TikToker and first-time Boston Marathon runner has advice for those running in 2026
"Anything is possible. You just have to have the right mindset."
Liv Barbier ran the Boston Marathon for the first time Monday with the help of family, TikTokers, and tattoo markers.
The 27 year-old Brookline resident trained for months to get her body in shape, but said her mental state was just as important.
The former ski racer who posts her experiences on TikTok and has amassed more than 10,000 followers, said she heard some of those followers cheering for her on Monday and it was “so powerful.”
“The crowds and the energy definitely got me through,” said Barbier, who has only been competitively running for a year and a half. “I almost wanted to give up on those hills but I knew I couldn’t.”
Also motivating her was her family stationed along the route holding up colorful signs and her mother, who flew in from Italy to hug her at the finish line. Oh, and a couple of key phrases scrawled on the back of her hand.
Before the race, she inked four reminders on her skin using temporary tattoo pens: her goal time of 2:49; the word delusional (“which is like my mantra because you have to be a little bit delusional to go after these things,” she said with a laugh); “1-16, 16-21, 21-26” so she could break up the race into three chunks in her mind; and the “40% rule.”
About the latter, she explained, “It’s basically this concept that the Navy Seals use for pushing through pain. The idea is when you think your legs and your body have nothing left and you think you’ve emptied the tank, you actually are only at 40 percent and have 60 percent left. The mind actually gives up at 40 percent. That definitely helped me when I hit the hills.”
Barbier has learned a lot about mental toughness since her days growing up in Dover when she’d watch the Boston Marathon in Wellesley with her family as a little girl.
“It was always something in the back of my mind that I wanted to do, and I’m just so happy that I was able to do it and finish,” she said about those days as a marathon spectator.
But life took her out-of-state before she’d discover her passion for competitive running after moving back home to Boston in 2023.
She summed up her fitness journey in a TikTok video, which detailed how she danced and played competitive tennis growing up, had a rough college experience due to alcohol and weight gain, and then worked hard to get healthy before moving to Colorado and Jackson Hole, Wyo., where she became a ski racer and then a mountain bike racer. She starred in viral ski videos, snagged ski sponsorships, and hiked 15 14,000-plus foot mountains in one summer, but also endured an unhealthy relationship and two dislocated shoulders.
The injury sidelined her for a year and brought her home to Boston where she discovered her passion for competitive running. She got a job in software sales and joined Tracksmith Boston Hares, a Boston racing team for runners of all levels where she found camaraderie and support.
She won the Hyannis 10K in March and has run about 20 races of all different distances in the past year. Boston was her third marathon: She ran the Newport Marathon last spring and the California International Marathon in December.
“Anything is possible. You just have to have the right mindset,” she said.
She said she studied how to properly train for a marathon, hired a coach, and built up to running 70 miles a week before the Boston Marathon, preferring outdoor running even during the tough winter weather. She learned that training for a marathon requires time, consistency, and dedication.
Her TikTok account is focused on training strategy and “just believing in yourself and setting high goals,” she said. “I like to make it fun and light hearted.”
Barbier’s advice for those running Boston for the first time in 2026 is “soak it all in because it’s a day unlike any other day in Boston.”
“Of all the races I’ve ever done in any sport and the marathons I’ve done, this is just above and beyond anything I’ve ever seen,” she said about Boston.
She prefers listening to music when she runs, but when her AirPods died mid race, she said she wasn’t disappointed because the massive cheering crowd that filled every crevice of the sidelines pumped her up.
“Look around when you’re running,” she said. “Look at people’s faces, give people high fives.”
As for the running itself, she said she wished she was a little more conservative during the first 16 miles of the race and preserved more of her energy for the hills.
“Be patient and let it rip after the hills,” she advised.
Finally, make a day of it in Boston and go out with your family and friends after, she said, missing toenails and all (she lost a few on Monday).
“I would say it’s the most mentally challenging and mentally rewarding of all the sports and activities I’ve done in my life,” Barbier said. “Also, the community that is built around running is the strongest, especially in Boston.”
She’s happy with her finishing time of 2:53:46, though it fell shy of the 2:49:59 goal she had set.
“I’ve had some really hard, difficult lows,” Barbier said, her voice full of emotion. “I’ve dealt with really bad depression and I got to a point in my life where I thought I was not going to do anything meaningful and even getting out of bed was hard. I think that’s one of the reasons why I push so hard and inspire other people to do the same. Life is really tough and you just have to believe in yourself. Really incredible things can happen if you truly believe that you are strong.”
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com