Jess McClain’s career is a reminder that more commitment doesn’t always produce better running. After burnout pushed her away from the sport, she found a way back by making room for a life beyond training—and by rediscovering the music that made running fun in the first place.
Runner’s World publishes a new 90-minute running playlist each month. Browse its running playlists for every pace and distance, or scroll through selections from Sara Hall, Keira D’Amato, Harry Styles, Rachel Entrekin, and Jess McClain.
Find Your Next Running Playlist
How McClain found her way back
McClain grew up in Arizona and raced the 5K and 10K in high school before running at Stanford, where she became a seven-time NCAA Division I All-American. She turned professional in 2015 and signed with Brooks. That leap, she says, came with a cost: the sport began crowding out everything else. “Through high school and college, running was just so fun; I had other things going on at all times: extracurriculars, stuff with friends on the weekends, football games, and clubs,” she says. “With professional running, I was so excited to go all in, but I realized very quickly I’m not one-dimensional. It’s really hard for me not to have other buckets to pour myself into.”
At the time, McClain thought being a professional meant organizing her whole life around the sport: “I have to live, train, breathe, eat, and sleep running.” The pressure fed a cycle of injuries and burnout. In 2018, she parted ways with Brooks and, at 26, moved back in with her parents in Phoenix.
The reset gave her distance from a career that had shaped her identity since she was 12. She took a full-time marketing job and got married. “It gave me a lot of perspective and helped me detach my identity from running,” she says. “I needed self-discovery time to find out who Jess is when she’s not racing.”
Her return came almost by accident. After the pandemic halted racing just as she was considering a comeback, McClain entered the Mesa Marathon in 2022, shortly before turning 30. She had trained for only six weeks. Her time: 2:33:34, over 26.2 miles. That result qualified her for the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials, where she finished fourth. She later placed in the top 10 at both the 2024 New York City Marathon and the 2025 Boston Marathon. At Boston in 2026, she set the American course record in 2:20:49.
McClain returned to Brooks, but says her relationship with running now has more room in it. “It took that reset and step back to rediscover why I love racing and getting the best out of myself, but I’m able to do everything else in life to some extent, too,” she says. “It took a minute to find my recipe, but I did.” The contrast is telling: her results improved after she stopped treating running as her whole identity.
The playlist behind the comeback
Music has been part of McClain’s runs since the days of bulky MP3 players and headphones that scratched when they shifted. Now she listens to music and podcasts, particularly on easy or solo runs. At track workouts, she sometimes plays music aloud from her phone tucked into the back of her sports bra.
Her tastes reach from Taylor Swift—“I’m a Swiftie for sure—I grew up with her, and we’re the same age, so it’s a nostalgic thing”—to the teenage angst of ’90s alternative punk rock. Lately, she’s been listening to Taking Back Sunday, My Chemical Romance, Matchbox Twenty, and Papa Roach.
For her Runner’s World guest playlist, McClain brings together plenty of Swift with blink-182, Hoodie Allen, and The Veronicas. The mix has a sharper edge than a straight pop playlist. If you need a lift on your next run, you can listen below on Spotify, Amazon Music, or Apple Music.
Listen on Spotify
View full post on IframeListen on Amazon Music
View full post on IframeListen on Apple Music
View full post on IframeBy Matthew Huff, freelance writer and runner. Huff wrote MARATHONER: What to Expect When Training for and Running a Marathon, published by Rizzoli Publications. His work has appeared in Runner’s World and BuzzFeed, and he co-hosts “P.S. You’re Wrong: A Pop Culture Podcast.” Originally from Michigan, he lives and runs in New York City.
