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Ali on the Run Show

147. Jess Movold, Running & Strength Coach

Ali on the Run Show

Ali Feller

Fitness, Sports, Running, Health & Fitness

4.94.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2019

⏱️ 67 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"He said, 'I get it. The mountain's too steep.' And I said, 'No. It's just the wrong mountain.'"

Jess Movold is perhaps best known as the super positive, super uplifting, super kind and empowering run and strength coach at Mile High Run Club and The Fortitude Strength Club in NYC. She's the current face of Runner's World (check her out on the cover!), and is the official "Runner's World Coach." So surely the 3:13 marathoner and 1:29 half marathoner from Missouri always envisioned this über-fit life for herself, right? Not quite. Jess began her career in the fashion industry, and she has stories that rival the ones in The Devil Wears Prada. On this episode, she shares her journey from high fashion to ultramarathons, and it's one that's packed with endearing and hilarious stories along the way — including the best "nothing new on race day" story I've ever heard. Up next: Jess wants to break three hours at the Berlin Marathon.

Thank you to AfterShokz for sponsoring this episode of the Ali on the Run Show! CLICK HERE for $50 off your wireless headphone endurance bundle!

 

What you'll get on this episode:

  • How it feels to see herself on the cover of Runner's World (2:55)
  • How Jess got her start in the fashion industry — and found running along the way (7:00)
  • The crazy stories about what being an executive assistant in the high-fashion industry looked like for Jess (31:00)
  • Why Jess left the fashion industry and went all-in on fitness instead (41:15)

What we mention on this episode:

The Fort

Mile High Run Club

"The Workout That Helped This Runner Trim 20 Minutes Off Her Marathon Time" via Well+Good

The Speed Project

The Great New York 100 Mile Running Exposition

Falmouth Road Race

Follow Jess:

Follow Ali:

Listen & Subscribe:

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This episode of The Alley on the Run Show is brought to you by Aftershocks.

0:08.5

Welcome to The Alley on the Run Show.

0:10.5

I'm your host Allie Feller and every week on this show I talk with inspiring people who lead

0:15.9

interesting lives on the run and beyond. And while running is what brings us all together on

0:21.1

these episodes, I'm looking for a little more. So join me right here every Thursday to learn

0:26.6

about the decisions people have made to get where they are today, the good ones and the bad ones,

0:31.8

and how getting sweaty has factored in. Today I'm talking to Jess Movald. You may recognize her as

0:38.4

the most recent face on the cover of Runners World and no young Jess. Definitely never dreamed of

0:44.7

being a runner's world cover girl. She never dreamed of running at all. Today, Jess is a coach

0:50.7

at Mile High Run Club and the Fort in New York City and she's a 313 marathoner and 129 half marathoner.

0:58.6

And while today, her life is all about being on the run, that was not the plan. The plan was to work

1:04.2

in fashion, which is exactly what this small town girl did when she first moved from Missouri to New

1:10.1

York City. Jess's stories from her time in the fashion industry rival that of Andy Sachs in the

1:16.2

Devil were his product. So naturally, I got her to share a few of those. But we also talk about how

1:21.9

her time in fashion made her tougher and helped her find running. Jess has so much good stuff to share,

1:28.1

so let's go.

1:36.4

Jess, welcome to the Allie on the Run Show. I am so excited to have you here today.

1:40.8

Let's have some fun. Thank you, Allie. I'm really happy to be here.

1:43.8

All right, first thing I need from you, pronounce your last name for me.

1:46.4

Move-old. So I said, Jess, your last name is pronounced move-old, right? And what did you say?

1:53.2

Yeah, that's it. But it's not. That's a fancy version. Oh, is it? Okay, well, I am very fancy.

1:59.1

And we start the show in a very fancy way with a fancy warm-up. I felt royal. I felt royal. Tell

...

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