Jen Bigham - Chasing the Best, Fastest Version of Herself | RunChats Ep.50

Jen Bigham is an inspiring, bad ass mom of 4, who chased down her 8-year Olympic Trials qualifying quest by breaking the tape, scorching a 2:41 in the Eugene Marathon. Jen grew up watching her dad race 5K's and marathons, started running in middle school, and never looked back. She competed in high school and in college at Ohio State, where she battled injuries, but enjoyed working with Coach Sparks, who believed in Jen and also went on to coach two of her siblings and Molly Seidel at Notre Dame. After having her daughter in 2010, she started training again, and surprised herself by running a 5K PR in her 1st race back postpartum, which really shaped the athlete she is today. Her older brother planted the seed that she could qualify for the Olympic Trials. His strong belief in Jen—and being a multiple time qualifier himself—helped give Jen the courage to believe it too, even though she couldn’t run 3 miles at the qualifier pace at the time! We discuss: coaches/mentors, belief & self-belief, hitting plateaus, breaking through them, health challenges, mindset/visualization, Atlanta Olympic Trial's with her family and dad being everywhere she needed him, the traumatic birth of her 4th child, bouncing back, finding her speed, knowing your WHY, chasing the best version of herself, being a high school coach, giving back, & mentoring. Talk about a crazy fast family. Her younger brother also qualified for the Trials and is now coaching Jen. Jen would love for them all to run the next trials and I'm HERE for it and will definitely be hosting that family POD when it happens. I hope you all enjoy this conversation as much as we did! If you enjoy the episode, it would mean the world to me if you would rate the podcast or write a review and share feedback wherever you get your podcast groove on. Connect With Jen: Instagram: @localelite Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenbigham Connect With Ron: Personal Instagram: @ronrunsnyc Podcast Instagram: @runchats_with_ronrunsnyc Facebook: https://fb.me/runchats Website: https://ronrunsnyc.com ---- Produced by: David Margittai | In Post Media Website: https://www.inpostmedia.com Email: [email protected] Social: @_margittai © 2021 Ron Romano