Wellness

How Mirna Valerio Is Making Running Accessible To Every Body

How do you complete a marathon? One mile at a time.

by Erin Kelly

In partnership with Ford, we’re profiling inspiring women who demonstrate the beautifully nuanced facets of what strength looks like today. Here, we’re meeting Mirna Valerio and hearing how she refuses to let negativity slow her down — both literally and figuratively. She is Built Ford Proud.

Mirna Valerio is no stranger to failure.

In 2017, she set out to run the TransRockies Run — a 120-mile, mostly-trail-and-mountain race in Colorado that takes place over six days and climbs nearly 20,000 feet in elevation — and failed. She made it through 75 of the 120 miles but came down with altitude sickness and was unable to finish.

Rather than accepting the loss, she used it as motivation. She signed up for the next year’s race, hired a running coach, and began training for a comeback with a calculated approach. She even went to Colorado three weeks beforehand to adjust to the altitude and trained up until the very day of the race.

“It was still hard,” Valerio admits. “And I still almost got pulled off the course by the same guy who had pulled me off the year before. But there was no way anyone was going to stop me from finishing. I had done all the work. Crossing the finish line was an incredible moment.”

That wasn’t the first time Valerio set her sights on a lofty goal that others didn’t believe she was capable of. Resiliency is a theme throughout her life as she takes on challenge after challenge. Sometimes, it’s her own drive pushing her forward, and sometimes, it’s doubt from others.

For as long as she can remember, people have had misgivings about her abilities, especially when it comes to her physical capacity. For many, it’s hard to believe a plus-sized woman like Valerio can climb a mountain, run a marathon, go mountain biking, and ski. She’s seen and heard it all: skeptical looks, raised eyebrows, and even verbal disbelief about the things she loves to do every day.

“I was at a school in Georgia, and I knew all the routes,” says Valerio. “I knew everything about running in that town. I knew all the hills. I’m a certified coach. And people would ask, ‘Where should I go for a run?’ And the school would tell them, ‘Ask Mirna.’ And they’d be like, ‘No, I want to run.’ Finally the school would [have to] tell them I was the head cross-country coach.”

Yet despite being constantly told (both explicitly and indirectly) that she doesn’t belong in the world of endurance sports, she continues to show up — both for herself and others.

“I’m always going to do what I want to do, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t have voices on my shoulder saying, ‘Oh, you really don’t belong,’” says Valerio. “I’m constantly fighting those voices, getting that skepticism off my back, and doing what I need to do for myself.”

To squash the negative voices, Valerio tries to focus on the people who have chosen to believe in her, like her high school field hockey coach. “The very first day I tried out for the field hockey team, I had never played a sport before,” says Valerio. “We had to run almost a mile to warm up, and I have asthma, so that was really tough. We had to do another mile, a timed mile. And then the rest of practice we did line drills, sprints. I see the coach popping over to different people, and I’m like, Oh no. This is it. This is where she tells me, ‘Thanks but no thanks.’ So she finally gets to me, and she goes, ‘OK, see you tomorrow.’ She actually let me on the team, and I was so grateful for that moment. I was committed. I started running the next day.”

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“There’s some very negative societal messaging about what a body needs to look like if someone wants to run and who deserves to call themselves a runner. But no one owns running.”

Eventually, Valerio became an athlete. “I loved getting up early and running and smelling the freshly cut grass,” she says. “It’s a whole sensory memory for me. After a while, I just kept running because I liked it.”

Valerio has finished 11 marathons and 14 ultramarathons, becoming the strongest version of herself. She works with top brands like Ford, serving as an ambassador of the Ford Bronco Sport. And she is a passionate advocate for making the running community more inclusive and for challenging stereotypes of what a runner should look like.

“There’s some very negative societal messaging about what a body needs to look like if someone wants to run and who deserves to call themselves a runner,” she explains. “But no one owns running.”

To share her love for the sport with others who may feel intimidated by intense track workouts and timed 5Ks, Valerio hosts trail running adventures for slow-paced runners who have traditionally been excluded from epic trail running camps, retreats, and adventures. Her next event is planned with Run the Alps, where attendees will run, hike, have spa days, and eat raclette after long days out on the trail near Mont Blanc.

“Rather than feel empowered by a particular pace, I think my events allow runners to feel empowered by the simple act of running, which is a movement we are designed to do as human beings.”

For those who are struggling to take the first step, Valerio recommends curating your social media feeds to follow running accounts that are inspirational and inclusive without being degrading or shaming to anyone, even if it’s in a jokey way. She also wants to remind you that you belong, whether you can run for an hour straight or run a little with a lot of walking breaks.

“It doesn’t matter how slow or how fast you’re going when you run,” she says. “A body that runs is a runner.”

Photographer: Rochelle Brock

Hair: Akihisa Yamaguchi

Makeup: Jaleesa Jaikaran

Creative Director: Julie Cid

Producer: Kandice Chavous

Production Manager: Nancy Valev

Art Directors: Allison Gore & Aoife Clancy

Designer: Aoife Clancy

Senior Branded Director: Lexi Novak