How a Breakup Can Lead to a Fitness Breakthrough

What starts as a remedy for heartbreak can help people reach athletic heights they’d never considered possible

Hilary Potkewitz

Jan. 7, 2019 9:38 a.m. ET

Paige Harley couldn’t have guessed that the path to recovery from the end of her second marriage would lead to the South Pole.

The 49-year-old mother of three from Nashville, Tenn., turned to running as a form of therapy in 2016, as she had after her first divorce.

“I didn’t know who I was outside a relationship. Running set me up to learn...