Showing Up Counts With Lilia Martinez

Every runner has a starting line that didn't look like a starting line. For Lilia Martinez, hers looked like a dance floor. Ballet first, then tap, then jazz, the thing that finally stuck because it gave her room to move without a script. Running wasn't the plan. It showed up later, the way a lot of meaningful things do, in the form of a New Year's resolution with roommates and a half marathon she signed up for without fully understanding what she'd agreed to.

That's basically the whole theme of this one. Saying yes before you feel ready. Lilia talks about training through the Nike Run Club app, learning the sport from scratch with a coach on the other side of a screen in Mexico, and slowly building the kind of belief that doesn't stay contained to running. That belief turned outward into El Barrio Running, the community she co-founded in New York City two years ago that's grown from six runners to fifty showing up most Saturdays.

We get into structure versus freedom, dancer versus runner, and the imposter syndrome that convinces so many people to add a qualifier to their own accomplishments. I run, but I'm slow. I run, but I've never done a marathon. Lilia's answer to all of it: maybe the run doesn't need a qualifier. Maybe showing up is the whole point.

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@liliamas_

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