"When I was in college I saw a lot of people struggling, not just myself, because it's just a very difficult time." 

Tessa (Tess) Barrett won the 2013 Foot Locker National Cross Country Championship as a senior in High School. She was featured on a billboard in her hometown! The highs were high, and it could seem like everything was going well at the time. But she was also struggling with her own health, and with a sick parent. She went on to compete at Penn State, grieving the loss of a parent and navigating the often-fraught world of collegiate athletics, with a lot of eyes on her. 

Tess eventually moved to Washington DC where she trains and competes with Georgetown Running Club, and had a huge year on the run in 2024. She won a couple of local races, including the Marine Corps Marathon with a personal best of 2:39:38. We talk about all of the above, and how Tess balances running with working, and having a life, on this episode. 

Follow Tessa Barrett on Instagram @tessabarrett_ and via the Georgetown Running Club updates. 

Lane 9 working to improve the menstrual and mental health of female-bodied athletes. Connect with a practitioner or coach through the Lane 9 directory by going to Lane9Project.org. Follow on Instagram @Lane9Project.

Hello 2025! The year we are connecting female-bodied athletes to the clinicians and coaches who are trained and equipped to support their fully body health—menstrual, mental, and physical wellbeing that keeps athletes in their game(s). 

Tune into this short n' sweet episode to hear from Lane 9 Co-founder, Heather Caplan, about what we're up to this year and how to work with us. 

For more about the Lane 9 Directory—how to find a clinician or how to join us if you ARE a clinician—go to Lane9project.org / contact. 

Or DM us on Instagram: @lane9project. 

"I think making two Olympics was easier than trying to figure out what I want to do now." Jourdan Delacruz has been competing as a weightlifter for ten years, from training as a highschooler at the US Olympic Training Center, to multiple international competitions, to both the Toyko and Paris Olympics. Meanwhile, she completed her degree in Nutrition and Dietetics, on her way to becoming a registered dietitian with the hopes of working with athletes like herself. 

We caught up with Jourdan at the end of 2024, as an Olympic year winds down and she reflects on everything she's accomplished to date. She's in a time of transition, without clear next steps, but excited about a variety of possibilities. We loved hearing more about her training, competitions, Olympic experiences, and how she's already supporting athletes with nutrition resources via HerAthlete. 

Follow Jourdan @herathlete on Instagram. 

Lane 9 is working to improve the menstrual health of female-bodied athletes at all levels of sport and through various seasons of life. Join our national directory of providers and coaches, or bring a Lane 9 resource to your team! Go to Lane9Project.org for more info. 

Follow Lane 9 @lane9project on Instagram, and say hi!

" Own what you're doing. And, if you're really riding a wave of inconsistency or doubt, remember that you're always on your own side." Georgetown athlete Fiona Max, running Cross Country and Track & Field in her last year of NCAA eligibility joins us on the Lane 9 Podcast. 

Fiona competed for, and completed her undergraduate degree at Princetown University from 2020-2024, then transferred to Georgetown to pursue her Master's in Sustainability and compete again. She wrote a blog post for GU Energy Labs titled "Practice over Perfection" about her experience with performance anxiety and struggling with perfectionism while competing within and studying at an Ivy League school. We talk about her experiences in collegiate athletics thus far, and what she's scheming for her post-NCAA life. 

Read Fiona's post for GU here. 

Lane 9 is working to improve the menstrual health of female-bodied athletes and reduce REDs by sharing athlete stories from all levels of sport and various seasons of life. We're also building a national directory of practitioners and coaches who specialize in women's health and sport. Go to Lane9project.org / contact to get in touch, and/or join our directory!

Follow @lane9project on Instagram. All show notes can be found at lane9project.org, with full transcripts available by request.

Rachel Drake is a professional trail runner with Nike, co-host of The Trail Network Podcast, mom of 2-year old Lew, and a newly-minted medical resident in Salt Lake City, UT. A few weekends ago, she ran, won, and broke the course record for women at the JFK 50 Miler in northern Virginia—a huge accomplishment on its own, but especially considering all of the above. 

We talked to Rachel about her time as a collegiate athlete, finding trail running and a close community of friends in that space when she moved to Portland OR, and eventually getting back to racing on the trails and roads (and doing it well!). 

And she shared the full story of her postpartum running process, getting a sacral stress fracture soon after she got back into high volume training. "We don't hear about the struggle, and I think the struggle is the predominating experience," she said, when we talked about her injury and how she felt like she wasn't seeing as any stories about setbacks. How so often, what's shared is centered around the wins, the course records, the "bounce backs". 

Tune in to hear Rachel's full story, and what she's eyeing for 2025! 

Follow Rachel on Instagram @RachelRaeDrake. 

Follow Lane 9 @lane9project on IG. If you work with female-bodied athletes, and want to 1) add your services our national directory of providers, 2) join a collective of coaches and practitioners who work with Lane 9, or 3) bring a Lane 9 resource to your team/athletes, go to Lane9Project.org/contact. 

Dr. Sarah Lesko is MANY things—a runner, parent, practitioner, and a staunch advocate for female athletes of all ages, devoting her work to getting and keeping girls in sports. We couldn't have been more excited to chat with her, getting the story of her days as a collegiate athlete, why she took more than 15 years off of running and how that actually felt, what happened when she came back to running and met Oiselle's founder Sally Bergesen, and everything in between.

Sarah is now the Executive Director and Board President of the incredible nonprofit, Bras for Girls, which started within Oiselle in 2017 and branched out as its own 501(c)3 in 2021. They have donated over 60,000 sports bras just THIS YEAR to young female athletes, and have even bigger plans for 2025.

Come for all of the things Sarah has done in the sport of running and for female athletes up to this point, but stay for the hot takes, and unfiltered reality checks, on what really needs to happen within the NCAA to protect female athletes and keep them in sports at all levels, for the long run. 

Follow Dr. Lesko on Instagram @DrLesko and @brasforgirls. Go to brasforgirls.org to get involved. 

To work with Lane 9 and support what we're building for women's health providers and female athletes, go to Lane9Project.org, and follow us on IG @lane9project.

Melissa (Mel) Lodge was a collegiate track and field athlete who had multiple bone stress injuries, and a few providers in her corner that knew exactly what to do to help her navigate REDs. She took her personal experiences and funneled her drive into studying the prevalence of and interventions that may actually help prevent and treat REDs in all levels of sport. She takes time out of her day as a PhD candidate to translate the research into digestible bits on her popular and informative Instagram account, @FED_Collaborative. 

We talked to Mel about her athlete journey, and how it's informing the work she's doing now. Tune in for some well-informed hot takes, relatable anecdotes about working with providers, and the latest in her REDs research. 

Love this episode and the work we're doing at Lane 9 Project? Leave us some good vibes in the reviews! Or stop by lane9project.org to learn how to work with us. 

Follow @Lane9Project on IG, or go to Lane9Project.org/Contact to get in touch. 

Emma Kertesz won the 2024 Bayshore Marathon in 2:37, a three and a half minute PR for the seasoned marathoner and Boulder CO resident. She's from Toledo OH, and ran for the University of Toledo. While she describes her collegiate athletic experiences as "tricky", she had a few lucky experiences with a supportive assistant coach that helped her steer clear of disordered eating habits or chasing the thin ideal (especially at the time). She went on to train with the Hanson brothers, and eventually moved out to the mountains. She has a full time job in early education, and is very intentional about her training, nutrition, and periods of rest. She trains with the The Track Club in Boulder, gave a shoutout to Caila Yates of Steady State Nutrition, and keeps a low profile on social media. 

We talk about all of this, including what's up next for Kertesz as she trains for Houston 2025, in this episode. 

Read more about Emma in the "9 Miles With Emma Kertesz" post on our Substack. 

For more about the work Lane 9 Project is doing to improve the menstrual health of female athletes, and reduce REDS, go to lane9project.org. Follow along @lane9project on IG. 

We talked to Ann Arbor-based physical therapist, Eliana Lin DPT, about her experience as a collegiate athlete, completing her doctorate in physical therapy with clinical rotations in Division 1 Track and Field programs, and her clinical practice philosophies on strength training for runners, and running while rehabbing some injuries (if it’s safe, of course!).

Bonus (IMO): This episode includes a deep dive into the world of Pole Vaulting! Somehow I had never spent much, if any, time thinking about what the workouts, warmups, and track meet experience of a pole vaulter all look and feel like. But, we’ve got that for you in this episode.

Eliana Lin DPT, a former pole vaulter turned distance runner and triathlete. Witnessing numerous runners sidelined by preventable injuries, Eliana is on a mission to ensure athletes stay in the race. Having experienced the frustrations of injury firsthand, she's dedicated to transforming your running experience. At Up and Running Performance, Eliana's passion is improving runners' form and strength, helping them run faster, stronger, and injury free. Whether you're new to running or a seasoned athlete aiming for new goals, Eliana is here for you every step of the way. (@Eliana.Lin.DPT on Instagram)

For more from Lane 9 Project. go to Lane9Project.org and follow on Instagram @Lane9Project. We're working to keep your periods regular, plates full, and rest days aplenty, so more female athletes stay in sports! 

Melanie (Mel) Sulaver RDN, aka Nutrition by Mel (@nutritionbymel), is here to talk about her sport story from soccer to running, parenting to postpartum, and everything in between. We chat about what happened during her collegiate soccer career that led her to leaving the team, and how that was an early lesson in advocating for herself and her own wellbeing. 

Mel is now a sports dietitian speicalizing in work with female-bodied athletes, menstrual health, and supporting birthing athletes through pregnancy and postpartum. Mel brings her signature Big Uterus Energy to this conversation, and her work. We talk about that!

Work with Mel: NutritionbyMel.com 

The Lane 9 Project is working to reduce REDS and improve menstrual health for female-bodied athletes at all levels of sport. Find more of our work and how to work with us at Lane9Project.org. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter at Lane9Project.Substack.com. Full transcripts are available for all episodes.