Ali’s Way Forward: One More Mile

Ali Feller is an encouraging voice for thousands. As a race announcer, host of the Ali on the Run Show podcast, blogger, and runner herself, she’s made a career out of interviewing athletes and experts, and covering major running events and races— more than 900 podcast episodes and 26 million downloads since 2017.

When she first started blogging about her running experience in 2008, her focus was simple: just get to the next lamppost along the East River in New York City, where she was living at the time. Soon she was training daily for short races, half marathons, and marathons. “It was a very quick love story,” she said.

These days, Ali’s focus has shifted. As a patient at the Dartmouth Cancer Center, she lives with Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, a diagnosis that has changed her pace, but not her resolve to live life fully.

The Roadblock

When Ali was first diagnosed in the spring of 2023, little did she know that her surgical oncologist would become one of the most important people in her life. From the moment Ali first met Kari M. Rosenkranz, MD, she felt a connection. “She was so kind. She was so generous with her time,” Ali said.

From the start, Rosenkranz spent time with Ali, and took the time to explain what Ali was facing. “She made me feel that, yes, going through this is very serious and scary for me, but it's not scary for her,” Ali explained. “She knows how to help me.”

Rosenkranz always called. “Good results, less good results, she picks up the phone.”

On the morning of Ali’s double mastectomy, Rosenkranz helped to ease her anxiety and put a smile on her face as she made her way to the operating room. “Doctor Kari Rosenkranz saved my life and held my hand every step of the way. She has just become someone that I not only trust, but that I just respect so much,” Ali said.

The nurses at the infusion center, including Carol Urso, BSN, RN, Hallie Windhurst, BNS, RN, OCN, and Andy MacGibbon, BSN, RN, also became important people in Ali’s life. Seeing them every three weeks for over a year, she got to know them. They became friends.

“They deal with so much, and they are so kind, compassionate and empathetic,” she said. “They have seen me cry and they have seen me laugh,” she said.

In September of 2024, Ali rang the bell to signal the end of her chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatment. She brought running-shoe-filled gift bags for her care team, even though it felt impossible to thank them. “There were so many people who were so good to me,” she said. “They have made me feel like I was not alone in this journey.”

It was an emotional day for me,” Ali said. “I was trying to close a chapter on a really intense and really unexpected year of my life.” Ali was also going through a divorce at the time.

Since then, she has shared her cancer journey openly through her podcast and other media, including interviews with People and the Today show, and features on NPR and The Boston Globe.

Then, in May of 2025, exactly two years after she shared her first diagnosis, she felt some pain in her sternum. The cancer came back as stage 4. It was at this moment that Ali vowed she would fight, no matter how hard the battle was.

Working with her medical oncologist, Feller opted to take the most aggressive approach in treatment. And the reason why is plain to see: Annie.

The Sweet Spot

“The why in all of this is easy. It's Annie,” Ali said. Annie is Ali’s seven-and-a-half year-old daughter. “She is pure joy, and makes everything better.”

“When cancer makes life hard, there’s magical Annie in my back pocket,” Ali says. From dance class and gymnastics, to just laying in bed and watching a movie, “she’s just this ray of sunshine that bounces from room to room and lights each one up,” Ali said. “It doesn't make the hard stuff go away, but it does actually make it easier.”

In light of her stage-four diagnosis Ali’s treatment plan restarted, and her Dartmouth Health care teams, radiology at Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics in Manchester, to the chemotherapy and immunotherapy teams at Dartmouth Cancer Center, have once again been with her at every step.

“It is nice to know that my team and I share a vision,” she said. “We're all on board with getting me the most years that we can.”

Her most visited website, she half-joked, is the Dartmouth Health myDH portal: "I'm in constant communication with my care team, and that's something I really appreciate.”

The rounds of chemotherapy took their toll, and it wouldn’t be unusual for her to feel sick for 10 days post-treatment. “This chemo took over my life,” she said in a recent podcast episode.

Through it all, her friends have formed their own circle of support around her. “I think it's really important to surround yourself with people,” Ali said. “Also, I think harnessing optimism helps, [and] being able to get to the acceptance phase, that's important too.”

With her health as her focus and Annie as her reason why, Ali moves through life “with a hefty amount of optimism,” she said. She has to. “I do believe that I will take Annie prom dress shopping someday. I have to believe that I will be here for the long haul to see my daughter live an amazing life.”

The Next Lamppost

When people compare running a marathon to cancer, Ali is quick to push back. “A marathon has a defined finish line. A marathon is something you sign up for. You choose to do it. You want to do it. Living with cancer is not that.”

She prefers a different metaphor: “I think it's actually more like my running origin story, which was, can I run to the next lamppost?” Just the other day, she ran 10 miles.

She still records Ali On the Run Show episodes, announces races, and connects with people– whether it's a walk with a neighbor, or catching up at the trampoline park or lobby of Annie’s dance studio.

Cancer has a way of helping you see what’s in front of you. “I’m a big dreamer. There's a lot I want to do, but mostly now my perspective is so simple,” she said. “Just to enjoy every day that I'm with my daughter, and make sure that we are there for each other for as long as possible.”

Back when Ali was first diagnosed, the radiologist who delivered her results encouraged her to run the half-marathon she’d planned for, and traveled out of town to, even when she was having doubts.

“Even with this diagnosis, you're still you,” he told her. “‘And you can't forget about the things that make you, you,’” Ali said.

“I have clung to those words for three years,” Ali said. “For as much as cancer has taken from me, I do frequently remind myself that I am still me. I am still Ali Feller, mom, dog mom, runner, podcast host, broadcaster, friend, daughter, sister. I am still all those things.”

In June 2026, Ali announced on Instagram that her latest scan showed no evidence of disease. Quoting Taylor Swift's, “Long Live,” she wrote in the caption: “I’M NOT AFRAID.”