Maintaining Hope Despite the Circumstance with Mark Spewak Artwork

Unstoppable Strides: Navigating Runner's Dystonia

Join Julie and JoJo for information, exploration, stories of hope and real talk related to running with dystonia.

Runner’s dystonia is a type of repetitive exercise dystonia that is brought on by running. Some are affected by walking and cycling as well.

Dystonias are a class of movement disorders marked by involuntary muscle contractions in one or more parts of the body, depending on the type of dystonia.

Runner’s dystonia is considered task-specific, which means that it only occurs when doing a repetitive motion—in this case, the repetitive nature of the running gait cycle.

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Unstoppable Strides: Navigating Runner's Dystonia

Maintaining Hope Despite the Circumstance with Mark Spewak

March 24, 2026 • Julie Bergfeld • Season 2 • Episode 11

0:00 | 39:06

Julie spends some time with athlete, coach and founder of Spewak Training and Racing, Mark Spewak. Mark is a fellow St. Louisan who recently had heart surgery to repair a PFO (patent foramen ovale), a hole in his heart. in 2025, Mark had two strokes and years prior had a CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) leak.

Despite these health conditions, Mark has the relentless attitude of a champion and maintains hope in an awe-inspiring way.

Here is a link to his training site (https://spewaktraining.com) and a bit more about Mark (https://spewaktraining.com/mark)

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The information shared in this podcast is not intended to diagnose. recommend nor treat medical conditions. We are not licensed medical professionals and do not take the place of your team of medical professionals.

You can find us here: Julie Bergfeld - julie@juliebergfeld.com and juliebergfeld.com (@juliebergfeldcoaching) and JoJo Fraser - joellef510@gmail.com