Originally from the Philadelphia area, Coach Maddie Kunz currently lives in Raleigh, NC with her amazing husband Justin and their running-loving dog, Harlow!
In addition to coaching for Pace of Me, Maddie is an Elementary Art teacher. She has experience coaching Track and Cross Country at the middle and high school levels, has volunteered as a Girls on the Run Coach, serves as a guide pacing and racing with blind athletes and is actively involved in the run club community in the Raleigh area. Maddie is a life-long learner and strives to help her students and her athletes every day through her coaching and teaching!
Coach Maddie’s athetes appreciate her for her ability to understand and listen to the ups and downs that training can bring while encouraging them to seek their why as they work towards the little steps and big goals!
Maddie is awesome and we are so thankful to have her on our team!
Read below to get to know Coach Maddie better! You can also learn more by following her on instagram at @marathon_mads94. She would love to hear from you if you have questions or are interested in working with her for 1:1 comprehensive run coaching. You can email her directly at maddie@paceofme.com, any time!
coaching style
Maddie describes her coaching style as one filled with encouragement & trust. She believes that a positive relationship is the most important part of a coaching experience. If you feel positively supported, you will feel more empowered & confident in chasing your goals. Maddie enjoys getting to know what her athletes’ schedules look like so she can can work to make their training feel not only strong but possible. A training plan requires flexibility and adaptability to keep the joy in it! Maddie LOVES helping her athletes think about and work towards the big AND little goals!
favorite workout
Coach Maddie’s favorite workouts to give are ladder or pyramid-style workouts that can vary in both time and distance. By switching up your pace or distance with the intervals, combined with a short easy recovery in between, you optimize your endurance training. It is an amazing test of pace work and also helps keeps you focused on the interval you’re in versus the entirety of the run!
Running Playlist
Since 2017, Maddie has had a playlist on Spotify called “26 point tunes” and putting it on shuffle has kept every run since then something new! It currently has 67 hours worth of songs… so you could say she’s in it for the long run!! On easy runs, listening to audiobooks or podcasts helps slow her down – Maddie is a very avid reader!
words of encouragement from coach maddie!
“Trust in yourself throughout your training. Your coach is there to help you! Hold on to the feeling of the GREAT runs as they will help you move through the ~not so great~ ones as they come.
There are so many ways to feel grateful in this sport. NEVER stop dreaming about where you can go with running. Your Road Ahead is still being paved!”
coaching experience + running inspo
Coach Maddie works with runners from entry level to advanced and is a certified running coach through both RRCA and VDOT02.
Maddie has been running since her high school soccer and track days, quickly realizing the benefits that running could bring to all aspects of her life! After hanging up her cleats and focusing on running, Maddie ran her first marathon in 4:15 in 2014 and has since run over 40 marathons (with a current PR of 2:56!) and an Ironman 140.6, continuously finding happiness in challenging herself in distances back down to the mile- where this love for running began. She brings a knowledge of all racing distances to her coaching toolkit.
Maddie is on the cusp of attaining her 7th World Major Marathon star as she heads to Tokyo this spring, and will run her 8th Boston Marathon (for fun!) in April!
Nobody brings more joy to the run than Coach Maddie!!
In the Media!
At Your Own Pace, Episode 2: In this podcast episode of At Your Own Pace, host MikeRunsMarathons sits down with Coach Maddie to talk about the realities of marathon training—both the physical work and the mental battles that come with it. Maddie shares her journey as a runner and coach, emphasizing the power of consistency, accountability, and finding joy in the process rather than chasing a single outcome.
The conversation explores navigating tough training cycles, managing race-day nerves, prioritizing recovery, and the influence social media can have on runners’ expectations and self-belief. At its core, this episode highlights the importance of community and reminds listeners that every runner’s path looks different—and that progress isn’t just measured at the finish line.
