“Things can go off the rails quick. So as much as you want to be confident and feel like it’s gonna be easy, that’s not how this works.” Des Linden, Olympian and 2018 Boston Marathon champion, is officially an ultramarathoner. And not just an ultramarathoner: a record-setting ultramarathoner. Last week, Des made her ultra debut, racing a 50K in Oregon, and breaking a world record in the process. She finished in 2:59:54, beating the previous world record (held by Aly Dixon) by more than seven min...
Apr 22, 2021•34 min•Season 1Ep. 363
“I think you can almost want something too bad. Because I just wanted it so bad . I wasn’t relaxed. It wasn’t fun anymore. It was just tunnel vision on winning — and I wasn’t winning! I wanted it so bad and it wasn’t happening. It was very draining.” What happens when you set big, dreamy, lofty goals — but when it counts the most, you fall short? That’s what this series, “Just Missed,” is about. These conversations are about dealing with disappointment. They are reminders that progress is never ...
Apr 21, 2021•59 min•Season 1Ep. 362
“It’s hard for me to be back here in a lot of ways. Because it sometimes brings me back to being that little Cynthia, and feeling like my voice doesn’t matter because of the color of my skin or my hair. Like people don’t care about what I have to say. And that’s why this film is so important to me. I want these kids to be heard. I want them to know that they do matter.” Cynthia Martinez is a 12-time marathoner and four-time Boston Marathon qualifier who has run races on four continents, complete...
Apr 15, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 361
“I think that in order to do special things, especially in running, you really have to put yourself out there. And a lot of times, it doesn’t go how you want it to. But you can learn a lot from the times that don’t go right. When things go right, you’re like yeah, that was fun, that was easy… But the ones where you really have to work for it, you really have to put your head down and grind it out, go to a dark place, get it done — you grow so much more in those situations, and you take so much m...
Apr 14, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 360
“I wish more people looked at them as humans first and were not scared… They don’t know what to say, they don’t know how to act. They may be well meaning, but they don’t see it’s just OK to talk to them like you would talk to anyone else. They’re like anyone else in that they seek connection, attention, and love from the people around them.” We’re wrapping up Season 4 of the On the Job series today, and we’re doing that by giving a big round of applause — let’s make it a standing ovation — for a...
Apr 13, 2021•56 min•Season 1Ep. 359
"It was such an immediate shift for me. I realized, this is what I need to do to love running again." Welcome back to Ask Ali, a monthly series where I answer all of your questions. This time around, we’ve got listener questions about running without a watch, advice for first-time marathoners, my favorite things to make right now, and building confidence. Plus, an Annie cameo! Enjoy! If you want to be part of a future “Ask Ali” episode (yay!), call 917-947-9699 — introduce yourself, and ask what...
Apr 09, 2021•53 min•Season 1Ep. 358
“We get on the line and yeah, we’re competitive with each other, but as soon as we cross that line, we’re each other’s biggest fans.” Shelby Houlihan and Karissa Schweizer are two of the fastest women on the planet right now. They run for Nike's Bowerman Track Club, and seem to have found the perfect balance of being both great friends and teammates and fierce competitors. On this episode, Shelby and Karissa — a treat to get to talk to them together! — talk about their relationship, how they fir...
Apr 08, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 357
“There are so many times you start on a journey and somewhere along the way you realize, this isn’t where I wanted to go. The beginning of this was right, and then somewhere I took a turn or didn’t take a turn, and I ended up somewhere entirely different. And it caused a meltdown. Do I love running? What in running do I love? Can I get back to what I love?” What happens when you set big, dreamy, lofty goals — but when it counts the most, you fall short? That’s what this series, “Just Missed,” is...
Apr 07, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 356
“If you want to do this job, you have to be willing to assume that you could be wrong about just about everything. You need to be willing to look everything up.” Carla Benton gets paid to read all day. Sound like the dream? As a freelance book copy editor and proofreader, Carla agrees: She's living her dream. (She worked on 70 books last year alone!) On this episode, Carla (whose twin sister, Emilia, was on the show a few weeks ago ) offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to get a book...
Apr 06, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 355
“I have this insatiable need to find out how good I can be. I just want to see how fast I can run and what I can accomplish. If I can make an Olympic team, if I can win the New York City Marathon. And just daring to try is what fills me with so much purpose in my daily life. Anytime I have an obstacle, I’m like yeah, but nothing else fires me up more than clawing my way back to fitness.” Steph Bruce returns to the Ali on the Run Show today! Steph is a professional runner for HOKA NAZ Elite in Fl...
Apr 05, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 354
“I think about it a lot, like what do I want to add to this sport? What do I want to add to my life, and what do I want my legacy to be? And I feel like it would be a hollow journey if I didn’t try to use my platform to spread a good message to make change.” Gabriela DeBues-Stafford is having one heck of a year so far. In her debut season training and competing with the Bowerman Track Club, the Canadian professional middle-distance runner and 2016 Olympian has run — and won — two races already, ...
Apr 01, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Season 1Ep. 353
"It’s terrifying. But I think that’s a good thing." This week on the job, we're headed to the courtroom! Catherine McNamara is a public defender in Massachusetts — a job she says is often mischaracterized and misunderstood. So she's here to clear things up. Catherine talks about what makes her work hard, stressful, important, and rewarding, and talks about what it's like in the courtroom. She also talks about developing the confidence needed to be a litigator and trial attorney. SPONSOR: Tracksm...
Mar 30, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 352
“It’s the most popular club that no one wants to join.” Welcome to the monthly edition of Ramblings on the Run with Ali and Matt! This month, Matt Chittim — host of the Rambling Runner podcast and the Road to the Trials podcast — and I catch up on how our running is going, share what we're loving right now, and talk about what we're excited about. And then, we have a little March Madness fun — with a twist. It's the "Ramblings on the Run Fictional 5K," and we've got brackets! What we mention on ...
Mar 26, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 351
“Being able to come to work as my whole self. Being able to be out. Being able to appear on camera in drag. Hopefully for those of you that are out there listening, if you work at a company or a place where you cannot be yourself — and I know you need to make the money — it is not worth it. It is not worth it to stifle that magic. You will slowly die inside. Go work for a place where you can be Mara every single damn day. Let your freak flag fly and be who you wanna be. We are too advanced in th...
Mar 25, 2021•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 350
“It’s definitely not like Suits . It’s way more like The Office .” For Victoria Asikis, grocery shopping is the best . As a lawyer working in regulatory compliance for food and beverage products, strolling the aisles is basically doing market research. And on this episode, we learn what, exactly, a food lawyer does. (It's pretty fascinating stuff!) Victoria lives in Ottawa, Ontario, where she is a part of the advertising and product regulatory group at Gowling WLG , a large multinational law fir...
Mar 23, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 349
"Having a baby is not the end of your running goals and dreams." Welcome back to Ask Ali, a monthly series where I answer all of your questions. This time around, we've got listener questions about running after having a baby, podcasting behind-the-scenes, getting into freelance writing, stroller recommendations, and my real thoughts on Taylor Swift's folklore vs. evermore . Enjoy! If you want to be part of a future “Ask Ali” episode (yay!), call 917-947-9699 — introduce yourself, and ask whatev...
Mar 19, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 348
“There comes a certain time that you just need a break. You’re human. You don’t have to feel great all the time. It’s OK to be in touch with your feelings and say, ‘I don’t feel great, and I’m going to take five days off.’ It’s fine!” Blanca Grinkovitch is a 20-time marathoner, Ironman, lululemon ambassador, director at New Jersey treadmill studio Juma Fit , and mom of twin boys. She runs a 3:07 marathoner and a 1:29 half-marathon, and today, in her fifties, she's running stronger and healthier ...
Mar 18, 2021•54 min•Season 1Ep. 347
“People should feel like they have a real say in the decisions that impact their everyday lives.” Beth Huang says community organizing is on her mind 24/7. As the Director of the Massachusetts Voter Table voting rights organization, it's her life's mission to get everyone everywhere (starting in Massachusetts!) registered to vote and showing up to vote. Beth and the MA Voter Table don't care how you vote — it's a nonpartisan organization — they just want you to have answers so you know how to re...
Mar 16, 2021•58 min•Season 1Ep. 346
“In order for me to light the world on fire — I am going to do amazing things in Tokyo — I’m going to train smart, I’m going to stay out of trouble, and I’m going to stay injury free. Because I believe in my heart that even four months of training, I am going to be super fit and I’m going to have an amazing race in Tokyo. I just hope that my body is in tune with my mind. Because I know in my mind that even though I just had a child, that’s not going to be a barrier. I’m not going to make excuses...
Mar 15, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 345
“The only person who can make you feel good about yourself is yourself. You really have to feel confident in who you are and what you bring to the table, and know that you’re enough. That’s your foundation.” Ask any Peloton devotee about instructor Olivia Amato, and you'll probably hear the same phrase over and over: "She's a real-life Energizer Bunny." Olivia is one of the few Peloton instructors who can "do it all" — she teaches on both the bike and the treadmill, and teaches strength classes....
Mar 11, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 344
"I used to be a morning person. I’m not a morning person anymore!" Liz Lemon was always destined to do two things: run and help people. Liz (and yes, she gets a lot of 30 Rock references thanks to her name) comes from a family that runs and practices medicine, so it's no surprise that Liz would do the same. She's a night shift nurse in the emergency room at a hospital in California (though she's currently on leave on account of a broken hand), while also pursuing her master's degree in nursing e...
Mar 09, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 343
“Once I started to believe in myself and believe I was faster — which is the power of the mind — I started showing it.” Ce'Aira Brown wants you to know that she's still running. She's still training (alongside Ajeé Wilson ), and she's still staying true to her "talk less, grind more" mentality. (And when she's not on the run training for the 800m or 1500m, she's on the run way , modeling.) On this episode, Ce'Aira — who is a former NCAA All-American and 2016 Olympic Trials qualifier who formerly...
Mar 08, 2021•49 min•Season 1Ep. 342
“The worst thing you can do is count yourself out.” Last year, Molly Seidel ran her first marathon — at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, where she finished second and earned herself a spot on the U.S. Olympic Marathon Team. And she'll be the first to tell you that she wouldn't have gotten to that start line without her #1 fan: her sister, Izzy. Now, one year later, Molly is a professional runner for Puma, training for the 2021 Olympics, and Izzy is her self-appointed hype girl. On this episode,...
Mar 05, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 341
“I kind of spiraled into this years-long cycle of trying to constantly seek improvement in my times and not give myself a break when I really needed it.” If you’ve read an article about running in the past few years (which, who hasn’t?), you’ve probably read something by Emilia Benton. Emilia is a freelance journalist (we talk a lot about her transition to going freelance after working in the magazine industry, and about why she’s so much happier on her own) and is a regular contributor at Runne...
Mar 04, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 340
“A lot of science is about asking questions. It’s OK to not understand something. And it’s OK that it’s hard. That understanding comes in just being curious. We don’t have all the answers, but we know how to go about looking for them.” Welcome to Season 4 of the On the Job series! This season, you’ll hear from seven women with cool, unique, interesting careers. We’ll learn about the jobs we see on TV — lawyers and nurses and astronauts, oh my! — and we’ll honor some frontline heroes, including a...
Mar 02, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 339
“Whatever you want to do, whether it’s to write a book or to run a marathon, you have to be brave enough and bold enough to start to say that out loud. It’s the only way you can begin to own it and then to understand how to make it happen. You have to put it out there.” When Meaghan B Murphy was first on the Ali on the Run Show in January 2019, she casually mentioned maybe kind of sort of wanting to write a book someday. Fast forward two years, and someday is today: Meaghan’s debut book, Your Fu...
Feb 25, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 338
"There's a lot of uncertainty, and getting better at that has taken a lot of practice." Welcome to the second episode in the new monthly "Ask Ali" series — where you call in with your questions, and I answer them. This time around, we're covering everything from motherhood and going on family fun runs to how I maintain a positive attitude with a chronic illness (or do I?). I talk about the art of interviewing, finding a therapist, what it would be like if I hosted an "Ali on the Run" race, and, ...
Feb 19, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 337
"People don’t know what you go through or the feelings you have if you don’t express and you don’t talk about them. People can have all of these assumptions about you, but unless you verbalize what’s really going on in your mind, they will never know." When it comes to running, India Cook is passionate about sharing her story — but it's not about her, she'll tell you. It's about making sure other runners in the community feel seen, heard, and welcome on the run. India is a two-time marathoner an...
Feb 18, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 336
“I got to be a little brother and a big fan.” Happy Valentine's Day, and welcome to the final day of Love on the Run Week on the Ali on the Run Show! Today, we're wrapping things up with the best-loved brothers in running: Meb and Hawi Keflezighi. On this episode, Meb and Hawi talk about their childhoods, share stories of emigrating to the U.S. from Eritrea, and talk about their brother-turned-professional relationship (Hawi is Meb's agent). At the end of this week, I hope this series has made y...
Feb 14, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 335
"Best buds for life." On the surface, sisters Sarah and Marisa Cummings seem like they could be twins. Both were competitive ice skaters and valedictorians of their respective graduating high school classes. They each went on to attend Princeton University, where they each ran on the cross-country team. Then, though three years apart, they each moved to New York City to pursue jobs in the finance industry and to run for the New York Athletic Club. But to know Sarah and Marisa is to know that the...
Feb 13, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 334
