Rachel Drake is a professional trail runner with Nike, co-host of The Trail Network Podcast, mom of 2-year old Lew, and a newly-minted medical resident in Salt Lake City, UT. A few weekends ago, she ran, won, and broke the course record for women at the JFK 50 Miler in northern Virginia—a huge accomplishment on its own, but especially considering all of the above.
We talked to Rachel about her time as a collegiate athlete, finding trail running and a close community of friends in that space when she moved to Portland OR, and eventually getting back to racing on the trails and roads (and doing it well!).
Photo taken by Mike McMonagle, @shitinthewoods
And she shared the full story of her postpartum running process, getting a sacral stress fracture soon after she got back into high volume training. “We don’t hear about the struggle, and I think the struggle is the predominating experience,” she said, when we talked about her injury and how she felt like she wasn’t seeing as any stories about setbacks. How so often, what’s shared is centered around the wins, the course records, the “bounce backs”.
Tune in to hear Rachel’s full story, and what she’s eyeing for 2025!
Follow Rachel on Instagram @RachelRaeDrake.
Follow Lane 9 @lane9project on IG. If you work with female-bodied athletes, and want to 1) add your services our national directory of providers, 2) join a collective of coaches and practitioners who work with Lane 9, or 3) bring a Lane 9 resource to your team/athletes, go to Lane9Project.org/contact.
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