Road running from the 5K through the marathon, beginner to advanced runners, race preparation, goal setting, pacing and race strategy, and strength training for runners.

I love helping runners build confidence, find consistency, chase big goals, and surprise themselves with what they’re capable of!

Whether the goal is finishing your first 5K or shaving minutes off your marathon PR, I’m here for it… and probably a little too excited to talk about it!

First and foremost, I believe in “JUST RUN” AKA getting the miles in! There is no magic workout or shortcut that can replace consistent running and building a strong aerobic base. That said, consistency also requires patience! Progress comes from gradually asking more of your body without trying to do everything all at once AKA “DON’T GO TOO FAR, TOO FAST, TOO SOON!”.

Second, I believe that what you give is what you get. I will ALWAYS meet my athletes with the same effort, time, communication, and commitment YOU are willing to give to your goals. You don’t have to be the fastest runner in the room, you just have to be willing to show up and do the work!

While I am newer to coaching runners in an official capacity, coaching itself isn’t new to me. As a certified personal trainer, I have worked one-on-one with clients to set goals, build individualized programs, provide accountability, and help them become stronger and more confident in what their bodies can do.

Over the years, I have also naturally become the “running person” in my circle. Friends, family, and social media followers regularly come to me for help with training plans, pacing, workouts, race preparation, and the million little questions that come with being a runner. I have always genuinely loved helping with them, and eventually realized that this is the type of coaching I am most passionate about and where I feel I’m meant to be!

After a lifetime of running and competing myself, I am incredibly excited to take that experience, along with my personal training background, and officially begin helping other runners chase goals of their own!

Hellllllo I’m Stef! Running has been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember, but I am a big believer of having a life outside of it as well (balance is EVERYTHING!). I am a former Division I cross country and track athlete and since graduating have focused on road races ranging from 5Ks all the way up to the big 26.2! I was born and raised in Chicago but ran away from the cold (pun absolutely intended!) and now live in sunny Key West, Florida with my husband and my extremely spoiled husky, Shadow and tabby cat, KoKo. I am a firm believer that life is better near the water and spend the majority of my free time on the boat or at the beach! I am competitive, a little goofy, love to laugh, and genuinely love connecting with people and learning about what makes you YOU, which is a big part of why coaching feels so natural to me… sooo… let’s chat!

My high school cross country and track coach inspired and shaped me in ways I never would have believed at the time. She was kind, she was patient, she was understanding. She was knowledgable, she was experienced, she was invested. She was simply the best. Her approach not only made me and other athletes feel heard and understood, it motivated us to be the best versions of ourselves, on and off the track. To this day, I hear her voice in my head: “Don’t go too far, too fast, too soon”. This simple sentence is the baseline of my coaching philosophy.

The race I want to share is actually my most recent – the 2026 San Francisco Marathon.

I had a YEAR of change. I got married, changed careers, moved to an island, and left my friends and family behind – enough to make anyone feel a little crazy! I did my best to embrace all of it, but I still felt like I was missing a piece of myself.

Then one day, I saw that my longtime running confidant and former teammate had qualified for the US Marathon Olympic Trials. Something about seeing that lit a spark in me. I decided right then that I was going to qualify for the 2027 Boston Marathon.

And when I decide I’m going to do something, I’m all in.

I immediately started searching for marathons before the September qualifying cutoff and, naturally, chose one of the harder ones: San Francisco, with roughly 1,300 feet of elevation gain. Because apparently simply qualifying for Boston wasn’t enough of a challenge 😂. But to me, this became about so much more than running a fast marathon. This was how I was going to feel like ME again.

So I trained. I trained hard. I put in the miles, the workouts, the hills, the early mornings – the work.

And then race weekend came… and so did the doubt.

Even with my amazing husband and parents there supporting me, I was nervous. I was scared. Suddenly I was questioning everything. Had I trained hard enough? Had I done ENOUGH?

On race morning, my legs were shaking for the first eight miles. And then the real hills came.

And I conquered them. I KILLED them.

I started passing people left and right, and mile by mile, something shifted. The nerves disappeared. The confidence came back. I looked at my pace and realized: I was doing it. I was running BOSTON QUALIFYING PACE.

So I kept going.

The farther I ran, the more I believed. And when I finally crossed that finish line, I teared up. I had done it. All those miles, all that work, all those moments of wondering whether I was capable of it – and the work had paid off.

My husband was the first person I saw after I finished, and I will NEVER forget looking across the barriers at him and screaming, “I DID IT! I ACTUALLY DID IT!”

And THAT is what I want for my athletes.

I want them to have that moment. The moment when all the early mornings, hard workouts, sacrifices, doubts, and miles finally make sense. The moment they realize they were capable of something they once weren’t sure they could do.

That feeling. That confidence. That pride. That’s why I want to coach.

• American Council on Exercise Personal Training Certificate

• Two Time Boston Marathon Qualifier
• Full Scholarship Division I Cross Country & Track Athlete

• 5K: 17:36 (4/18/15) University of Urbana Champagne Invitational
• 10K: 37.51 (5/6/16) Horizon League Conference Championships
• Half Marathon: 1:24 (7/17/16) Rock n’ Roll Chicago Half Marathon
• Full Marathon: 3:08 (6/5/16) Rock n’ Roll San Diego Marathon
• Full Marathon (Recent): 3:13 (7/26/26) San Francisco Marathon