The Hardest Finish Line: Grieving and Growing Beyond Your Running Years with Dimity McDowell (Episode 271)

Hit Play Not Pause

Health & Fitness, Medicine, Fitness

4.9 • 769 Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In running, we celebrate grit, determination, pushing through pain, and crossing the finish line—whatever it takes. It shines on Instagram, but what does it really cost women in midlife and menopause who may be bogged down by endless injuries? How do we process it and find what's right for us? Sports like running are more than something we do. They become who we are, who our friends are, what our lives revolve around. When we can't do them anymore, there's enormous loss—and all the stages of grief. Longtime runner, Another Mother Runner co-founder, and author of The 27th Mile, Dimity McDowell joins us to unpack it all—including her "calling it quits marathon," mental matrix for decisions, and how to replace all that running gave you when it comes to an end.

Before focusing her career on running, Dimity McDowell was a sports journalist, holding staff positions at Self, ESPN: The Magazine, and Sports Illustrated for Women. She co-authored three running books and co-founded Another Mother Runner, an inclusive community for all female runners, with Sarah Bowen Shea. The author of The 27th Mile: How to Smooth the Rough Transition Out of Your Running Years, she has finished countless races, including Ironman Coeur d'Alene and the Pike’s Peak Half Marathon. Dimity is the mother of two adult children, and lives in Denver with her husband and two dogs. You can learn more about her work and find her Running Detox Program at manyhappymiles.com.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to Hit Play Not Pause, a feisty menopause podcast for active performance-minded women.
0:12.2	I am your host, Celine Yeager. Each week, I bring you advice from athletes, scientists, researchers, and other experts to help you feel and perform your best no matter what
0:21.7	your hormones are doing. This show is a production of feisty media.
0:27.2	Hello, strong feisty women. I hope you all are well. So this show is largely devoted to helping
0:34.9	you, and heck myself, keep on keeping on.
0:38.8	We talk about what we need to do to keep ourselves strong and in the game, whether that's
0:44.7	training or nutrition, what sorts of hormonal support we need, what types of body work, mindset
0:50.4	work, sleep, recovery strategies, all of that that can help us stay healthy and motivated
0:55.9	and active. What we don't talk about as often is what happens when none of that works. And there
1:05.4	will be times when none of that works. You can do everything right and end up with one injury after another.
1:13.7	Sometimes despite your best laid plans and your efforts, life has other ideas.
1:20.0	And that's hard, like really hard.
1:23.6	In sports, we celebrate grit and determination and pushing through pain and crossing that finish line, whatever it takes.
1:31.4	That shines on Instagram, but it can take a real mental toll on us when we've hit an impasse ourselves.
1:38.9	For many of us, sport is more than something we do.
1:43.7	It is who we are, who our friends are, and what our lives revolve around.
1:50.2	When we don't do them anymore or we can't do them anymore, that's an enormous loss
1:55.4	with all the stages of grief that come with it.
1:59.0	And that is something that this week's guest,
2:02.0	Dimity McDowell, knows better than anyone. So much so, she wrote a whole and very excellent
2:09.1	book about it, The 27th Mile, How to Smooth the Rough Transition Out of Your Running Years.
2:17.1	Dimity is not just a longtime runner herself. As the co transition out of your running years. Dimmity is not just a long-time runner herself.
	...

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