Podcast
My First Marathon
Hosted by My First Marathon · EN
Join host Taylor as she sits down with runners from all walks of life to delve into their unforgettable first marathon experiences.
From the nerves at the starting line to the euphoria of crossing the finish, each episode offers a candid look at the highs, lows, and unexpected twists of preparing for and conquering 26.2 miles for the first time.
Whether you're a seasoned marathoner or just considering lacing up your running shoes for the first time, this podcast is your go-to source for motivation, inspiration, and real-life insights from those who've been there, done that. Tune in as we celebrate the triumphs, share the struggles, and uncover the lessons learned along the road to that unforgettable first marathon finish line.
Follow along on TikTok and Instagram at @myfirstmarathonpod!
Have feedback? We'd love to hear it! Reach out at myfirstmarathonpod@gmail.com.
Ready to tell your story? Fill out the below form for your chance to be featured!
MFM Request Form
From the nerves at the starting line to the euphoria of crossing the finish, each episode offers a candid look at the highs, lows, and unexpected twists of preparing for and conquering 26.2 miles for the first time.
Whether you're a seasoned marathoner or just considering lacing up your running shoes for the first time, this podcast is your go-to source for motivation, inspiration, and real-life insights from those who've been there, done that. Tune in as we celebrate the triumphs, share the struggles, and uncover the lessons learned along the road to that unforgettable first marathon finish line.
Follow along on TikTok and Instagram at @myfirstmarathonpod!
Have feedback? We'd love to hear it! Reach out at myfirstmarathonpod@gmail.com.
Ready to tell your story? Fill out the below form for your chance to be featured!
MFM Request Form
45episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
135: "Anybody Could Do This": The Chicago Marathon, Take One w/ Sara Shimala
2w ago01:00:13Tap to summarizeSara played tennis all through high school, but running stayed casual for her, a mile here or there, until 2023, when she signed up for her first 5K and then got sidelined by a health complication for most of the year. By summer 2024 she was back on the trail outside Chicago, and after watching the para-athletes and half marathoners at a local race, she reached out to a charity for a Chicago Marathon bib almost on impulse. She texted her fiancé that she thought she'd just signed up for 26.2 miles. He wrote back, "You think?"But by no means was training easy for her. A flooded house sent her and her husband to live with his in-laws for nine weeks that August, running took a back seat to insurance calls and contractors, and her peak mileage never got close to where it needed to be. She made it to the start line anyways, but a chaotic corral search, the Chicago heat, and something that happened to her knee around mile seventeen turned the back half of that race into a fight she wasn't sure she'd win. What got her from that curb to the finish line is a story you're going to want to hear.Follow along with Sara on Instagram at @thatssosaaraa !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
Transcribe →134: "What If I Just Stopped": Hitting the Wall at Mile 12 and Finishing Anyway w/ Julie Satterthwaite
3w ago01:01:50Tap to summarizeJulie grew up in a sports-obsessed family, her dad a longtime Broad Street runner, her brother a former D1 lacrosse player turned distance runner. She played soccer growing up, but sports also came with real anxiety for her, and by college she thought that part of her life was over. It wasn't until her senior year of college that she started easing back into running, and she found herself thinking if her dad and brother could run a marathon, she could too.Philly had already sold out by the time she looked into it, so Julie signed up through a Parkinson's fundraising team inspired by her grandfather and started an 18 week training block while in her second year of medical school. Race day started strong, but somewhere around the halfway point, Julie hit a wall she wasn't expecting, and was forced to make a decision many of us make in a marathon: Do I keep going? Follow along with Julie:Instagram: @juliemsatterthwaite TikTok: @jms3400 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
Transcribe →29: How I'm Approaching Returning To Running (Mini Episodes Are Back!)
3w ago00:14:03Tap to summarizeI took a two month break from running dealing with personal issues we'll get into in this episode. These personal issues forced me to take 2 full months off of running for the first time in my running journey, and today we're breaking down what it's actually looked like to come back from that, not just physically, but mentally too. I'm walking you through the exact plan I built for myself, the mindset shifts that made the biggest difference, and the practical stuff like how I'm structuring my weeks, my long runs, and my strength training as I work my way back up to running continuous miles again. If you've ever had to start over from scratch for any reason, I hope this gives you both a plan to follow and permission to go easy on yourself while you're doing it.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
Transcribe →133: Finding Her People: How BAR Run Club Changed Everything w/ Rachel Howard
4w ago01:03:22Tap to summarizeBesides the dreaded mile in high school PE class, running was fairly casual for Rachel for a long time until the stress of working front lines at a hospital during COVID turned it into a huge stress reliever for her. A few years later she set her sights on a half marathon, and after three tries and a few injuries, she finally got there. Shortly after, she found BAR Run Club, and being surrounded by people just a little further down the road than her helped her believe a marathon was also for people like her.Training meant fitting three hour long runs around a demanding hospital schedule, and by no means was training easy for her. A rough twenty mile run right before taper shook her confidence, but she showed up to race day anyways. Unseasonable heat, GI issues that hit mid race, and a stretch where she had every reason to stop all showed up before the finish line did. What got her through it, and what she carried into a second marathon just months later, are lessons you're going to want to hear.Follow along with Rachel Howard: @rachelizhowardFollow 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
Transcribe →132: The Race She Had to Run Twice: Redemption at the Eugene Marathon w/ Gina Loschiavo
Jul 600:46:57Tap to summarizeGina 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: @ginaloschFollow 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
Transcribe →131: Slow and Steady, Keep to the Left: A Late Bloomer's First Marathon w/ Jude Harper
Jun 2900:53:01Tap to summarizeJude 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.11Follow 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
Transcribe →130: "You Don't Have to Put a Period at the End of the Sentence": From Trauma to Trail Ultras w/ Mikaela Gomez
Jun 2201:02:12Tap to summarizeMikaela 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-copyFollow 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
Transcribe →129: It Fell on My Actual Birthday: Why Maggie Finally Signed Up for Chicago w/ Maggie Lowenthal
Jun 1500:46:41Tap to summarizeMaggie 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
Transcribe →128: You Owe It to Yourself to Try: Training for a Marathon She Almost Didn't Start w/ Alyssa Newman
Jun 801:01:13Tap to summarizeAlyssa 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: @alyssasrunsFollow 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
Transcribe →127: Go Stupid Slow: Finding Running, Community, and Her People in the Ultra World w/ Keneshia Raymond
Jun 100:57:57Tap to summarizeKeneshia 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: @blissfulcreativesFollow 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
Transcribe →