Ari Hendrix: 2:35 Marathoner & LGBTQ+ Athlete, on Trail Running, Fueling, and Mental Health
Release Date: 06/05/2025
Jenny Grimshaw on how Understanding ARFID, Food Intolerances, and Anxiety Changed her Running
Lane 9 Podcast
" When I eventually figured out my food intolerances and a better relationship with fueling, I brought [my marathon PR] down to 2:44 within a little under a year." Jenny Grimshaw, VP of marketing at EQUIP*, and now a 2:36 marathoner, joins us on the Lane 9 podcast. Jenny is also a mom of 2, and navigating prophylactic surgeries to reduce her risk of breast and ovarian cancers (with the BRCA-1 gene). Her postpartum running experiences have been full of PRs, as she has figured out her own fueling needs, how to balance her identity as a runner with all the other things she does, and has worked...
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Kaleigh Cornelison on Teens in Sport & Social Media Use, and How to Talk About Eating Disorders with Loved Ones
Lane 9 Podcast
" I think young people often don't get that chance to like take a step back [from sport] and say like, is this working [for me]?" shares Kaleigh Cornelison, who specializes in working with teens and adolescents. Kaleigh is a licensed clinical social worker with over 15 years of experience working with teens and the adults who care about them. She leads workshops, creative resources, and writes the both, and newsletter for parents and professionals who wanna embrace both the challenges and the joys of the teenage years. She takes a balanced approach to social media use, acknowledging...
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Stevie Lyn Smith RDN Knows You Can Eat More Carbs, and Why Breaks from Training are so Important for Athletes
Lane 9 Podcast
"There's nothing wrong with getting a little out of shape. It's okay! We shouldn't be in our peak or prime all the time," shares Stevie Lyn Smith, sports dietitian and endurnace athlete. Stevie Lyn Smith is a Registered Sports Dietitian, avid endurance athlete, and dog mom. Her mission is to help educate and coach athletes on how to fuel their goals without sacrificing their health and happiness. And, she’s also part of our Lane 9 Directory of Women’s Health & Sport Clinicians! This episode covers: Why she took 4 years off of training for triathlons Her year of racing (and PRs!) in...
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Coach Asia aka Brown Bambi, from Sprinting 400m Hurdles to World Marathon Majors
Lane 9 Podcast
"I was the last [athlete] in my recruiting class by my senior year," shares Asia Rawls, aka Coach Brown Bambi, reflecting on the challenges of collegiate athletics and how she stuck with it. Rawls competed in multiple events, eventually excelling in the 400m hurdles. She ran for Eastern Michigan University (EMU) under coach Sue Parks. In this episode she shares how running changed her life, from a young age, after switching school districts and having more access to sport, all the way into getting a scholarship as a student athlete. Now, she's the head coach at Machine Athletics...
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Eating Disorder treatment to Collegiate Running, Perinatal Running, and a Double Mastectomy with Coach Maddie Barrett
Lane 9 Podcast
" I mean, half of our cross country team in college, I would say had disordered eating," shares Maddie Barrett, of Joyful Run Coaching. She's a full time running coach, parent, and recently underwent a double-mastectomy. Maddie is part of the Lane 9 Directory, and joined us to talk about her experiences as a young athlete navigating eating disorder treatment, her time as a collegiate skier and runner, and how she has navigated running and sport through her pregnancy and postpartum. Just last year, she had surgery for a double-mastectomy and reconstruction, and shares her experiences...
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OCD in Eating Disorders and Sport with therapist Hannah de Groot
Lane 9 Podcast
" Eating disorders sometimes even mimic OCD. And by that I mean there is a compulsion that satisfies an obsession or an urge," shares therapist Hannah de Groot, a clinician in private practice at Stride Counseling. Hannah de Groot is part of the Lane 9 clinician Directory, and joined us to talk about her work in helping athletes navigate symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and eating disorders. She shares her own sport story, and how she got into this work, as well as what it looks like for an athlete to work through Exposure Response Therapy. Connect with her work through...
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Kassidy Johnson RDN on the Fear of Weight Gain & Competing While Unsponsored
Lane 9 Podcast
" I believed that what it took to get back to where I was year before was I needed to lose weight, so kinda overnight did a whole 180—was restricting food, was counting calories, just kind of trying to lose weight. But it was all under the guise of being dedicated to my sport," shares Kassidy Johnson, now a Division 1 collegiate sports dietitian. Johnson is not only a helping collegiate athletes fuel adequately and navigate their fear of weight gain, she's also training and competing at high level of sport as an unsponsored athlete. She's currently training for, and will soon...
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When diet culture meets running culture with Zoë Rom & Kylee Van Horn
Lane 9 Podcast
"... the overwhelming majority of people who identify as women, that run, have at one time had an eating disorder or disordered eating, or at minimum low energy availability. So just assume that 60% of images you saw [on social media] were of someone who is actively not well." Zoë Rom and Kylee Van Horn RDN join the Lane 9 Podcast with Heather Caplan RDN to talk about why diet culture in running (and in general) sucks, and how athlete identities get wrapped up in performance nutrition, body image, and the next health trend. Rom and Van Horn co-host the podcast, Your Diet Sucks...
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Carly Gill Larios, Patience with Postpartum Running, and Fueling for Marathons
Lane 9 Podcast
" I did have some moments where I questioned if I'd ever be the runner I was [before having a kid]", shares Carly Gill Larios, a 2:42 marathoner. She joined us for a conversation about her history with disordered eating in high school, the ways in which running was healing for her through her D3 college experience, and what brought her back to running after starting her career in the TV and Film industries. She still works as a Co-Executive Producer for "90 Day Fiance", while running up to 80 miles per week and training for her next marathon. She's a mom to 2-year-old Adella, and dog,...
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Kim Conley, 2x Olympian, on Mental Health, Fueling, and Having Fun With Sports
Lane 9 Podcast
" I was not someone that anyone, including myself, would've thought was gonna make an Olympic team one day." Kim Conley is a 2x Olympian in the 5000m, competing in the 2012 London Summer Games and 2016 Rio Summer Games. She has competed in everything from the mile to the marathon. During her debut at the 2016 NYCM she shares how she underfueled and bonked hard. Eventually she teamed up with a sports dietitian, changed her fueling strategy, and went on to run in the 2024 US Olympic Trials Marathon. Most recently, she finished 2nd at the Brooklyn Half Marathon in May 2025, and has run a few...
info_outline" ...definitely we're underrepresented and I think especially with the state of our country and the world now, it can be really scary to put yourself out there."
Ari Hendrix is the third fastest US-Born African American marathoner (2:35, CIM 2022), and ran the 2024 US Olympic Team Trials Marathon in 2024. She works for HOKA and lives in Portland with her wife and two dogs.
Ari joined the Lane 9 podcast to talk about her recent move to the trails, on which she's already had some success! She recently finished 9th in her 50K debut at the 2025 Canyons Endurance Run by UTMB, and also happened to win a road 5K in Portland this spring. She played college basketball before getting into endurance running, and has navigated mental health, injuries, and setbacks in the sport.
We also talk about:
- the challenges she navigated with both injuries and mental health during 2020
- her CIM race in 2022, finishing in 2:35 to qualify for the 2024 US Olympic Team Trials Marathon and becoming the 3rd fastest US Born African American woman in the marathon
- her experience at the 2024 Marathon Trials
- why she got interested in running trails instead of sticking to road racing
- how she met her wife, and her experiences as an open LGBTQ+ and African American athlete
- what she's excited about in the sport
Follow Ari Hendrix on Instagram @ari_hendrix1
Follow Lane 9 Project on Instagram @lane9project, on Bluesky, and Substack.
Connect with a clinician in the Lane 9 directory by going to Lane9project.org/Directory. Find a dietitian, mental health therapist, physical therapist, and/or coach to support you as an athlete in women's sports.