I RAN A MARATHON! Part 1.
“One more mile until you become a marathoner!”
There – that is the moment where reality sunk in – I am finally going to be a marathoner.
This post is going to be a longer, behind-the-scenes story, sharing the vulnerability and challenges leading up to my first ever marathon – the Philadelphia 2025 Marathon.
If you’re more interested in how the race itself went, look out for Part 2. But the journey before – that is where the growth lies.
This post is for both you and me. It is for me to truly reflect on my experience and savor the memory. Hopefully for you, it will serve as an encouraging reminder that you are capable of such incredible feats, despite all of the hardships and challenges that are thrown your way.
Here we go.
My story actually starts 2 years ago.
At that time, I had been running pretty consistently, had done several races including a few half-marathons. Finally, I got the itch to plunge into the next step –
The full 26.2.
Just around that time, things were feeling pretty good in life. I had recently graduated from physical therapy school, got my first job, had an epic trip to Japan, got certified in run coaching, was lifting heavy in the gym and getting into Olympic lifting. I was finally happy with myself, my body, the trajectory of my life. So yeah – I signed up for the 2024 Philly Marathon.
Then came summer of 2024. What had been a nagging, intermittent hip issue that had started years before, threw a huge wrench into my plans.
Some of you reading this may know that I’ve had some chronic hip pain, and to be honest, it’s not a simple “x diagnosis.” Several factors, I believe, are involved, including my body’s structure, my high activity levels and training that has to be well adapted to my body (as should anyone’s), and stress that accumulated and overflowed my capacity, amongst other things.
Anyways, the hips got worse and I just felt off. And you will hear me say this a lot as a physical therapist – the body is a chain, and stress is also more impactful than you think. So then my toe started hurting – I needed to get new shoes. My wrist and elbow flared up – thanks hypermobility. Standing at work and lugging around weights hurt my back and hip. I went from running 25+ miles a week to barely managing 3 – I stopped hanging out with my run club which had been helpful for my social and mental wellbeing. My lifts went from heavy deadlifts and squats to doing what I could. My mental health started suffering, I lost weight (which given my history of disordered eating scared me).
I felt like a failure. As an athlete, a runner, a physical therapist.
After 3-ish months of official rehab (because I had attempted to manage my issues solo for many more months prior), I knew I had to defer my marathon. Which was a stab to my confidence and happiness.
Fast forward to the start of 2025, and I had enough of feeling like absolutely s***.
I quit my job. A job that, while it had its own normal stressors, I loved.
During the next few months, supported by my family who have seen me struggle with my physical and mental health for years, I allowed myself to stop, recharge, recover.
I saw all the doctors I needed to see. I did rehab again. I went to therapy. I turned into hermit-mode to restore my emotional capacity. I was selective with my outings, I declined a good friend’s wedding. I got elbow surgery for something unrelated but also not (a story for another time).
Then came May of 2025.
Physically things were slowly improving. I hadn’t forgotten that I had my deferral for the Philly Marathon this year, and that I couldn’t defer again. So I talk to my physical therapist and we decide it’s worth a shot to try training for it.
And that’s when my return-to-run started, after 4-5 months of no running.
I’ll save some time and fast forward, with the general summary being that my body was feeling better – not 100% (nor do I think it will ever be), but good enough to be functional, feel comfortable with my activities, and return to a semi-normal work schedule, and even start my own business.
Am I finally going to run a marathon?
I drafted my running program. Time wasn’t on my side – I had “graduated” from my return-to-run maybe around June/July, so volume was quite low. I had about 4 months left – honestly, a bit less if we include tapering – but I managed to write up a plan that peaked at 18 miles, making sure to include a lower volume of strength training.
Things were going decent.
Until I got sick in September with what I think was a new COVID variant. And of course, as my body fights off that infection, what should have been a mild tendon irritation from my last long run turned into a horrible case of shin splints. So bad to the point I had to get imaging to rule out a bone stress injury (it was clear). However, that whole illness and process of ruling out what could potentially force me to cancel the race took about 3 weeks.
My running progress took several steps back, going from an 11 mi long run, to 5-6 mi to monitor my shins and also get my aerobic system back on track from the illness.
And at this point I thought:
· No bone stress injury
· Hips aren’t feeling worse
· Running plan fell apart
· Marathon in a month and a half
I had two choices.
Forego the marathon for when I felt better prepared physically, especially to get the time that I originally wanted – sub 4 hour.
Just do the damn race to finish and say I did it.
Can you guess what I picked?
So, using my knowledge and adaptation skills, I revamped my program for the remaining training weeks. I ran purely for time and pushed the time progressions, trying to minimize other changes in variables to decrease the risk of injury. I cut out strength training to 1x/week to assist in recovery. I kept up with regular dry needling to manage the regular occurrences of hip pain that I get. I ran until about 1.5 weeks out, a shorter taper though acceptable given my shorter volume of training.
And I got to my longest run about 2 weeks before the race - 12 mi in 2 hours.
Yup. You read that right. My longest ever run was 13.1 mi from a half in 2024. But my longest training run for this marathon was 12 mi in 2 hours.
A lot less than what I would recommend for my runners.
But life happened. And I had to accept that it might not look pretty, that there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to finish the race. My two biggest fears at this time were that I would cowardly decide not to race, and subsequently hate myself; or that I would run, not finish, and hate myself even more.
I decided to not let perfection scare me away. If I had to stop the race halfway through, at least I know I tried. If I gave up now, who knew if I would have been able to finish?
So we show up on race day.
And that’s basically the story of how my life fell apart, slowly got pieced back together, and how I showed up on race day.
Stay tuned for part 2 which will talk more about the actual race. But hopefully this opens a lens into the realities of life, health, and pushing the boundaries of your body’s capacity. What they say at the starting line of race day is 100% true:
“The hardest part was showing up today. The training leading up to this.”
And it’s not just the run training.
It’s the mental training of taking the punches life throws at you.
It’s the physical training of dealing with unprecedented injuries and illnesses.
It’s the emotional training of learning to cope with the challenges and the moments when you feel like you aren’t good enough.
And this is why I love what I do as a physical therapist and run coach. Because just like I needed people to guide me through my challenges and journey, I want to be there for others. To help you see that your body might not catch up the way you want it to, but that doesn’t mean it will fail you. To see that with the right mentality, plan, adaptability, and support – you can do so much more than you realize.
If you got this far, thank you and if you’re in your own rut - physically, emotionally-
Reach out.
With love,
Katy