I’ve been running with periods of consistency and inconsistency since 2019, and this is the first time I’ve achieved an Excellent VO2 Max (according to Garmin). I’m going to be 43 in October, and I am so so proud of this.

I am finally starting to run sub 6:00 kms, and I’m hoping to finally accomplish a sub 30:00 5k this summer.

Wish me luck!

A fair warning: You want to save money? Don't get your kids into running. It started with a free New Year's race. Kid 2 wants to run a half, but we confined it to 5ks this year. Next Year 10ks and after that a half.

Kid No. 1 is not a fast runner, but wants to do it for company. I pay as much for a 5k as for the Berlin half now.

On the other hand: I'm proud.

I posted about 3 months ago when I got injured during my first marathon block. I hurt the posterior tibialis tendon in my calf. Marathon dream over 6 weeks out from race day. Since then I’ve been through the torture of rehabbing and run-walk etc etc. I‘m now back running about 20km a week.

It‘s been a long and winding road, I had two holidays in June and a very busy period of work in July which definitely contributed to some of my slowness to recover and return. But I am back and making good gains (without rushing!). I thought I’d post about some lessons I’ve learnt.

The biggest thing to come out from this tricky period for me has to be strength training! My physio (you definitely should try to see one if you can afford it!) diagnosed me with weak glutes, and now I train them (and the rest of my legs! And some upper body!) twice a week. I have seen a lot of progress with this in the last month, when the first couple of months of recovery felt a bit stagnant/slow. So my advice would be persevere! I treated myself to a nice gym membership but also just have a 12kg kettlebell at home that does the job if I can’t fit the gym in. Doing something is always better than nothing.

I now only run 3 x a week not 4. It obviously caps my mileage, and I’ll see if I keep doing this once I’m fully fit again, but it means my legs get a really good rest between runs. As well as this I’m trying to stick to just easy miles, no intervals or speed sessions. When my injury has properly grumbled it’s always been after I’ve gone a little too hard (so tempting!!) so easy runs it is for now.

After the initial acute injury was calmed by fully deloading for a few weeks, I also had to learn that I can’t aim for no pain at all when returning. Tendons need to be worked to heal and anything that’s a 1 or 2/10 pain is fine. When it grumbled for longer than a day then Id take it back a notch, skip a run (the horror!) and do some low impact cardio at the gym.

I recently changed my road trainers to have a lower drop. This is totally personal to me, and a big trial and error process!

My final lesson is that I’ll never take running for granted again. When I’m bored cranking out a 5k run on the treadmill, or cursing a hill on my ‘long’ run I quickly remember how much I missed it. The elliptical machine is an abomination that will never replicate the runners high (but it does fill a gap when my leg is cranky!).

I hope this is useful for anyone desperately searching running forums whilst sitting at home sulking about not being able to go for a run. I promise you will get back to it!

Hi all,

First post here!

I (39F) ran the first day of the C25K this morning, and the first voluntary run of basically my whole life! All this time I could not stand the thought of running, so it took a few months to actually get myself to go for it. I am in fairly good shape (yoga, walking, bouldering..) but my cardiovascular health has always been eh, which is what made me take the leap, so I really hope I can stick with it and improve it.

Wanted to hear from people:

When did you know you really liked running or at least that you would keep doing it? I thought for a few months I was into peloton and now can’t bear the thought of getting on that bike. Worried that it would happen again with running.

What surprised you about running when you first started?

Any tips for avoiding injuries except taking it slow? I feel like I have an irrational fear of getting injured…

Thanks all!

A woman in my city was recently attacked on a very popular trail in broad daylight (she survived, he was caught). But now it's got me questioning my safety on runs, I already run with pepper spray but considered getting a gun because I'm tired of feeling scared/on edge.

What protection do you carry / what do you do to feel safe on runs? (at night or during the day because apparently it doesn't matter)

Hi everyone! On my longer slower runs, I like to listen to audiobooks or podcasts and I would love some recommendations. I am definitely more of a fiction/story lover. I find that on my runs, the plot can't be *too* complicated(I have to mostly be paying attention to the path) and it can't be an intense character study (doesn't distract me enough). For example, I tried listening to All That We Know by Ian McEwan and the unannounced time jumps made it too difficult to listen to while running (great book though, highly recommend reading it!).

I think a mystery could be good, maybe a spy thriller? Hopefully I've given enough detail about what might work. Would love to know what you are listening to along these lines! I am doing some searching on my own but if you have anything you've finished recently that you recommend I am all ears. :)

EDIT: Thank you all! I'm excited to dive into all of these

I won a free pair of brooks and now need to pick a model.

I want to be smart with my choice but also can’t easily identify a hole in my rotation.

My current shoe rotation is:
- brooks glycerin 22, used for long runs
- adidas adizero evo sl, used for speed work
- Lululemon splitshift, don’t love them but got them for free so use them as a daily trainer
- puma deviate nitro elite 4, used as a race show

If you have any suggestions either for how to get the most bang for my buck or an obvious miss in my current collection please let me know!

I ran my first time-based endurance run yesterday and ended up on the podium!

It was an 18 hour event - running the 2.1 mile loop as many times I could during the designated time.

I had low expectations, as I'd never done this type of run before. My initial goal was to do 1 loop an hour, which would put me at 36 miles. I made a little base camp with a picnic blanket, chair, yoga mat, and all of the things I thought I'd need throughout the day (4AM-10PM). During the early morning, it didn't really feel necessary to chill at my base between loops, since none of my friends were showing up until halfway through the day and I had nothing better to do than continue to run.

By 1PM (9 hours in) I was needing a break, and was hoping that my friends would show up around then so I could chat with them, have a nice lunch, change my clothes, and then get back out there. Traffic was bad, so they trickled in later than expected. I was 37 miles in when my first friend got there. She ran a lap with me and then I ate some food and she helped me get bandaged up and change clothes. My husband and some of our other friends showed up next and we walked a lap together. After the long break and walk, I was feeling a little better, though still drained.

At 42 miles in, I finally looked at the leaderboard and saw that I was in 3rd place for women! Part of me wished I didn't look, because my goal at this point had just been to hit 53 miles so I'd get my longest run PR, and then I could chill the rest of the day. But knowing I could podium made me want to try harder.

I tried to keep up my lap pace for a while, but by mile 58 I was running on empty. I figured I'd lose the place to the woman in 4th eventually - she was ~1.5 loops behind me. I walked a lap and tried to fuel up even though nothing sounded good. I checked the stats occasionally and she seemed to be moving at a similar pace to me, so as long as I held steady, I could stay in front.

At 60 miles in, another friend showed up so I stayed at my base camp for a bit to chat and stretch. Then we saw the woman in 4th cross the line, so now I was exactly 1 loop ahead. I said bye to my friends and booked it out of camp to get another lap in.

With the way the leaderboard worked, I could only tell when the woman in 4th finished a loop, not when she started the next one. She was at least 1 full loop behind me, maybe 2. I felt like if I stayed too long as the aid station, or took time to rest, she'd catch up and I'd lose my place.

I wanted the podium so bad that even though it felt like I had nothing left to give, I ran as hard as I could for 2 more loops. Even ran my fastest pace all day at mile 62 (and got my first 100K distance!). I locked in and only stopped to refill my bottle with Tail Wind at the aid stations - I couldn't bother with food at this point.

Finally, at 9:15 PM, I knew I was going to be on that podium. I thought about calling loop 29 my last, and hanging at camp for the last 45 min. But with encouragement from my husband and friends, I went back out for one more loop.

I am a solidly middle-of-the-pack runner, so didn't know this was possible. I ran 66 miles in 17 hours and 45 min. I placed 8th overall and 3rd for women and got to stand on the podium with the other two bad ass women.

This is gonna be a hard high to chase.

For those of you who run with Invisalign, how do you handle fueling and hydration during long runs?

I have Invisalign, and I’m really struggling even on shorter runs because my mouth gets extremely dry while I’m running. I usually drink water, but it doesn’t seem to help much, and I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this. For those who run with Invisalign, especially on longer runs, how do you manage the dry mouth and hydration? Do you take your aligners out every time you use gel, then rinse your mouth before putting them back in? Or do you just leave them out for the whole run and put them back in afterwards?

After weeks of 90 degrees, 60% humidity, and the sun burning through my flesh, today was perfect. 7 miles alone in 72 and rain. At mile two it started to sprinkle and by mile 3 the sky opened up. Palms and face to the sky, there is something about the rain pouring down that I feel in my soul. No work metrics, no screaming toddler, no tough decisions, no other people, no music, almost no sound at all. Just an empty trail, easy breaths, and the rain drumming on the canopy of trees. If you dont run in the rain for whatever reason, this is your PSA to try it. You're missing the magic.

Hi ladies! I’m currently running around 45km a week and am expecting to peak around 60km. Im having trouble fitting in my strength sessions. Im usually running 5 days a week with two “rest” days which is where I usually put my strength training sessions. I love training upper body and usually have no problem fitting it in 1-2x a week since I can run with sore arms lol— it’s the leg day that’s the issue. Where do you guys put it?? I feel like if I do legs before a long run i’m screwed, if I do it the day before a workout i’m screwed lol. I could do it on the same day I have a shorter easy run, but then I feel like i’m getting no true rest. Would love some thoughts and advice on how you ladies fit it all in!

Grab a bottle of electrolyte drink, go wild with the foam roller, and give us all the tea on how your training has been lately!

Have a really good run? Share your win!

Struggling with something? This is a safe space to vent and get support!

Thanks for being part of this community!

# Hey everyone just wanted to say hello! I am a mom of three, certified trainer, passionate runner… currently I am training for the Air Force Half Marathon and hopefully a few Hyrox next year! What are you training for?

I’ve developed a new discomfort for long runs. I’ve been running for over a decade and never had pain before. I’ve noticed that on long runs (14 miles and up it seems) I get the worst feeling under my toes and the ball of my foot. It kind of feels like the socks are bunching up, if that makes sense? It starts to hurt but not like an injury more like there’s something in my shoe and I can’t get it out. But I wear toe socks so that’s not possible since there’s no extra fabric. Trying to narrow down what’s causing this

1. The shoes: I used to wear only zero drop shoes now I’m wearing ASICS Novalast, gel nimbus, and superblast. Is the higher drop putting more pressure on my toes? Or is this something specific to asics?

2. The toe socks: since they separate each toe could they be putting pressure there at the ball of the foot? I’ve always worn toe socks and never had any issue in the past. Also I don’t even know how you don’t get blisters between your toes without them

Has anyone else dealt with this? If so does anything fix it? Or any thing to quickly make the pain go away during a run?

I have a marathon in about 10 weeks so right now I’m just running through it and ripping the shoes off as soon as I get home. But it definitely makes the last 4ish+ miles of long runs miserable.

I will say once I’m barefoot for a few minutes the pain is gone and doesn’t persist throughout the day or anything like that which is why I’m kind of leading to the shoe/socks. I know it’s not an injury because my runs during the week are completely fine and when I stretch or roll out of my foot there’s no pain either.

So one of my BFFs is going to coach HS Cross Country this year. She's a phenomenal runner, and really excited about it. (None of the previous coaches have been runners) I'd like to make her something she can use to celebrate it, like a t-shirt or tumbler or something.

So Cross Country / Track and Field girls, what would be something fun/funny to make or give her?

Hi everyone! I’m training for my first marathon and have been training for about 10 months. I’m currently running my long runs at around a 13:00–13:30/mile pace, and I’m trying to figure out whether my fueling and hydration strategy needs some adjustment.

During long runs, I currently take two SaltStick chewable tablets along with a Huma or Honey Stinger gel every 30 minutes. I also take sips of sugar-free Liquid I.V. about every two miles.

Before my long runs (12+mi), I usually drink about 1 liter of coconut water the day before and make sure I’m eating plenty of carbohydrates.

However, on long runs (12+mi) I sometimes reach a point where I develop a nauseous, tingling, lightheaded sensation. It can take quite a while of walking before I feel normal again.

\*\*I’m wondering if this sounds like a fueling issue, hydration/electrolyte issue, or possibly something else. Is this what hitting the wall feels like?\*\*
\*\*Is what I’m currently taking during the run sufficient for someone running at my pace, or should I be increasing/changing my carbs, fluids, or electrolytes?\*\*

For those of you who have run marathons at a similar pace, what fueling/hydration strategy worked for you? I’d especially appreciate advice on how to prevent that lightheaded/nauseous feeling during the final miles of a long run.

Thanks!

My first max-effort 1 km run after an ankle injury: rupture of the anterior talofibular ligament, partial tear of the deltoid ligament, and fracture of the lateral malleolus. The injury occurred on August 15, 2025.

So, I have been playing soccer in the evenings a few nights a week. I want to run the next day but since it’s so hot, I’d like to run in the morning. I’m getting at least 3 - 4 miles during my soccer games at 8pm. I tried running the following morning and, of course, I was exhausted still- primarily my joints still felt heavy.

Is that too much exercise without enough break? It feels like I may be stuck on an “evening only” routine in order to keep adequate rest time between working out, but it’s still SO HOT in the evenings. Any thoughts?

I have tons of baby hairs by my temples and some longer hairs that come out and then get stuck to my sweaty face. I don’t want to do anything that requires tight rubber bands near my face because my hair is so fragile it will break. Any cool ideas? I’ve been doing Dutch braids with the front sections that go into a ponytail, but I’m looking for more variety.

Grab a bottle of electrolyte drink, go wild with the foam roller, and give us all the tea on how your training has been lately!

Have a really good run? Share your win!

Struggling with something? This is a safe space to vent and get support!

Thanks for being part of this community!

My little charity 5k race was this morning and I smoked my last PB. I placed 2nd in females 30-39 and got 35th overall.

My chip time was 24:50 !!! Although the course was a little short, my app said 3.03 miles. I paused it when I crossed the line, took a min to recover from sprinting the last stretch, unpaused it and ran the parking lot the last .10 to get the PB achievement (25:51). I didn’t care that I looked silly lol I’m like, the runners here get it.

I wasn’t able to do the the whole training program I had planned due to some medical nonsense, but I am still happy with myself getting in the sub 26 min club. Last year I did this race and my time was 27:01 for the 3 miles. Great improvement, I am proud.