Mary Cain on Writing, Youth Sports, + Lessons Learned from Running Through Trauma

Another Mother Runner

Feisty Media

Health & Fitness, Sports, Running

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2026

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is a must-listen for parents of sporty kids, anyone struggling with an injury, and folks looking for hard-earned wisdom: Running prodigy/phenom Mary Cain, author of the compelling new memoir This Is Not About Running, talks with hosts Sarah Bowen Shea and Tish Hamilton. Interspersed with the hosts expressing anguish at the harassment she endured, Mary details:

her reasons for writing a frank, heart-wrenching memoir
the work she’s done to recover from her trauma
how coaches should treat young athletes
what she learned from injury that winning couldn’t teach her
ways to advocate for one’s health and well being

Before Mary joins around 12:15, Tish shares her family’s history of jaw-dropping longevity.

Watch the episode on YouTube

Feisty Fest: Join us from September 18-20, 2026 - https://feisty.co/events/feisty-fest/

Join AMR at the Grand Traverse in Duluth, MN on October 3rd! Use code AMR20 for $20 off when you register at https://feisty.co/events/the-grand-traverse/

Momentous: Use code AMR for up to 35% off your first order at https://www.livemomentous.com/

Currex: Use code AMR15 for 15% off at https://currex.com/

Tifosi Optics: Use code FEISTY2026 for 20% off at https://tifosioptics.com/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to another mother runner, your best running friend in podcast form.
0:13.7	We do all the talking, even on the uphills.
0:15.8	I'm your host, Sarah Bowen-Shay with co-host Tish Hamilton.
0:19.4	Hello, Tish.
0:20.4	Hello, Sarah. It's so good to see you and hear you today.
0:24.3	Yes, yes, and I had to kick out the new host, that being Pablo the Cat. He and his brother, Leo,
0:30.6	have decided that they needed to, you know, be in the podcast studio right at the very time that we're recording.
0:36.9	So, um, how do cats know? I love their names, Pablo and Leo. Oh, thank you. After the artists.
0:42.7	Yes. Uh-huh. Yes. Da Vinci and Picasso. Yes. So I hear it's a busy time of year for you.
0:51.4	Well, you know, it is May and it feels like everything's happening. I feel like
0:56.0	I'm on one of those old-fashioned roller coasters, you know, that went, they go clickety, clickety, clickety, clickety,
1:02.0	to the top. And then boom, they go shooting down. Everything's happening all at once. So my daughter is
1:09.0	graduating college in two weeks from now.
1:12.2	Very exciting. I was having lunch with another mom friend whose daughter is about three years
1:18.5	older than mine. And I said, I don't know why, but I'm kind of freaking out more that she's
1:23.8	graduating from college than I did when she graduated from high school.
1:32.6	And it might have been because she went to the college I went to, and it was not that far from our home in New Jersey.
1:33.8	So it felt comfortable to me.
1:35.6	You know, like I knew how to do all that.
1:38.2	And just she would talk about school and dorms.
1:41.0	And I would know where she was talking about.
1:43.5	Oh, that's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So now she's done with that. She's going on with her life. Ah! What are her post-collegiate plans? Well, so the very first thing she's doing, which is also part of the madness, is she's going to Europe, and she is going for 10 days with some friends and she's going to London
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Feisty Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Feisty Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.