The Lane 9 Podcast

"I've done a lot of work trying to unpack the ''faster is better, or faster is the only way to run...it sounds so silly saying it out loud, but it's just been like, weighing on my consciousness." Cate Barrett shares about this process, of unlearning the one and only way she knew how and was trained to run, as a competitive collegiate athlete and finding her post college stride. She ran an Olympic marathon trials qualifying time in 2018 at CIM, and ran the 2020 Olympic Team Trials Marathon in February 2020. Soon after that, she was pregnant with her first kid, and a year after that, she was pregnant again.

Now, with 2 and 4 year old kiddos at home, she's continue to navigate this season of life, and what it means for her running.

"I didn't realize before I had to take such extended breaks how much of a role running was playing in my self care. I think I was just like, well, it's just what I do, but, it was multiple things rolled up into one."

Tune in for a relatable, but not-as-often-widely-shared story of how Cate is navigating what running looks and feels like now, how she's still building community around running, and finding new ways for it to be in her life, as a parent and 30-something in tech.

For more from Lane 9 Project go to Lane9project.org. Find a women's health and sport clinician to support you through this season of life, with nutrition, therapy, Physican therapy, and/or medical care—our national directory of providers is ready to support YOU.

Lane9project.org/Directory

@lane9project on Instagram

Weekly newsletter: Lane9project.substack.com

"Okay, no one on your team is fueling. But, what if you're the person to set the example?"

Caila Yates is a sports and eating disorder dietitian based in Boulder CO, in private practice (Steady State Nutrition). She started running in college because one of her friends was doing it, and the rest is history. For her, running was supportive to her own eating disorder recovery, though we know that's not always the case. Now she works with runners at various levels of the sport, and knows the ins and outs of running culture, disordered and restrictive eating, and how hard it can be to stand up to or stand out from what your teammates are doing. So, we talk about that!

Go to steadystatenutrition.co to find ways to work with Caila.

To find and work with a women's health and sport informed clinician from the Lane 9 Project Directory, go to lane9project.org/contact to get in touch!

@Lane9project on IG

Lane9project.Substack.com for our regular newsletter and essays

"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.