Our Athletes
Tracy
Meet Tracy, who's training for the Virtual New York Marathon in just under a month from now. The photo shows her at the historic Hayward Field, where she recently finished the Eugene Marathon with an impressive time!
One day, Tracy and I ran one of her workouts together, provided by an AI platform that shall not be named (think R**** 🫢). This run proved so exhausting to me I could barely keep up! I tried to quietly indicate that the workout paces and even distances the app provided were for a much faster marathon time than the one she targeted. Tracy's knee and ankle were hurting, and she felt she wasn't running well enough, when in reality her speed and endurance were off the charts!
I offered to adapt her existing plan so it wouldn't lead to injury and burnout. Tracy is a busy lady with a high-level job next to being a wonderful mother. We stuck with a peak week of about 40 miles to accommodate her time constraints.
"You're so much nicer than R****," Tracy said when I told her she shouldn't run a track workout with her knee hurting.
Each of her runs now includes a report on possible pain points, and Tracy is relieved to learn she can stop when things are too hard, or God forbid, painful. Because in the end, she has done the training, put in the work, and she's more than ready to run the race.
Hannah
Meet Hannah, our speedy energizer bunny! Hannah is training for the 2025 New York Marathon. But just running isn’t quite enough for her—she also teaches Hot Pilates four times a week and goes on multi-hour bike rides for fun, always a smile on her face.
Hannah ran a Boston-qualifying time at her very first marathon, the OC Marathon in Orange County. She’s now back for more. She came to me because her hip flexors complained after a speed workout. The injury continued to dampen her joy of flying down the trails and streets of Santa Cruz, and with two months to go to the race, she took three weeks off running, worried whether she’d toe the line come November.
Looking at her training plan, we saw that her speed workouts were scheduled on Mondays. After her weekend long run, Hannah did not want to get out of bed for some of these tough sessions, but she did anyway. But Hannah’s body was right—an interval session on a Monday offers no time to recover from the long run.
I moved her workout to the middle of the week and also assured her that her easy miles could follow a much slower pace.
“Slower is WAY more fun,” one of her Strava titles says. And it’s reducing injury risk, too!
Keeping injury risk in mind, we created a path out of injury that also works around Hannah’s intense cross-training regimen, and now, her pain is minimal to none.
I’m confident Hannah will be the unstoppable energizer bunny she always is come race day!
Joanna
Meet Joanna, who set a goal to finish a marathon when she turned forty. Two years later, and Joanna is unstoppable. Now her goal isn’t just a marathon, but the Canyons 50k! As an ultrarunning coach, I wholeheartedly embrace and agree with her goal, because Joanna’s strength of running endurance efforts matches the longer distances.
Joanna has prepared her mind for the ultrarunning challenge, too: here she’s shown in front of the iconinc No Hands Bridge that is not only part of the Canyons 50k course but is also crossed in the Western States 100-mile race.
Jenny
Meg
Meg is very proud of starting her running passion in her mid-thirties. Just to reassure, I let her know I started around then, too! She would like to participate in the 2026 Reno-Tahoe-Odyssey, where teams of twelve-or-so runners cover a stunning 178 miles in the Sierras.
Meg recently ran her first race, the Reno Journal Jog, shown in her photo. Her smile shows her love for running. But really, it probably stems from spotting the finish line 200 meters ahead!
Meg’s plan will slowly progress her from an average of six miles per week with the Reno Mikkeller Running Club to increased endurance. There may be a few doubles in her future, too! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves—Meg has many months to prepare, and we’ve got her back.
When she isn’t running, she loves to climb! Core and leg strength needed in climbing will provide a strong basis to keep her injury risk low, and we’ll make sure she has enough time for these activities.
Good luck in your journey, Meg!