Women's Running Stories

Lauren Nutter’s story has so many interesting threads and I’m excited for you to hear about all of it. First up, Lauren will be running Boston for the very first time, and that has been a goal that she has had in earnest since 2019. Between then and now, Lauren discovered the majors. At the time there were six major marathons, and Lauren decided she was going to run them all and earn her six stars, as it’s called. In addition to Boston, those marathons include London, Berlin, Chicago, New York City, and Tokyo.

When Lauren...

Dipsea Generations follows the stories of five young San Francisco Bay area runners who take on the historic Dipsea trail race. The Dipsea is the oldest trail race in the United States, started in 1905, and it covers 7.4 miles of incredible terrain between Mill Valley–just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County–and Stinson Beach. One interesting twist about this race is it has a handicap format determined by age and gender, so it makes for a more level playing field in those regards. 

Nicole grew up in Mill Valley, so she's very familiar with the D...

In addition to testing her limits on the trails, Tania is a coach and she has a podcast called the Ultra Happy Podcast, which she cohosts with her husband, Andy, and it follows her running journey. 

Tania is also a world citizen: while she is from Mexico and now lives in Dubai, she has also lived in Canada and the US, in addition to living for several years in Scotland, which is where her husband is from. You’ll hear about Tania’s time in Scotland in this episode because it does figure strongly into her running story...

These days, Steph Cloutier lives in Eau Claire, WI, but she grew up in the Minneapolis, MN, area, which is only about 100 miles away from Eau Claire. 

Steph coaches for North Coast Running (NRC), a coaching business out of the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. 

With the surge in ICE activity in Minneapolis, NRC founder and runner Tyler Morey decided he wanted to do something to support the immigrant communities being targeted by the ICE crackdowns, so he created Love Thy Neighbor. 

Steph immediately got on board with the initiative, and...

In this conversation, Atim shares how she got started in running, and what got her out on the trails, running ultras. She also gets into how the running group she founded, Ultra Black Running, came to be, and why she's so passionate about carving out space on the trails for other Black women and nonbinary runners. Atim goes deep, sharing empowering, joyful moments in running and on the trail. And she shares experiences of racism and exclusion. Once a shy, quiet kid, today Atim is known today for being boldly herself. But that's been a process. Atim and Dés...

Today, Naseemah Palmer is a licensed clinical social worker, running coach, and entrepreneur. She owns and operates the running, wellness, and apparel brand Vivid Belle. How Palmer's life changed, beginning on that May day, is what this story is all about. 

Palmer's current running focus is coaching Girls on the Run, and one of the athletes she coaches is her daughter. She is training for the upcoming Philadelphia Half Marathon, Nov. 23, 2024, and a big goal is running the Chicago or New York City Marathon in 2025: she's entered in those lotteries once again. Palmer also recently completed the G...

Daisy Martinez started running when a friend suggested she come to a night run in LA, hosted by Blacklist LA. At the time, Daisy was a young single mom working multiple jobs and going to school, and she was struggling with her physical and mental health. From that very first run, Daisy started a journey that would reshape her life; she credits finding the trails for saving her life.

Today, Daisy has been exploring the trails for over a decade, and she is the co-founder of Chingonas on the Run.

In addition, a few years...

To be clear, Allison’s story is not about weight loss or chasing thinness, perse, but more so about being a regimented, disciplined athlete who wanted to see what she was capable of as a runner—and who wanted to leverage her nutrition to support that pursuit.  

In addition, Allison was coming into running as a young adult in this time of thriving influencer culture, so this is also a story about negotiating popular narratives around nutrition and athletic performance. Narratives that often fail to clarify who they truly benefit, if anyone, and the fact that what they’r...

Dena Lewis has been a runner for over two decades and running is a core part of her life and well-being. But also, Dena has been attacked twice while running. She talks about these attacks in her story, and she talks about returning to running afterward—because running is such an important part of her life. 

These are the difficult realities of running as a woman, and I’m really thankful Dena is willing to share her story publicly. As you’ll hear, this wasn’t her first instinct: through and through, being assaulted is horrible. 

These as...

Maddie Barrett is a long-time runner, and these days she focuses primarily on the marathon. In this episode, she shares her whole running journey, including going through a time of disordered eating. Now Maddie sees food as a way of healing her body. Her story also includes her experiences of going through these recent two major surgeries and subsequent recoveries, and how that impacted her running life. Maddie’s taken lessons from past periods of recovery—most notably from childbirth—and this learned wisdom has served her well.  

Maddie’s story is very personal, and it’s also one tha...

New Hampshire-based Tammie Robie’s health issues appear to have started during her teenage years and continued, with increasing intensity, until just a few years ago. Over the years, Tammie saw doctors and specialists, had test after test after test, and followed a variety of prescription protocols. 

But her symptoms persisted: high blood pressure, a spiking heartrate, migraines, water retention in her face and legs. But, throughout, she ran and went after big racing goals. 

Even with all these health problems, Tammie was able to earn her spot on several pro/elite marathon start lines, and...

I sat down with friend, colleague, community organizer, and racial equity advocate Verna NezBegay Volker, who lived for 16 years in Minneapolis, and recently moved just outside the city. The neighborhood where Verna and her husband raised their children is a focal point of ICE raids and crackdowns. 

Central to this conversation: how running and politics are inextricably linked. Running requires freedom of movement and some semblance of safety. Increasingly, we are seeing those liberties threatened, thwarted, and extinguished because of political decisions. It's a reality people of color in this country have always understood; awareness in white c...

Anjali Saraogi hasbeen an ultra runner. She started running in her early 40s and pretty quickly discovered a love and talent for running far, and running fast. She ran the Comrades Marathon in 2017, in a time of 8 hours, 38 minutes: a huge accomplishment and at the time, it was the fastest time run by an Indian woman at that race. 

Anjali then went on to solidify her place as one of India’s best ultra runners, and she is a pioneer in the sport in her country; distance running, as Anjali talks about in her story, is relatively new...

Lisa Jackson has completed over 100 marathons; she's run the 90km or roughly 56-mile Comrades Marathon; and she's run many other races of various distances, too. She's a well known writer, covering health and running, in addition to being an author; she's also a hypnotherapist. 

Many people also know Jackson as the "flamingo lady" for wearing her distinctive flamingo hat, and they know her for jubilantly embracing her place at the back of the pack—she has come in last in many races. 

Over the past several years, Jackson has experienced life-altering challenges: looming large among them...

In this episode, I focus on a huge win in dealing with my anxiety around training and racing. It's opened a whole new chapter in my running journey. Healing anxiety has been a dedicated focus for the past few years, and it's resulted in some breakthrough moments over the past few months. This includes the terrific experiences I just had at my indoor track season opening races which just took place last weekend, on December 13. There, I ran the mile and the 800, my first time doubling with those two events. Hear why I had a truly remarkable time for...

In recent times, Caryn—who lives in Texas and also spends a lot of time in Colorado—became the first person (as far as we can find) to qualify for and run the Boston Marathon after a knee replacement surgery, thanks to a procedure done by Dr Richard Berger. 

And, Caryn’s story is about that, but also so much more. Caryn has faced significant traumas in life, among them experiences with disordered eating, and she has been impacted by suicide.

In her story, she talks about this, and also how the challenges and struggles she’s f...

Elizabeth Sheridan has developed a great love of ParkRun, and it has inspired travel all around the US and to many other parts of the world; currently ParkRun happens in 22 countries, and Elizabeth has done a ParkRun in every one of those countries, except Australia.  

If you aren’t familiar with ParkRun, it’s a free, weekly, timed 5k. No registration, no bib numbers. It’s not even a race: some people run fast, some people jog, some people walk; there are dogs, kids, people pushing strollers—it's truly a come as you are event and complete the 5k how...

Mikka Kei has been running since childhood, and the significance of running has shifted as she’s moved, grown, and evolved through life. For Mikka Kei, running has taken different forms, but it’s been a nonnegotiable part of her life, whether she’s had to negotiate with her parents to run as a teenager in Nepal, jumped at the chance to discover the Appalachian Trail with family friends,  or challenged herself in marathons and ultras. Running and the space it occupies has also seeped into Mikka Kei’s day to day life: it has become integrated into her advocacy...

Emma Bord had a dream to run the six major marathons, and she started on that path with the 2024 New York City Marathon, which she ran for her 40th birthday. How she managed to get into, travel to, and run all these major races within 12  months is what this story is all about.

 And of course, Emma's story is about so much more: it’s about facing fears, processing mom guilt, developing rock solid mental and emotional strength, and navigating the aftermath of a traumatic near-death incident that happened to her husband. It's also about reclaiming a sens...

Starre’s story is a little different from many of the stories you’ll typically hear on WRS. It isn’t only about running: Starre is a runner, but she’s also a swimmer, dancer, and weightlifter. And Starre doesn’t compete in running: she doesn’t have marathon dreams or go after PRs.
However, being a runner, being an athlete, has been fundamental to her understanding of just how capable and strong and resilient and tough women’s bodies naturally, innately are.
As she’s noted, her own experiences and role models left her questioning the messages she was...

“I said, ‘I'm one of Stef's athletes,’” says Liz Andersen. “To say ‘I'm an athlete’ was huge, because I don't think I'd ever really, even up to this point, felt like I was an athlete.”

This episode features Liz Andersen, a runner, mom, a native woman—Liz is a member of the Tulalip Tribes—and an athlete. Over the course of her life, Liz has overcome a lot, and running plays a central role in the peace she has today.

Liz’s story follows her larger health journey, up through her most recent big goal, to mark the end of her...

Over the course of her life, Liz has overcome a lot, and running plays a central role in the peace she has today.

Liz’s story follows her larger health journey, up through her most recent big goal, to mark the end of her 40s, and welcome in her 50th birthday.  

How to Follow Liz Andersen

On Instagram: @pnw_introvertedrunner

Mentioned in this Episode

WRS episode, We Out Here Trail Festival: on ⁠Apple⁠, on ⁠Spotify⁠

Stefanie Flippin on Instagram: @stefanieannflippin

Verna NezBegay Volker on Instagram: @hozhorunner...

Stephanie self-describes as a wife, mom, and running coach, yoga teacher and  podcast host: she hosts The Runner’s Round Table Podcast. Stephanie also founded Correr Running Retreats. In addition to all that, she is a distance runner and run community advocate. 

Stephanie came to running in her adult years, and has run over 200 races of various distances, in various places all over the world. This includes one ultra marathon and over a dozen marathons, including, most recently, the 2025 Chicago Marathon, a race she has a long history with. 

Throughout, Stephanie has explored various ways of se...

“I’m never going to take having a body that can finish for granted,” says Stephanie Diaz.

In this episode, Stephanie Diaz tells her whole running story, and how she’s come to focus on joy and gratitude, and she’s reframing PRs.

Stephanie self-describes as a wife, mom, and running coach, yoga teacher and  podcast host: she hosts The Runner’s Round Table Podcast. Stephanie also founded Correr Running Retreats. In addition to all that, she is a distance runner and run community advocate. 

Stephanie came to running in her adult years, and has run ov...

This episode features elite runner Ari Hendrix and how she is refinding her joy in the sport.

This is Ari’s second time on the podcast; her first appearance was back on December 1, 2023. At that point in time, she was putting the finishing touches on her preparation for the 2024 Olympic Trials Marathon.

That earlier episode covered her running journey to that point: how Ari got into running and how she first broke three hours in the marathon, which happened back in 2018. That accomplishment put Ari on The List, an accounting of all the American-born African-American wo...

This episode features elite runner Ari Hendrix and how she is refinding her joy in the sport.

This is Ari’s second time on the podcast; her first appearance was back on December 1, 2023. At that point in time, she was putting the finishing touches on her preparation for the 2024 Olympic Trials Marathon.

That earlier episode covered her running journey to that point: how Ari got into running and how she first broke three hours in the marathon, which happened back in 2018. That accomplishment put Ari on The List, an accounting of all the American-born African-American wo...

This In Memory reair marks the deeply sad occasion of the tragic death of legendary racer and running community leader in South Africa, Cheryl Winn. Winn passed on October 5. 

This episode first aired on October 16, 2020.

Cheryl Winn is the 1982 Comrades Marathon champion and was the Chairperson of this historic event 2017 to 2021. This episode tells her Comrades story, from her early days of running through to her experiences and reflections on this great race. 

Cheryl has a decades-long and multifaceted relationship with the Comrades Marathon. In this episode, we touch on all of it. Ch...

This In Memory reair marks the deeply sad occasion of the tragic death of legendary racer and running community leader in South Africa, Cheryl Winn. Winn passed on October 5. 

This episode first aired on October 16, 2020.

Cheryl Winn is the 1982 Comrades Marathon champion and was the Chairperson of this historic event 2017 to 2021. This episode tells her Comrades story, from her early days of running through to her experiences and reflections on this great race. 

Cheryl has a decades-long and multifaceted relationship with the Comrades Marathon. In this episode, we touch on all of it. Ch...

This is a special Part 2 episode featuring runner, role model, and groundbreaking racer Shawanna White. If you have not listened to part 1 of Shawanna’s story, which is just above this episode in your feed, I suggest you go back and start there. 

This episode picks up where that episode left off. Shawanna had finished that part of her story discussed being inducted into the National Black Distance Running Hall of Fame, which happened in 2022. And, she mentioned that, looking ahead, she has big goals. She talks about those goals here.

Shawanna also shares her guid...

This is a special Part 2 episode featuring runner, role model, and groundbreaking racer Shawanna White. If you have not listened to part 1 of Shawanna’s story, which is just above this episode in your feed, I suggest you go back and start there. 

This episode picks up where that episode left off. Shawanna had finished that part of her story discussed being inducted into the National Black Distance Running Hall of Fame, which happened in 2022. And, she mentioned that, looking ahead, she has big goals. She talks about those goals here.

Shawanna also shares her guid...

This episode features Shawanna White, a very prolific competitor who has been recognized for her many accomplishments and contributions to the running community. Among her accolades, White was featured in the running documentary Breaking Three Hours, Trailblazing African American Women Marathoners; in 2022, she was inducted into the National Black Distance Running Hall of Fame; and she helped create The List, which keeps an accounting of all of the American-born Black women who have broken 3 hours in the marathon. And not only is White the 11th fastest runner on that list, she’s broken 3 hours 16 times, more than any other Ame...

This episode features Shawanna White, a very prolific competitor who has been recognized for her many accomplishments and contributions to the running community. Among her accolades, White was featured in the running documentary Breaking Three Hours, Trailblazing African American Women Marathoners; in 2022, she was inducted into the National Black Distance Running Hall of Fame; and she helped create The List, which keeps an accounting of all of the American-born Black women who have broken 3 hours in the marathon. And not only is White the 11th fastest runner on that list, she’s broken 3 hours 16 times, more than any other Ame...

This episode features Nadia Ruiz, who is a hugely prolific runner, with a special fondness for the marathon. This is a love that began when she was a teenager. Running has been a source of strength, empowerment, and self-confidence, as well as healing: running has seen Nadia through good times and also through some dark moments. Up to today, when Nadia is hitting new highs in the sport, in her 40s.  

In addition to her long history with the the marathon, Nadia Ruiz has raced many other distances as well, from 5ks to ultras: she runs and ra...

This episode features Nadia Ruiz, who is a hugely prolific runner, with a special fondness for the marathon. This is a love that began when she was a teenager. Running has been a source of strength, empowerment, and self-confidence, as well as healing: running has seen Nadia through good times and also through some dark moments. Up to today, when Nadia is hitting new highs in the sport, in her 40s.  

In addition to her long history with the the marathon, Nadia Ruiz has raced many other distances as well, from 5ks to ultras: she runs and ra...

This episode features Marwa Ali, who is from Kabul, Afghanistan, and now lives in exile as a refugee in Paris, France. How and why she left her home country and the part running and sports played in that journey is what her story is about. Moreover, it's about the power of being an athlete.

Marwa Ali, who is now 24 years old, has been an athlete since childhood. She grew up in Afghanistan during a time when the rights and freedoms of women and girls had been improving. That all changed, however, when the Taliban returned to power i...

This episode features Marwa Ali, who is from Kabul, Afghanistan, and now lives in exile as a refugee in Paris, France. How and why she left her home country and the part running and sports played in that journey is what her story is about. Moreover, it's about the power of being an athlete.

Marwa Ali, who is now 24 years old, has been an athlete since childhood. She grew up in Afghanistan during a time when the rights and freedoms of women and girls had been improving. That all changed, however, when the Taliban returned to power i...

Verna Volker first started running as a way to improve her health. Over time, however, her relationship to the sport has grown and changed, to become a more personal and powerful part of her life. She started out pursuing road marathons and then moved to the trails, stretching her limits in ultra trail running. As her journey has evolved, so have her motivations.

This is a story about how Volker has shaped her running journey to best serve her, her family, and her community.

Volker is from the Navajo Nation: she clarifies, "My clans are...

Verna Volker first started running as a way to improve her health. Over time, however, her relationship to the sport has grown and changed, to become a more personal and powerful part of her life. She started out pursuing road marathons and then moved to the trails, stretching her limits in ultra trail running. As her journey has evolved, so have her motivations.

This is a story about how Volker has shaped her running journey to best serve her, her family, and her community.

Volker is from the Navajo Nation: she clarifies, "My clans are...

This episode features Mary Cass, one of New England's most competitive masters racers. At age 63, she is crushing it, and she's also one of the most generous racers you'll meet. Mary has that wonderful combination of being really open about sharing her knowledge and advice before and after races, and then from the time the gun goes off to the finish line, she's a fierce competitor.

Mary is undoubtedly an inspiration, and she has a great appreciation for the racing community. She also has a deep love of competition. This is matched by her dedication to putting...

This episode features Mary Cass, one of New England's most competitive masters racers. At age 63, she is crushing it, and she's also one of the most generous racers you'll meet. Mary has that wonderful combination of being really open about sharing her knowledge and advice before and after races, and then from the time the gun goes off to the finish line, she's a fierce competitor.

Mary is undoubtedly an inspiration, and she has a great appreciation for the racing community. She also has a deep love of competition. This is matched by her dedication to putting...