Podcast: Episode 71 with Sarah Sellers

Mario Fraioli | August 5, 2019

“When I finally got to come back to running, my number one goal was no longer [to] run as fast as I can—my number one goal was, ‘I don’t want to have to give this up long-term again.’ And so that was motivation to have proper nutrition and to realize if I have to be five to ten pounds heavier than what I thought my goal weight was, if that’s keeps me healthy, then it’s worth it.”

I’m excited to welcome my third returning guest back to the show this week: Sarah Sellers. Sellers, who finished second at the 2018 Boston Marathon, will race this year’s Chicago Marathon on October 13. We recorded this podcast in front of a live audience back back in early July at the Sports Basement in San Francisco. Sellers and I spoke for about 35 minutes before we opened it up to audience Q&A.

I really enjoyed this one—we touched a on a lot of topics we didn’t cover the first time around back in Episode 28—including her decision to run Chicago this fall and what she’s changing about her approach going into the race; we also talked about avoiding “the comparison trap” and having the confidence in herself to make adjustments to her training when necessary; we got into the steps she’s taken to stay healthy and keep her body strong, her renewed focus on nutrition and being at a healthy weight versus her fastest weight, how she’s learning to prioritize longterm health over short term success, and a lot more.

Related links, references, and resources:

— Follow Sarah on Instagram and Twitter.

— Sarah Sellers and the Craziest Schedule in Running: “If I quit my job and trained full time, I don’t see it going well,” Sellers, a nurse anesthetist, told The New York Times this past spring. “I’d be a stress case and I’d be more injury prone. When I balance the two, I think I have better perspective.”

— “I struggled with my relationship with running,” Sellers admitted to SELF, talking about all the attention she received in the months following her runner-up finish at Boston in 2018. “I felt like running had always been so simple and natural. Just put on a pair of running shoes, go out in the dark, and go on a run. The actual act of going out running was becoming a negative, stressful thing.”

— LISTEN: Sellers first came on the morning shakeout podcast in September 2018 and spoke to me about the post-Boston attention rush, moving on from bad races, mental toughness, balancing high-level training with a high-stress job, and a lot more.

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Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford at BaresRecords.com