Hi my name is Audra and I’m beyond excited to be a part of this group. I have been running off and on since my 30s and I am currently 52. I have done 4 half marathons and quite a few 10k&5ks. I have dreamed of doing a full marathon for many years and have finally committed to training and signed up for my very first to run in December. I am so happy to have found this group and Taylor’s podcast. Listening to all these amazing stories on my runs brings me such excitement and motivation to run my first at the end of this year. Love these podcasts Taylor and keep them coming 😁👏🏼

After nearly 2 years of interviewing runners on their first marathon stories, there were two really clear patterns: coaching support isn’t accessible for everyone, and even for those it is accessible to, many don’t feel ready for 1:1 coaching. On top of that, there’s simply too much information out there to make sense of when you’re a beginner marathoner. I built The First Marathon Buddy community to fill that gap. This space is meant to be community first and to make the training process feel less isolating and more supported, no matter what plan you’re following. The My First Marathon Buddy Program is officially out now!! I’m really excited to build this with you all and see where it goes. -Taylor 🧡

Hey yall - thanks so much for the engagement so far!! I’m so excited to welcome our first timers who are on the early access waitlist this week 🥰 I’m going to highlight a few of you on stories this week as “mentors” for the group to draw in a few more folks that may be intimidated to join, be on the look out for those posts (I’ll make sure to tag you!) 5 short days until the course launches! Grateful you’re here 🥳 -Taylor 🧡

Hey everyone - welcome to the My First Marathon community! If you've joined ahead of the 2/9 official launch date, that means that you've ran a marathon in the past and you're here to help support first timers on the journey to running their first marathon. I'm so glad you're here! Here's the details & expectations of the group! - Be kind! There will be a lot of first timers here working their way through running their first marathons. When questions come up, be thoughtful and kind with your answers. - Be supportive & active! Post your marathon stories, helpful tips, and consistently commenting/supporting other runners. Inactive non-first timers may be removed from the group without notice! - Have fun! The running community is the best group of people I know - let's show new marathoners and runners that love. To kick things off - please share the story of your running journey/first marathon below so when I let the first timers into the group in Feb, they can start to get to know you all :) Thanks for being here, I'm so excited for this to launch 🧡 -Taylor

My name is Erin and I'm based in the Chicago, IL suburbs. I was the opposite of athletic for most of my life, and have always had a very complicated relationship with movement. While working for a nonprofit in 2022, I supported our Chicago Marathon charity team, and I was blown away by the dedication and diversity of the people running that day. Although I couldn't run a half a mile at the time, I decided I would sign up for the 2023 Chicago Marathon and start running (lol). I struggled a lot with finding a community when I first started running. I was so self-conscious about my slower pace that I couldn't join a group run without suffering crippling anxiety, and so I trained pretty much on my own. This is one of the reasons I'm SO excited about this community, as it would have done wonders for me when I was on those solo long runs feeling like a failure and wondering why I was doing this. I ended up getting terrible knee pain at about mile 10 of my first marathon and hobbled my way through the remainder of the race (I'm nothing if not stubborn 😅), finishing in about seven hours. But, since then, I've run two more marathons in a much better state (Chicago again and Berlin) and am figuring out my next one! It took me probably a year to find the joy in running, but now it's something I wouldn't trade for anything. I'm so excited to chat with everyone training for their first marathon and support you through your journey!