant to walk alongside your training rather than replace it, and why community has always been at the center of My First Marathon. If you’re training for your first marathon and want support that feels steady, approachable, and built with beginners in mind, this episode explains where that idea came from and where it’s headed.

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

Join the community! - skool.com/myfirstmarathon

In this week’s Wednesday mini episode, I’m walking through Phase One of the First Marathon Buddy program and breaking down what actually matters during the first five weeks of a 20 week marathon training plan. This phase isn’t about crushing workouts or proving anything. It’s about setting expectations, learning how to read your plan without panicking, building a routine that fits your life, and dialing in effort early so training doesn’t fight back later.

This episode is especially helpful if you’re training for your first marathon, but experienced runners will probably recognize a few familiar traps too. We talk through patience, consistency, easy effort, and how to tell the difference between normal soreness and something that needs attention. Phase One is where trust in the process is built, and where the tone for the entire training block gets set. 

The First Marathon Buddy course officially launches on 2/9! Join the waitlist below. 

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

Join the waitlist for the First Marathon Buddy Program:
 https://forms.gle/9CtXZF1Ygxr92TjM8

Nancy never thought of herself as a runner. She was the kid who hated playing outside, grew up believing only “people chased by bears” ran, and spent most of her adult life focused on raising six kids. Running didn’t enter her life until her late 30s, when life got heavy and she started running down the country roads near her home just to clear her head. What began as a mental reset slowly turned into half marathons, lessons learned the hard way about fueling and hydration, and a growing belief that maybe the full marathon wasn’t as impossible as she once thought.

In this episode, Nancy walks through her path from seven half marathons to the start line of her first full marathon at Richmond, training as a busy mom, navigating doubt, leaning on community, and learning to let go of pace goals in favor of gratitude. It’s a story about starting later, doing the work anyway, and proving to yourself that you’re capable of more than you ever imagined.

Follow along with Nancy at @pauleyontherun on Instagram! 

Follow along with the show:
 👣 Personal IG/TikTok: @tay.says / @taysays
 🎙️ Podcast IG/TikTok: @myfirstmarathonpod
 📺 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

This Wednesday mini episode kicks off a new short series built around something I’ve been quietly working on for the last few months: the First Marathon Buddy Program. It’s a 20-week companion meant to sit alongside your training plan and make marathon training feel less overwhelming, less isolating, and a lot more doable. In this episode, I walk through what the program is, why it exists, and how it’s structured to give you the right information at the right time instead of all at once.

Over the next few weeks, these Wednesday minis will pull tips directly from the First Marathon Buddy Program framework, but if you’re not training for your first marathon, don’t worry. I’ll be adapting each topic to include broader running advice and takeaways for runners who’ve been around the block a few times too. The goal is to make these episodes useful no matter where you’re at, while still keeping things approachable and human for newer runners. 

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

Join the waitlist for the First Marathon Buddy Program:
 https://forms.gle/9CtXZF1Ygxr92TjM8