Running Ahrens
One Couple. Two People. Four Kids. And decades of figuring it out—together.
Running Ahrens is a podcast about the long game of marriage, parenting, business, and personal growth. Hosted by Justin and Sarah Ahrens—a couple married for over 30 years with four kids and decades of entrepreneurial experience—this show is about the lessons learned through successes, failures, and everything in between.
With a focus on mindset, honesty, accountability, and kindness, Justin and Sarah dive into real conversations about building a family, running businesses, navigating faith, friendships, and growing through the hard stuff. Still learning, still laughing, still running together—they share what they’ve figured out (and what they haven’t) with humor, humility, and heart.
Along the way, they’re joined by friends, guests, and even their kids for open, often funny, and always heartfelt conversations about what really matters: relationships, resilience, and the lessons that come with time. You’ll also hear about the books, tools, and resources that have helped them along the way—so you can take what resonates and apply it to your own life.
If you’re looking for honest stories, practical wisdom, and a reminder that no one’s running this race perfectly, you’re in the right place.
Running Ahrens
Becoming Who You Were Meant to Be - Kelly’s Journey Through Grief and Growth
In this moving episode of Running Ahrens, Justin and Sarah sit down with their longtime friend and former teammate Kelly Allison, a creative force, solo parent, and survivor of some of life’s hardest chapters.
What begins as a conversation about growing up in a deeply conservative world quickly unfolds into a rich, layered story of becoming. From singing in a ska band in college to building a photography business without a blueprint, Kelly shares how her life unraveled, and how she found herself in the wreckage.
She opens up about walking away from an 18-year marriage built on silence and control, the financial abuse that kept her small, the sudden loss of a partner who saw her fully, and the fight to protect and keep the family she chose.
But this isn’t a story about falling apart. It’s a story about what happens when you decide to become someone new anyway.
Takeaways & Talking Points
When the Picture Breaks
What happens when the life you thought you’d have disappears, and how to grow something real in its place
From Ska to Studio
How creativity became Kelly’s oxygen, and the unexpected path that led her from band life to building a thriving photography practice
What Abuse Doesn’t Always Look Like
The slow erosion of self, the invisible toll of financial control, and how naming it is the first step to reclaiming your life
Love, Loss & Starting Again
How she loved again, and what it meant to lose her partner just as healing was finally taking root
Parenting Outside the Lines
Choosing to raise someone else’s child with fierce love and radical commitment, even when it means standing alone
Faith, Boundaries & Becoming Whole
Leaving the familiar, drawing lines with family, and still choosing love as the compass
The Art of Becoming
How grief, creativity, and unshakable truth helped her rise, and why she’s still becoming
Things We’re Learning (and Unlearning)
- Boundaries are not the end of love; they’re where honest love begins
- You don’t need permission to rewrite your life
- Grief and growth are not opposites, they’re companions
- Chosen family can become your truest foundation
- Being “too much” might be exactly who you were made to be
Stats Worth Knowing
- 1 in 5 women experience financial abuse in relationships (NNEDV)
- Sudden cardiac arrest is the #1 natural cause of death in the U.S. (AHA)
- LGBTQ+ youth with affirming caregivers are far less likely to experience depression or attempt suicide (The Trevor Project)
- 7 in 10 adults say they’ve had to set a boundary with family (Pew Research)
This episode is a love letter to anyone standing in the wreckage of what they thought life would be. Kelly reminds us: your story doesn’t end here. Even in the unraveling, you are still becoming.
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