This 33-Song Playlist Is What Jess McClain Uses to Train for Crushing Marathons
Good music can often make the difference between a rave run and a blown goal. That’s why we’re putting together 90-minute playlists each month chock-full of songs with enough of a beat to keep you moving. For even more tunes, check out our list of The Best Running Playlists to Power Every Pace and Distance.
Jess McClain learned during her first stint as a professional runner that too much of a good thing and singular focus can turn bad. The Arizona native ran competitively in high school, mostly racing 5K and 10K races, and later at Stanford University, where she became a seven-time NCAA Division I All-American. In 2015, however, she went pro, signed with Brooks, and that’s when things took a turn for the worse.
“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.”
Back in the 2010s, pros were mostly all about running, and not as much about side hustles and other hobbies. “This is the way it has to be if I want to go all in: I have to live, train, breathe, eat, and sleep running,” McClain says. That all-or-nothing mindset led to repeated injuries and burnout, which forced McClain to part ways with her sponsor in 2018 and, at 26, move back to Phoenix with her parents.
Over the next few years, McClain took a full-time marketing job and got married. “It was a good reset for me,” McClain says. “It gave me a lot of perspective and helped me detach my identity from running. I’d been running competitively since I was 12, so I really didn’t know who I was or what I wanted outside of that. I needed self-discovery time to find out who Jess is when she’s not racing.”
Just when she started considering a return to running, the pandemic shut down racing. But then, in 2022, right before her 30th birthday, McClain raced the Mesa Marathon, her first 26.2 miles, on a lark, training only six weeks before the big day, and finishing in 2:33:34. She qualified for the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials, where she placed fourth. At the 2024 New York City Marathon and 2025 Boston Marathon, she scooped up top 10 placements. And at the 2026 Boston Marathon, McClain broke the American course record with a time of 2:20:49.
She returned to her sponsor, Brooks. This go-round feels different, she says. “I’ve just had so much fun,” she says. “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. It took a minute to find my recipe, but I did.”
Part of reclaiming her love of running came through music, something that’s been with her since her early days of running. “I remember having the clunky MP3 player and the old headphones that if you moved them a certain way, the music would scratch,” she says, laughing. “Now I am somebody who likes music and podcasts, definitely on my easy runs or solo runs.” Sometimes she’ll put her phone in the back pocket of her sports bra and play music aloud during track workouts for an extra boost.
“I’m a Swiftie for sure—I grew up with her, and we’re the same age, so it’s a nostalgic thing,” she says, “but I love the teenage angst in ‘90s alternative punk rock.” She’s recently been listening to Taking Back Sunday, My Chemical Romance, Matchbox Twenty, and Papa Roach as well.
Runner’s World asked McClain to guest-DJ a running playlist, and she’s put together quite the treat. Her playlist, of course, includes plenty of Taylor Swift, but also some blink-182, Hoodie Allen, and The Veronicas to give it a bit of edge. It may just be the boost you need as well!
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