Claire Maxted: The Give and Take of Adventures and Business as a New Mom

Claire Maxted is the woman behind Wild Ginger Running, a UK based running platform that helps trail and ultra runners get advice and inspiration via weekly films and podcasts. She is also the author of “The Ultimate Trail Running Handbook,” and the host of an annual training camp in the Peak District of England.

We talked about the challenges of running your own business as a mother and sharing parenting duties, and her experience staying adventurous with a baby in some ways, and having to drastically alter her life in other ways.

This interview was done as research for the book I’m writing about the mental lessons learned and practiced in running and motherhood. I’m sharing these recordings so you can come along in this book writing process with me!

Learn more about the book, my running and mindset coaching, and The Runner's Mastermind here.

Original music by Joseba Brit.

Makenna Myler: Who Do I Want To Be When I'm Struggling?

Makenna Myler is a professional distance runner for Asics who has lived all over the world, now trains in Utah, and she qualified for her first Olympic Trials after becoming a mother. We talk about being coachable, having tough conversations with teammates to create a healthy competitive culture, your circle of control, training in tune with your hormones, and our shared love of ridiculous holiday cards.

This interview was done as research for the book I’m writing about the mental lessons learned and practiced in running and motherhood. I’m sharing these recordings so you can come along in this book writing process with me!

Learn more about the book, my running and mindset coaching, and The Runner's Mastermind here.

Original music by Joseba Brit.

Alisa Harvey: It's All Just An Experiment

Alisa Harvey's accolades in the running world are as unique as they are impressive. She was the 24th American woman to break 4:30 in the mile, she holds multiple WORLD in various masters age divisions for the 800m and the mile, she's been inducted into the National Black Distance Running Hall of Fame, and this may be her coolest accomplishment - she is the only runner to run in the US Olympic Trials in both the 800m and the Marathon. So yeah, she's a boss. She is 56 now and we talk here about her running career, experience as a mother, and how she views her races like one big science experiment.

This interview was done as research for the book I’m writing about the mental lessons learned and practiced in running and motherhood. I’m sharing these recordings so you can come along in this book writing process with me! Learn more about the book, my running and mindset coaching, and The Runner's Mastermind at mindovermilespod.com.

Photo by PhotoRun for USATF.

Original music by Joseba Brit.

What My Favorite TikTok Star Taught Me About Running

“The theme of today’s run is survival. Survival ... of the not so fittest.” 

Erin Azar is running down a hot, busy street, filming herself on her long run, and to say the least, she is not feeling great.   

This is not an uncommon theme in Erin’s videos: Running. Not Feeling Great. And somehow, she’s the most inspiring runner on TikTok. And for sure, the funniest.  
Erin started running a few years ago when she realized she was losing her mind raising three children and working from home. She had tried and hated running in the past, but she was so freaking desperate to do something for herself. She filmed this first run, and she’s been filming every step, cry, dance move, and goofball hilarity since. 

Here’s one of the best things Erin has taught me about running: When she has a bad run, she puts it in her “bad run bag.” When the run is over, she can’t think about it. It’s in the bad run bag. There is no wallowing, no self doubt, no anxious anticipation of the next run. The only time she is allowed to open up the bad run bag is on her next bad run, to put that new bad run in, and to remind herself, “Hey you idiot! Remember you did it last time, so no matter how bad it is this time, you can do it.” 

The more I run, the more I realize how frequently I feel just terrible out there. Especially now that I actually enjoy walking as its own activity, I spend vast periods of my time running just wishing I was walking. But that would mean getting home in 3 hours instead of 1, so I keep running (with walk breaks sprinkled in). I’ve decided this is totally fine, and probably 50% of my time running will feel really hard. This isn’t because there’s something wrong with me, it’s because running is hard. 

Running will always be hard, and that’s what bad run bags are for. 

P.S. Listen to my interview with Erin on the Mind Over Miles podcast here!

Pic by Erin Azar

Erin Azar: TikTok Comedian or The Running Buddha?

Erin Azar, aka Mrs. Space Cadet, is either the funniest or the wisest runner on Tiktok... or maybe both. She describes herself as an Expert Struggle Runner and Struggle Lifer. She makes the struggle parts of running hilarious and in talking with her I realized she also is like a running Buddha because her humor encompasses the lessons I need to hear every day. We talk about committing to your own progress, the mental load of being a new runner, and what's in her "bad running bag."

This interview was done as research for the book I’m writing about the mental lessons learned and practiced in running and motherhood. I’m sharing these recordings so you can come along in this book writing process with me! Learn more at mindovermilespod.com.

Original music by Joseba Brit.

Neely Gracey: Less Time = Less Doubt, Running by Effort, and Phases of Life

Neely Spence Gracey is a professional marathoner for Adidas, a business owner and coach (Get Running Coaching), the author of the new book Breakthrough Women’s Running, and a mom of two. We talk about how having less time has been surprisingly helpful for her running, how training by effort has relieved her race anxiety, how she appreciates each phase of life as it comes, and how you don't need the ideal conditions for success.

This interview was done as research for the book I’m writing about the mental lessons learned and practiced in running and motherhood. I’m sharing these recordings so you can come along in this book writing process with me!

Original music by Joseba Brit.

Gwen Jorgensen: Being the Best and the Worst, Bold Desires, and Loving Feedback

Gwen Jorgensen is an Olympic Gold Medalist (!!). She won gold in the triathlon at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and in the year after that she had her son Stanley and switched from professional triathlete to professional runner. Since then she's been working towards her goal of winning an Olympic gold medal in the marathon.

Gwen is so wise and has been working on her mindset and mental skills as an athlete since high school. We talk about how she's able to not care what other people think, why she sets super big goals, how she's able to be happy for her competitors, her life as a pro runner and mother, and more.

Gwen has a really fun and interesting youtube channel where you can get the best behind the scenes look into a professional runner's life, so after you hear this conversation, go check her out!

This interview was done as research for the book I’m writing about the mental lessons learned and practiced in running and motherhood. I’m sharing these recordings so you can come along in this book writing process with me! Learn more at mindovermilespod.com.

Original music by Joseba Brit.
Photo by @talbotcox

Quanera Hayes: Mind Over Miles Episode 1

Quanera Hayes:

Forgiveness, Faith, and Motherhood

Quanera Hayes is an Olympic 400m runner, World Champion medal holder, and mother to 3 year old Demetrius. She talks about making her first Olympic team, mistakes and forgiveness at the Olympics, her faith, her mental training, and how she raises her son in community.

This interview was done as research for the book I’m writing about the mental lessons learned and practiced in running and motherhood. I’m sharing these recordings so you can come along in this book writing process with me!

Original music by Joseba Brit.

Self Worth: It Doesn't Make Sense

Last week I wrote about how we can love and value ourselves while also having big goals and high standards.

This week I’m realizing wait a second, self love? Très difficile. Muy dificil. That is very hard.

I mean, there are so many reasons not to love myself. I get frustrated and angry easily, I’m insecure, I hate being wrong, I question how resilient I am. If I have these qualities, if I get snappy, if I’m judgmental and reactionary, how can I really love myself? How can I feel I am worth it?

I go round and round in circles, trying to logic my way into deserving unconditional love. As you might guess, the conclusion is: not lovable.

My life coach Darla will suggest that I could choose to fully love myself, as is, and I imagine her saying this as she waves a glittery wand and magical birds chirp. And I’m like yeah, I’ll do that after about 100 more sessions when you’ve fixed everything that’s wrong with me.

Today I’m wondering what it would look like to separate logic and love. To accept that love isn’t logical, and be okay with things not “making sense.” To let love be a little more magical and a little less reasoned.

I keep thinking about what Olympic 400m runner Quanera Hayes told me, about how her self worth is rooted in her faith in God, and God’s love for her. Her self worth doesn’t come from her medals, her performance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, her Diamond League Champion title, or her 4 World Championship medals. It also doesn’t come from the roles she plays - mother, athlete, mentor, sister, daughter, wife. It doesn’t come from any particular qualities she does or does not possess. It comes solely from her faith that God loves her, so why shouldn’t she love herself?

There’s no logical explanation for why even God loves her, but that also doesn’t matter. She believes it, so it’s true.

I don’t have the same religious experience as Quanera, but I don’t need to. I do believe in a higher power, or powers. Deep down I do believe there are things we can’t understand in our world, and that life is a little bit magical.

If I were try on Quanera’s strategy, I wouldn’t need to logic my way into loving myself unconditionally. There would be no need for reasons. I’d say, The universe loves me unconditionally, so why shouldn’t I do the same? It wouldn’t need to make sense, and I could still believe it’s true.

I’m going to try this one on, but I’m still gonna keep Darla around. Because maybe like, she can fix me?

Picture credit: Quanera Hayes

High standards and Feeling yourself

“You were for sure the fastest mom in the race.”

“Well we don’t celebrate that.” 

Gwen Jorgensen was quick to dismiss her husband Patrick’s attempt to comfort her after the US Olympic Trials 5k in 2021. 

After injury kept Gwen out of the Olympic Trials Marathon, she had a year to become a 5k runner, and by the time she got to the start line, she still wasn’t totally ready. She placed 9th and was content while still feeling the disappointment of her untapped potential. 

When I heard her say, “We don’t celebrate that,” I thought Ouch! Why not celebrate that you’re the fastest, and perhaps only, mom out there?! Your body has done something no one else’s has! Was she holding herself to too high of a standard? Being too hard on herself? 

I got to interview Gwen last week (amazing! so wise!) and when I asked her about this comment, she totally reframed my thinking on “high standards.” 

Gwen tells anyone who will listen: her goal is to win a gold medal in the Olympic marathon. No American woman has ever done that, and when Gwen set that goal many years ago, only two American women had even medaled in the event. Gwen may have an Olympic gold in the triathlon (lol did I not mention that?), but to some runners, her goal can sound lofty.

But someone needs to be the first, so why not her? Gwen said she sees athletes undercut themselves all the time, with big but “realistic” goals, like being the first American finisher, (but not the winner!) of the Boston Marathon. Why not set the biggest goal you can think of? Truly, why not? 

Well I’ll tell you why -  you’ll set yourself up for failure! For disappointment and misery and shame. High standards are good, but if you set your standards too high, you’ll never reach them, and then you’ll have more reasons to feel bad about yourself. Right? 

Wise Gwen says no. It’s not either or. It’s not big glory or big failure with these audacious goals. It’s both AND. You can have the big goal and you can celebrate the smaller wins along the way. You can fail and be proud of yourself and committed to the road ahead. 

Gwen didn’t want to celebrate being the fastest mom in the race because that wasn’t a goal of hers. She could celebrate herself for other small wins like her race tactics and her perseverance in hot conditions, but she didn’t need a consolation prize of “fastest mom.” She was proud of her work and she wanted more.

Gwen still wants to win Olympic gold. Last week, she was celebrating the fact that she ran for just 30 minutes straight. She’s recovering from Covid and her training doesn’t look anything like that of an Olympic gold hopeful right now. But she’s not changing her goal or feeling bad about herself. 

She’s got big goals AND feeling herself. You really can have it all. 

Follow along with Gwen’s journey!

Gwen’s Youtube (she posts great life, training, and race updates here!)

IG: @GwenJorgensen

(Picture credit: Talbot Cox)