116: Starting Over: From Career-Ending Surgery to a First Marathon w/ Maya Struhar

About this episode

Maya Struhar shares her journey of returning to running after a career-ending injury and training for her first marathon.

After a hip surgery at 17 ended her competitive dance career, Maya Struhar spent years away from structured movement. Running wasn’t part of the plan until a St. Patrick’s Day 5K with coworkers pulled her back in. One race turned into a 10K, then a half marathon, and before long Maya found herself training for her first marathon at Grandma’s in Duluth. Along the way she discovered a runner’s high, built confidence through a series of half marathons during training, and learned how to make decisions during the race that prioritized enjoyment over chasing a specific time. In this episode, Maya shares what it looked like to rebuild a relationship with movement after injury, how a tough training run almost shook her confidence, and the moment during her marathon when choosing to slow down helped her have a better experience. She also talks about the wall at Lemon Drop Hill, the emotional finish line at Grandma’s Marathon, and how that first race led to running Chicago just a few months later. Follow along with the show: 👣 Personal IG/TikTok: @tay.says / @taysays 🎙️ Podcast IG/TikTok: @myfirstmarathonpod 📺 YouTube: @MyFirstMarathonPodcast 🌐 Website & extras: myfirstmarathon.co…

People in this episode

Guest: Maya Struhar

Topics covered

• recovery from injury
• marathon training
• personal growth
• running experiences
• confidence building
• enjoyment in sports

Keywords

• hip surgery
• competitive dance
• runner's high
• training
• Lemon Drop Hill
• emotional finish line
• 5K
• 10K
• half marathon

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Duluth, Chicago

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