Running and writing with Mirna Valerio

Today we are joined by another dream guest of mine - Mirna Valerio. Let me tell you a bit about her!

Mirna Valerio is a native of Brooklyn, NY, a former educator and XC coach, ultramarathoner, cyclist and skier, DEI facilitator, and author of the memoir, A Beautiful Work in Progress. 

She began running in high school, recommitted to the sport after a health scare in 2008 and started her blog Fatgirlrunning—about her experiences as a larger woman in a world of thinner endurance athletes— while training for her first marathon. 

Mirna's athletic story has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Runner’s World, on NBC Nightly News, CNN, and in the viral documentary short, REI Presents The Mirnavator.

Her writing has been featured in Women’s Running, Self, Outside, and Runner's World. In 2018 she was chosen as a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year; in 2019 was featured on GMA, and has since then appeared on the Kelly Clarkson Show, Access Daily, and The Today Show.

Her partners include LLBean, Ford Bronco, Lululemon, Salsa Cycles, Darn Tough Vermont, Hydro Flask, and Garmin.  She currently lives and trains in Vermont and is wholeheartedly enamored and obsessed with downhill skiing. 

Mirna and I talk about:

• Her journey from blogger to published author - as she writes about her running life
• Writing nonfiction and fiction
• Her current project about Black Joy and the natural world
• How she handles feedback and rejection 
• How she decided to write her first fiction novel during nanowrimo
• Wild writing
• Legacy

And so much more. We laugh a LOT in this one, and my sound definitely goes in and out so I'm sorry, but it was a great conversation and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

You can find Mirna on IG @themirnavator

Or head over to her website:  www.themirnavator.com

And you can learn more about me at https://www.safiyarobinson.com/