Episode 251: Breaking Down(hill) the Changes to the Boston Marathon Qualifying Process

The BAA released some significant adjustments to its qualifying standards and we are back to discuss it all and break it down(hill). Thanks for listening. If you are inclined to leave a five star review, we would be so grateful!Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at @runfartherandfaster.Interested in hiring a coach? Email us at [email protected] or head over to our NEW website (www.runfartherandfaster.com)! Please follow, share and review our show!

In this coaching episode, we share tips on how to train for an early fall race on fewer weeks of training. We know so many runners are gearing up for an early fall race, so we wanted to provide tips on how to recover from a spring marathon and successfully transition to training for an early fall marathon. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at @runfartherandfaster.Interested in hiring a coach? Email us at [email protected] or head over to our NEW website (www.runfartherandfaster.com)! Please follow, share and review our show!

We were so thrilled to welcome one of our amazing Boston Marathoners, Lauren Hitchens, to the podcast.Lauren is an experienced marathon runner, having completed ten marathons since 2016, including all six Marathon Majors. She set her PR of 3:38:35 at the 2023 Chicago Marathon, qualifying her for the 2025 Boston Marathon, her first. In spring 2024, after successfully running the Tokyo Marathon, Lauren experienced pain in her foot that has taken her on a journey of seeking a path to healing that has required multiple expert opinions, an unconventional approach to training for Boston (including the use of tools like Lever and Fluid Running), and a reimagining of her goals for her first Boston. Lauren balances her training with her responsibilities as a mother and business executive at Google. We are so grateful to Lauren for sharing her inspiring story! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at @runfartherandfaster.Interested in hiring a coach? Email us at [email protected] or head over to our NEW website (www.runfartherandfaster.com)! Please follow, share and review our show! Show Notes:Fluid Running- https://www.fluidrunning.com/Lever Movement- https://levermovement.com/Precision PT/Dr. Elizabeth Karr- https://www.precisionpt.org/dr-elizabeth-karr-pt-dpt

We are so thrilled to welcome Sari Winick, a seasoned masters marathoner and triathlete, to the podcast, who shares how she balanced a breast cancer diagnosis with training for the 2025 London Marathon. Sari, 53, has been working with us for several years. After achieving consecutive marathon PRs and slowly chipping away at her time to get closer and closer to a BQ with a PR exactly a year ago, we knew she would get there and looked forward to coaching her to prepare for the London Marathon In 2025.Then, just after completing her fall training cycle, Sari was diagnosed with breast cancer during a routine screening. Just two days after her double mastectomy, Sari, spoken like a true runner, reached out to us and said, “I’m still planning on running the TCS London Marathon. All of my doctors said it was possible. It won’t be a PR but hopefully a great goal at the end of this process.”In this episode, Sari shares how she navigated surgery, chemo, and marathon training to achieve her goal-spoiled alert-she crossed the London finish line in 4:59.We are so grateful to Sari for sharing her inspiring story! Follow Sari on Instagram @runswimmom!Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at @runfartherandfaster.Interested in hiring a coach? Email us at [email protected] or head over to our NEW website (www.runfartherandfaster.com)! Please follow, share and review our show!

After some updates about the London Marathon and our post-Boston Marathon recovery, we share a live recording from Sunday, April 20 at the Boston Marathon Expo. Once again, we co-hosted this event with Cherie Louise Turner, host of the Women’s Running Stories Podcast.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 McMahon.These exception runners shares wisdom and experience on strategies for developing mental strength and resilience, mental approaches to the marathon, how to build confidence when you have self-doubt, and so much more! This is an episode to listen to again and again; it's so backed with helpful advice and useful takeaways.We can’t thank these women enough for joining us. We also want to thank our terrific co-host and dear friend, Cherie, for collaborating with us for year four of hosting discussion panels at the Boston Marathon.The panelists:Stephanie Bruce, 41, has been racing professionally for over 15 years. Among her many racing accomplishments, she's placed 6th at the Chicago Marathon, and 10th at the London and NYC marathons. Bruce has also earned 3 national titles on the road, one in the half-marathon and twice in the 10k. Additionally, Bruce placed 6th at the Olympic Marathon Trials in 2020. Bruce started a new chapter in her running career this year, signing on with Tracksmith. She now runs for them professionally and will be helping to mentor younger runners going after big goals.Erica Stanley-Dottin, 51, came to marathoning later in life, at age 35. In her early 40s, she began to train seriously and joined the Black Roses racing team. She then learned about The List: an accounting of all the American-born Black women who have broken 3 hours in the marathon. As she continued to get faster at the marathon, this became her goal. Erica met that goal with room to spare at the 2022 Berlin Marathon where she ran 2:52, at 48 years old. That came just six months after running 3:01 at Boston. This year, Stanley-Dottin ran the Boston Marathon as a member of Team Bevans, in honor of marathon pioneer Marilyn Bevans.Dot McMahan, 48, has been running marathons for 19 years and she’s run for the Hanson Brooks Original Distance Project team for 20. Among Dot’s many accomplishments over her long running career, she’s qualified for and run 5 Olympic trials marathons, and she has placed in the top 10 at two of them. Last year, she was the oldest woman to compete in the marathon trials, and she qualified for last year's trials by running 2:35 at the 2023 Grandma’s Marathon. Dot is also a running coach. She works with private athletes and as an assistant track coach for Oakland University.How to Keep Up with Stephanie BruceInstagram: @stephrothsteinHow to Keep Up with Erica Stanley-DottinInstagram: @estanleydottHow to Keep Up with Dot McMahonInstagram: @dotmcmahonWays to Connect with Run Farther and FasterInstagram: @runfartherandfasterFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/RunFartherFasterTwitter: @RunFartherfastWebsite: https://www.runfartherandfaster.com/Ways to Connect and Engage with Women's Running StoriesInstagram: @womensrunningstoriesWebsite: womensrunningstories.comWomen's Running Stories is a member of the Evergreen network: https://evergreenpodcasts.com/Thanks to all who joined us on Sunday!

Less than 24 hours after we raced, we recap! We ran, we conquered, and now…we sore! Highlights include—some interesting and new logistics, our fueling plans, and how we handled moments of self-doubt while racing this race for our collective 35th time. We know this course, yet each year, we learn something new about the race and ourselves. Congrats to all who ran this storied course on Patriots’ Day! You did that!Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at @runfartherandfaster.Interested in hiring a coach? Email us at [email protected] or head over to our NEW website (www.runfartherandfaster.com)! Please follow, share and review our show!

While carb loading on candy and Gatorade, we wanted to share a recap of our Boston Marathon weekend so far. We discuss our Expo Panel, Shakeout Run, and meet-ups, all of which were full of surprises-some good and some not so good- and remind us to control the controllables.For those listening before the big dance, Go Crush Your Race! See you on the flip side!Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at @runfartherandfaster.Interested in hiring a coach? Email us at [email protected] or head over to our NEW website (www.runfartherandfaster.com)! Please follow, share and review our show!

In our previous episode, Episode 243, we broke down the Boston Marathon course mile by mile. In this episode, we break down Boston Marathon weekend hour by hour so you know where to go, what to eat, when to leave for the buses, and how to maximize your time before the race to ensure that you have plenty of energy during the race. Even if you’ve run Boston before, we guarantee you’ll learn something new.Join us for our shakeout run on Sunday, 4/20, at 9 at Brewer Fountain, and later at 1 on the Expo Live Stage in Hynes Convention Center for our live show with Cherie Louise Turner of Women’s Running Stories. We will be featuring three masters women, Steph Bruce, Erica Stanley-Dottin, and Dot McMahon.Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at @runfartherandfaster.Interested in hiring a coach? Email us at [email protected] or head over to our NEW website (www.runfartherandfaster.com)! Please follow, share and review our show!

After running from Hopkinton to Boylston 33 times collectively, we share our observations and tips for navigating the iconic Boston Marathon course. In this episode we break down the course mile by mile and share how to approach the race. Learn about each town, each mile, and, in the case of Newton, each hill, to ensure that you run your best race!Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at @runfartherandfaster.Interested in hiring a coach? Email us at [email protected] or head over to our NEW website (www.runfartherandfaster.com)! Please follow, share and review our show!

Brendan Aylward has devoted his life to making fitness accessible to everyone, and this year, for the second year in a row, he will be racing with Jacob Wyman as a Team Hoyt Duo at the Boston Marathon. While Brendan’s race times are certainly impressive (he and Jacob have a marathon PR of 2:55), what’s even more impressive is Brendan’s commitment to inclusion in sport.In this episode, Brendan, the founder of Unified Health & Performance and AdaptX, shares how his involvement in the Best Buddies program in high school led to a career focused on ensuring that athletes of all abilities can pursue their goals.Speaking of which, Brendan takes great pride in racing for Team Hoyt New England with Jacob.. Rick and Dick Hoyt have been a major influence on Brendan’s career path and this year Brendan and Jacob are so excited to run Boston for the second consecutive year for Team Hoyt. In this episode, Brendan shares how he trains and races while pushing Jacob from Hopkinton to Boston and what the experience meant to both of them.We hope you are as inspired by Brendan and Jacob as we are. To learn more about Brendan and AdaptX, check out AdaptX.org. Brendan also hosts a weekly podcast, the AdaptX Podcast, in which he amplifies the voices and ideas of individuals who are building accessible businesses or products, advocating for inclusion, or excelling in adaptive sports.Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at @runfartherandfaster.Interested in hiring a coach? Email us at [email protected] or head over to our NEW website (www.runfartherandfaster.com)! Please follow, share and review our show!