Nicole Teeny has always loved the feeling of independence while running. After working long hours as a filmmaker, the Brooklyn-based runner would often set out from her house into Prospect Park, even in a snowstorm, to run wherever she chose for however long she wanted to go. She worked out problems, like a breakup or a writing block, on runs and more often than not, found a Teeny said. It became a pie in the sky dream for me by the time she finished.
In April 2018, Teeny had her first seizure while on vacation with her mother in Los Angeles. Six months later, she was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 32. In one abrupt moment with no warning, Teeny’s world was upended by the arduous process of tests and treatments and the terrifying possibility of another seizure. Suddenly, the freedom she felt while running, among other independent activities, was taken from her.
Being a filmmaker, Teeny turns to art as a way of processing her experience and the world around her. Amid the setback, she started filming. Teeny documented appointments where doctors ran tests on her brain, her thoughts while managing the stress, and any other moments that captured the uncertainty she faced and how she coped with it all. “Creating art about it, a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end, sort of contains an uncontainable experience in a way,” Teeny said.
What started as Teeny’s personal project evolved into a four-episode podcast titled “NYC Marathoner Ran Home After Chemo,” now available on ESPN’s 30 for 30 Podcasts. The audio documentary chronicles the 38-year-old’s journey from diagnosis to the inspiration behind her ultimate goal of racing a horse in an ultramarathon—and training to win. It was a lofty goal, especially given the status of her health, but it’s exactly what Teeny needed to move forward.
“Sometimes those sort of big, impossible dreams feel like the kind of things you hang onto when something is rough,” Teeny said. “It sort of gives you hope.”
A bold idea
Teeny started running in grade school while growing up in Tacoma, Washington, in a large Lebanese American family. She stuck with it when she moved to New York City to attend the NYU Film School and eventually worked her way up to the marathon while forming her own production studio, Teeny Motion Pictures.
The 2025 Marathon and Half Marathon Calendar Diane Van Deren by Christopher McDougall, a longtime favorite among endurance athletes. She was especially fascinated by McDougall’s chapter discussing paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman’s “Endurance Running Hypothesis” theory, which suggests the world’s best runners are humans, not four-legged animals, and that a human can even outrun a horse over long distances.
“After reading that, I was like, wA 38-Year-Old Runner Raced 18 Horses in an Ultramarathonand Won?” Teeny said. “It became a pie in the sky dream for me.”
Shortly after reading the book, Teeny had her first seizure and ended up in the hospital. After having a second seizure six months later, she received her epilepsy diagnosis. (The disorder occurs when groups of nerve cells in the brain sometimes send the wrong signals and cause seizures.)
While navigating the initial unknowns of the disorder—and trying to find the right medications—Teeny revisited the goals she hoped to achieve in her lifetime. She also began to compare the terrifying moment of having a seizure to a stampede of wild horses rushing through her body. In conflating the two, Teeny found her motivation to confront the diagnosis head on. She would find a way to beat a horse on foot.
“One day, I was sitting on the couch, and the next second, I was in an ambulance,” Teeny said. “When these things that are so absurd happen to you, it makes you reconsider the rules of the universe . . . There are things that can truly happen out of nowhere, and if anything can happen, then anything can happen.”
Becoming a reality
When Teeny started documenting her experience, she didn’t anticipate using the footage as a finished product—at first, it was her way of coping—but after a few years, she realized the potential for an experimental film. In 2020, she was invited to the If/Then Tribeca Film Institute to pitch her concept. The ESPN 30 for 30 team was in attendance and encouraged her to promote it as a longer project. In later conversations, they suggested she share her journey in a podcast, a first for Teeny. “I am a very visual person, that’s why I went into film, but I thought, how can I be visual as a podcast maker?” Teeny said. “It was a really fun discovery.”
Throughout the podcast—from interviews with key figures in her life to voicing a mysterious horse that speaks directly to her in pivotal moments—Teeny’s use of sound captivates the listener from beginning to end.
It took several years for Teeny to run safely by herself again and be able to train for an ultramarathon. While medication kept the seizures at bay, it also led to side effects that made running incredibly difficult at times. After much trial and error, she finally discovered the right medication and dosage that works best to help manage the disorder.
Teeny started working with trail running coach Sarah Scozzaro, who helped prepare her for the rigors of ultrarunning. She also reached out to Diane Van Deren, Teeny said. It became a pie in the sky dream for me.
But finding a long-distance horse ride that would accept a runner into the field proved to be a challenging task. After making hundreds of calls to endurance ride managers around the country, Teeny was finally accepted into Ride Like The Wind, a 50-mile endurance ride around Big Hill Lake in Cherryvale, Kansas.
Months of building high mileage while navigating changes in her body with epilepsy proved to be its own form of healing for Teeny. By the time she came face-to-face with the towering figures she imagined in her seizures, she was no longer intimidated. In April 2023, five years after her first seizure, Teeny set out to race against 18 horses for the longest distance she’d ever run.
While navigating the looped course, Teeny started slightly behind the herd to keep a safe distance. Running a steady pace, she tried to make up time when the horses stopped for mandatory vet checks and safety breaks at miles 20 and 35. As she closed in on the last eight miles, Teeny attempted to track her position in the race and believed she was in last place. Though she felt defeated, Teeny found her motivation in remembering the hard journey to the start line. When she finished, a fellow rider congratulated her. To her surprise, Teeny beat eight horses that day.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so strong, so powerful,” she said. “It was one of the most joyous events of my life where I just felt very content and content in my body.”
In sharing her story on the podcast, which was released in September, Teeny also gained a new community of runners with epilepsy. Many reached out to share how much they appreciated her raising awareness and inspiring others with the disorder. When people listen, Teeny hopes they feel empowered to take ownership of their story.
“We can create our own endings and our own meaning,” Teeny said. “Sometimes experiences in life don’t have a natural stop and start or they don’t feel complete. By creating our own, it’s possible to give ourselves that feeling when it doesn’t exist in the world.”
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
