Women's Running Stories

I am bringing you a reair of a terrific episode. I'm taking this one-week break because I've been working on a new project that we just announced, and that I know you'll be excited about: the podcast EARTHMOVERS, with Alison Mariella Désir, Stefanie Flippin, Verna NezBegay Volker. It will launch Aug 14. Keep up with news and information about EARTHMOVERS now on Instagram: @EARTHMOVERSpodcast . I'l...

This is a special live report from the inaugural We Out Here Trail Festival that just happened this last weekend on June 7, 2025. It took place outside Seattle, WA, at St. Edwards State Park.  The trail scene is and has long been the whitest, most male dominated sector of the running world. Instead of continuing to wait for the system to change, RDs Aaliyah Earvin and Alison Mariella Désir stepped...

Sara Aranda is a trail runner and outdoor adventurer who has developed a strong interest in going after FKTs, fastest known times. But her outdoor passions are about much more than setting records: Aranda's motivations are spurred by processing life and death, grief and hope, fear and joy. Aranda's passion for trail running began while she was in college. It was a space where she could process the...

Becky Croft’s life experiences have led her to becoming not only a performance minded runner but also a sought-after running coach. She’s developed a specialty in guiding runners through their menopausal years—pre and post. Croft brings her own experience of post-hysterectomy menopause, which resulted from of a long history of endometriosis. Croft shares her whole running story, which began later...

Jessica Mena is a longtime runner now focused on ultra trail running. She’s continually driven to discover what she is capable of: beginning with her first marathon, at age 12!, to today, as she explores running long distances on the trails. This episode focuses on Mena reaching one of her biggest goals yet: running 100 kilometers (62 miles) over hilly trails. She shares how it all went down, alon...

This is an update from me, WRS host and producer Cherie Louise Turner, about my running, training, and racing. This picks up from where the last episode of the Over 50, Sub 20, 5k Project, Part 9, left off. As I mentioned in my last episode, I have decided to stop focusing so completely on this sub-20 minute 5k goal, so am just calling these running updates. I still have a sub-20 goal, but it's no...

Angel Tadytin shares the epic story of her first 50-mile trail race, and how it unfolded in unexpected and magical ways. Tadytin is a wife, mother, social worker, and ultra runner, and she is from the Navajo Nation. She and her family currently live in Mesa, Arizona, but she’s originally from Page, Arizona, and the surrounding area. Tadytin is also a lifelong hiker and outdoor explorer, and a long...

This is a live recording from Sunday, April 20 at the Boston Marathon Expo. Once again, WRS host Cherie Turner teamed up with Julie Sapper and Lisa Levin from the Run Farther and Faster podcast to co-host an excellent panel. This year's panel was titled Mental Strategies for Mastering the Marathon, and it featured exceptional masters marathoners Stephanie Bruce, Erica Stanley-Dottin, and Dot McMah...

This episode features prolific marathon runner and internationally competitive masters racer Gwen Jacobson. Jacobson, who is 66, got started running in 2010, when she was in her 50s. She has run many distances, but without question she has the greatest affinity for the marathon: in the last 15 years, Jacobson has run over 120 marathons as well as one 50k. In addition to loving the 26.2 mile distan...

This episode features Alia Qatarneh, whose running story is deeply infused with community and leadership, especially through the Boston area based TrailblazHers Run Co. Her story highlights the way the three forces of running, community, and leadership have coalesced to drive her running journey. And how that's led to her running the 2023 Boston Marathon—her first time running 26.2 miles—and then...

This is a special live recording featuring professional runner and 3x national champion Annie Rodenfels, in conversation with WRS host and producer Cherie; that's me. We sat down at the Tracksmith track house in Boston on Sat., March 22, with a wonderful crowd on a beautiful morning to have this fantastic conversation. Annie Rodenfels is a born competitor. We get into how she progressed from being...

This episode features ultra trail runner and mom Mayra Garcia, who is originally from Honduras and now calls Maryland home. Garcia loves to run, and she loves to run very far: training for ultras is a big part of her life today. But not too long ago, Garcia wasn’t a runner at all. Not until one fateful day, when, instead of turning to coping with life's challenges in unhealthy ways, like using alc...

This episode features longtime professional runner, entrepreneur, mother of three, wife, and so much more, Stephanie Bruce. In this episode Bruce, who is 41, shares the purpose and passion that’s driving her these days, as she moves into a new chapter in her running career. It’s a time of transition and exciting new paths forward. As a professional runner in her early 40s, Bruce shares valuable ex...

This is part 9 of the Over 50, Sub 20, 5k Project, where WRS host and producer Cherie Louise Turner is sharing her journey to break 20 minutes in the 5k, in her 50s, in real time. Feel free to join the journey from here; it's not mandatory to listen to previous episodes in order to enjoy this one. Previous episodes will provide more context around this project and provide details about the many le...

This is the transformative running story of Samantha Powderhorn, who is from the Sayisi Dene First Nations community, in northern Manitoba, Canada. She currently lives in Winnipeg. Powderhorn’s story revolves around breaking cycles of addiction and healing trauma, for herself, her family, and her community. Today Powederhorn is the first Sayisi Dene woman to have ever run a marathon. She is also a...

Therese Munthe, 48, has always been athletic, and she's always been competitive. But she did not like to run. She believed she wasn't good at it—until she discovered marathoning, in her 40s. That all changed in 2021. Munthe was looking for a way to connect with her father when he was facing the end of his life. This led Munthe on a journey that has changed her life and turned her into a serious ma...

Molly Hurford knew she wanted to be a writer from a very young age. She also loved being active outdoors. But she had decided that, as a writer, she couldn’t possibly also be an athlete. That all changed in college.  Today Hurford embodies many identities, including owner/founder of Strong Girl Publishing, writer, podcaster, and athlete, including being an ultra runner.  This story is all about ho...

Katie Gunvalson had a calling: traverse the entirety of the 2,700 mile Pacific Crest Trail. This audacious goal was something Gunvalson's younger self would have never considered. But, it's exactly what she did. The PCT, true to its name, follows the crest of the mountain ranges between Canada and Mexico, going through Washington, Oregon, and California, along the Cascade Range, the Sierra Nevada,...

This is a special live recording featuring 8x masters world record holder Sue McDonald, 61, in conversation with WRS host and producer Cherie; that's me. We sat down the Tracksmith track house in Boston on Sat., Feb 1, to a wonderful group who braved snowy weather for this terrific conversation. We get into how McDonald has stayed healthy and competitive over her 40-plus year career as a highly co...

Jenny Sandoval is the 2022 NCAA DII 10,000 national champion, and now running as a post-collegiate elite/pro, she is focused on discovering her full potential in the sport. It's been a time of big ups and downs, as Sandoval navigates life as an elite runner, with a full time job. Her performance at the recent USATF cross country national championships, held on January 11 in Lubbock, Texas, was a h...

Weini Kelati is a professional road and long distance track racer for the Mission Run Dark Sky Distance team sponsored by Under Armour. Kelati is one of the best US racers in the 10k, 5k, and, more recently, half marathon. In this episode, Kelati shares how she got to this point in her running career, with a particular focus on the transformation her racing went through over the past year. This in...

Heather Caplan's running story spans many seasons of her life. And through those seasons, she has discovered how wins in her running life can show up in many different ways. Caplan is a runner, a run coach, a dietician, the mother of three children, and she is also well known for being the co-founder of the Lane 9 Project, with Alexis Fairbanks. To quote Caplan, "Lane 9 is a community of athletes...

Today Chantelle Erickson is an ultra trail runner and, as she says, a multipreneur, in addition to being a wife and the mother of two children. Erickson runs her business Be Well Chantelle, and under the umbrella of that business, she has many offerings. One of them is Baby Mama, where she offers pre- and postnatal fitness services; she is a running coach.  Additionally, Erickson is a financial ad...

Vanessa C. Peralta-Mitchell was inspired to start running after learning how hard women had fought to just participate in sports. That moment of inspiration would eventually change her life, setting Peralta-Mitchell on a path to change the running industry. How that all unfolded is what this episode is all about. Peralta-Mitchell is a runner, business owner, running coach, and mother of three chil...

For this episode, I chose a variety of clips from 10 episodes published in 2024 that have stuck with me and made an impact. This isn't a "best of" so much as a celebration of the huge variety of experiences and motivations women have in this sport. I hope you'll find something in here to motivate and inspire you, and perhaps spark a new interest for 2025. It's incredible how much this sport brings...