Bracing

Because this season is exciting — but it also brings me back.

My college roommate and me at the Boston Marathon finish line last year. Photo by @justin_yall.

The runners are coming! The runners are coming!

In just one week, many of us will be descending upon Boston for marathon weekend festivities. (Doing OK, runners? Drop your shoulders. Relax your jaw. Take a breath. Now two more. You’ve got this!)

Here’s where you’ll find me in Boston:

• Friday, April 17, at 1 PM: Expo panel with Amanda Vestri and Annie Frisbie. Free, just show up to the main stage at the Hynes Convention Center!

• Friday, April 17 at 7 PM: Ali on the Run Show LIVE at WBUR CitySpace with special guest Claire Holt! Doors open at 6 PM. The show is sold out, but you can get on the waitlist or join the first-ever Ali on the Run Show LIVEstream!

• Saturday, April 18, at 1 PM: Ali on the Run Show LIVE at The TRACK at New Balance with Aisha Praught Leer and Eric Jenkins! Doors at 12:15 PM, show at 1 PM. Tickets (free!) go on sale today at 12 PM EST!

• Monday, April 20: Find me at the finish all day long. Forever your [hype] girl!

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Two weeks ago, I wrote about spring, and how it’s a lovely, underrated season.

Since stopping chemotherapy and moving onto maintenance therapy, I feel so different. “I’m just getting color back into my face,” you might say.

I still go up to the Dartmouth cancer center every three weeks for labs, a meeting with my oncologist, and my infusions (Herceptin, Perjeta, and the occasional Zometa). I was there this week, and the day was long, but fine. Uneventful, even. (It snowed all day. April 7. WTF. Classic New England.)

I’m starting additional medications today. Next week, I’ll get my second Zoladex shot. It’s a lot to manage, but I keep telling myself, “It’s not chemo.” It’s a lot, logistically, and yes, there are side effects. But this therapy, at least in the first few weeks, is giving me my life back.

I’ve been riding pretty high lately. And that feels wonderful. I’m in a season of good, and that’s a really exciting place for me to get to exist.

But then I remember…

I was in a similar — though much, much better — season last year at this time.

I was getting ready for Boston, London, and my 40th birthday.

I was happy, I felt healthy, and I was good. Work was great. My relationships were solid. I was having fun, in so many ways. (WINKY FACE. Good for me.)

Everything was wonderful, except for some pesky chest pain that I couldn’t quite explain but planned to deal with after the excitement died down.

So, we know how that played out.

The pesky chest pain made it all come crumbling down so hard, and so fast.

How quickly I went from “We are too busy dancing to get knocked off our feet” to “I could build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me.”

I’m existing in a weird space right now.

I want to bask in the good. I want to live it the fuck up (I’m so sorry for swearing but sometimes it just feels right; if you knew me in real life, you, like my mom, would be horrified by how much I swear), and enjoy the fact that I’m not sick in never-ending three-week cycles. It’s awesome.

But I’m also bracing.

For years now, the highs have been interrupted by the inevitable crashes. Comedowns. Life-altering, core-shaking, real, big, scary shit. (See?)

I’m encouraged remembering that I’ve still enjoyed some of the greatest highs of my life while also battling the roughest lows. The duality of it all: I can have amazing moments on the worst days of my life.

From my port placement surgery to Annie’s kindergarten graduation.

I am kind of sick of the duality, though, TBH.

I want to ride the Boston high. I want to enjoy the weekend without flashing back to last time, and how it all knocked me off my feet just a few weeks later.

Last year, I walked to the finish line early on Marathon Monday with my friend Mary.

The year prior — 2024 — I was in Boston with two surgeries, four rounds of chemo, and a lot of hair loss behind me. I was still very much in the thick of divorce proceedings, which felt endless, and I was so stressed, every single day. I was happy to be at the finish line, but life beyond Boston was still pretty tough. My Crohn’s was flaring (obviously; see aforementioned stress), and a turkey flew into my windshield on the highway on the drive home. I was doing my best, and my best felt far from good enough.

So I remember that walk to work last year, at dawn, with Mary, hours before the race started.

And I remember being overcome with gratitude.

“This is the healthiest I’ve ever been in Boston,” my inner monologue kept repeating. (Also the happiest, which is still true.)

I felt so deeply that I was on the greatest upswing of my life.

I made a grand declaration that I was the healthiest I’d ever been in Boston.

What I didn’t know: I had cancer last year in Boston.

Stage IV cancer, recurring in what was left of my breast tissue (which is basically nothing) and having spread to my bones. The deep ache in my chest that sent me to my knees, leveling me whenever I coughed or sneezed was never costochondritis. It was metastases in my sternum.

I love spring. I love the thaw. The bloom. The birds chirping at sunrise.

But this time of year is also a deep, harrowing reminder of last year’s reality, and the months that followed. The way life as you know it can change so dramatically, so quickly.

So I’ll see you in Boston. And I cannot wait. I am genuinely so excited.

And I’m bracing — with a whole lot of hands at my back.

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This week on the Ali on the Run Show:

• Emily Sisson, Boston Marathon-Bound: She’s the fastest American woman in the field, and she’s ready to race!

• Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Boston Marathon: The classic 3-hour episode packed with information and interviews all about the 130th running of this historic 26.2-mile race.

Ali elsewhere: I was invited to walk in a fashion show in New York City. Like…what??? I — alongside Katie Couric which, again, what??? — will be walking in the Runway For Recovery show later this month, and am being styled by LoveShackFancy. (Fancy!) Runway For Recovery is an amazing organization that supports women and their families throughout their breast cancer journeys. If you’re in NYC and want to come, you can get tickets here. Thank god I watched all those seasons of America’s Next Top Model. Caridee, Melrose, Mercedes, and those twins whose names I forget all prepared me for this.

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SPONSOR SHOUT OUTS

I am so grateful for the wonderful brands and partners I get to work with on the Ali on the Run Show. Supporting them = supporting me!

• Shokz: Click here and use code ALI for $10 off your next purchase.

• Lagoon: Click here to get my favorite pillows (I sleep on the Otter every night), and use code ALI for 15% off.

• New Balance: Click here to shop New Balance’s latest releases for the season.

• Oofos: Click here to check out the new Club+ line. Comfy and supportive = a dream!

• Vuori: Click here for 20% off your first Vuori order.

And so…

Take good care of yourselves. Take good care of each other. Be the good. Spread the love. Take a breath.

(You’ve got this. You’re doing great.)

Love,

Ali