My First Marathon

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

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
Join the First Marathoner Community! - https://www.skool.com/myfirstmarathon/about

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

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
Join the First Marathoner Community! - skool.com/myfirstmarathon

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

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
Join the First Marathoner Community! - skool.com/myfirstmarathon

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
 🎙️ 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
Join the First Marathoner Community! — https://www.skool.com/myfirstmarathon/about

Alyssa didn't grow up as a runner. After graduating college in 2023, she found herself with free time and a Planet Fitness membership, and slowly worked her way from the weight machines to the treadmill to a half marathon finish line. A run club and a few convincing friends later, she was signed up for her first marathon, telling herself that if she'd already done 13.1, she might as well see what 26.2 felt like.

She put in 25 weeks of training, ran up to 20 miles in the Florida heat, and showed up to Space Coast race morning with her stomach in knots. The nerves won that day, and she dropped to the half. But she drove home knowing she hadn't given herself a real shot, and that feeling stuck with her. So she found a race two weeks out with no half option to fall back on, toed that start line, and run-walked her way through every loop until she crossed the finish line a marathoner. This episode is a lesson that sometimes the race you were meant to run isn't the one you originally signed up for.

Follow along with Alyssa: @alyssasruns

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

Join the First Marathoner Community! — https://www.skool.com/myfirstmarathon/about

Keneshia came to running the way a lot of us do, not because she set out to become a runner, but because she needed somewhere to put everything she was carrying. A former dancer and professional roller skater, she found herself battling depression after adopting two teenagers and needed something that could get her out of her own head. A local Mother's Day 5K with her mom was the answer, and once she crossed that first finish line, there was no going back.

What followed was one of the most packed first years in running you'll hear about on this show. A run walk group that gave her permission to go slow and actually build something real. A half marathon that made her cry at the finish line and two more already booked before she even got there. A marathon training block in Arizona summer heat that included a 29-mile overnight ultra and 20 miles on a treadmill. And then the Every Woman's Marathon itself, which turned out to be nothing like she planned and everything she needed anyway. If there's one thing Keneshia's story makes clear, it's that the right people around you can carry you further than any training plan ever could.

Follow along with Keneshia: @blissfulcreatives

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 
Join the First Marathoner Community! - https://www.skool.com/myfirstmarathon/about

Jon Hwang came to running the way a lot of us do, sideways and by accident. A 5K with coworkers turned into a half marathon, and then a rough year in 2017 where a  relationship ended and his mom was diagnosed with cancer solidified running as the thing that got him through each day.

By the time Jon signed up for the San Francisco Marathon, he had already met his wife through Spartan racing, tackled obstacle courses together, and built years of trail miles between them including a full 50K ultra. So why did 26.2 miles on a road feel more terrifying than anything he had ever done in the mud? That's what this one is all about!

Follow along with Jon: @jhwang on Instagram / @hwangsmiles on TikTok

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 

Join the First Marathoner Community! - https://www.skool.com/myfirstmarathon/about

If you've stepped outside for a run lately and thought "why does this feel so much harder than it did two months ago," this one's for you. Summer running is humbling, and if you're in the middle of a training block right now, it can feel like everything is going backwards. It's not. You're just doing the hardest training of your cycle in the hardest time of year to do it.

In this Wednesday mini episode, I'm walking you through three things you can do right now to make summer running way more manageable, from hydrating like you actually mean it, to a few freezer tricks I wish someone had told me way earlier in my running career, to heat acclimation and why starting slow now pays off in a big way come fall.

Slow summers equal fast falls. Trust the process!

Follow along with the show:
👣 Personal IG/TikTok: @tay.says / @taysays
🎙️ Podcast IG/TikTok: @myfirstmarathonpod
📺 YouTube: @MyFirstMarathonPodcast
🌐 Website & extras: myfirstmarathon.co & myfirstmarathon.co/resources
Shop merch! myfirstmarathon.co - click on "shop"
Join the First Marathoner Community! - skool.com/myfirstmarathon

Ashley never considered herself a runner. As a kid she dabbled in sports, hated cross country, and didn't think twice about it. It wasn't until her early thirties, going through a divorce and looking for somewhere to put all that energy, that she laced up a pair of $10 Walmart shoes and headed out onto the country roads behind her house with nothing but cheap earbuds and an Eminem playlist. She had no plan, no training knowledge, and no idea what was coming.

Fast forward a few years and Ashley, a 911 dispatcher who has spent nearly two decades taking calls from the streets of Austin, decided on a whim one late summer night to sign up for the Austin Marathon and run the very roads she's been protecting for her entire career. She built her own training plan from scratch to fit her rotating shift schedule, tackled the heat and humidity of a Texas summer, and showed up to the start line ready to prove something to herself that had been a long time coming.

Follow along with Ashley: @ashleybblank

Follow along with the show: 
👣 Personal IG/TikTok: @tay.says / @taysays 
🎙️ Podcast IG/TikTok: @myfirstmarathonpod
 📺 YouTube: @MyFirstMarathonPodcast 
🌐 Website & extras: myfirstmarathon.co & myfirstmarathon.co/resources 
Shop merch! - myfirstmarathon.com - click on "shop"
Join the First Marathoner Community! - skool.com/myfirstmarathon

Carly Schrom grew up in a running family and carried the sport all the way through college, where she also quietly battled years of stomach issues that nobody could explain. What eventually got diagnosed as Crohn's disease derailed her senior season, and just when she thought she was finally turning a corner after graduation, a routine scan revealed something scarier waiting on the other side.

What followed was a surgery that changed everything, a long road back, and a decision to mark the one year anniversary in the most Carly way possible: a 4:30am marathon on a random Friday in December, no race bib, no crowd, just her and the guy who had been there through all of it.

Follow along with Carly: @carlyschrom

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 

Join the First Marathoner Community! - skool.com/myfirstmarathon