Candelaria Rivas Ramos walked for 14 hours before running.
She had no running shoes, stopwatch, or coach. She had her usual skirt, a pair of handmade sandals called huaraches, and the habit of moving through the mountains as naturally as breathing. She left Choreachi with her husband and arrived in Guachochi, Mexico, exhausted, just to register for the Canyons Ultramarathon. She had never competed in a race like this, but her community encouraged her to try.
She ran 63 kilometers. She crossed the finish line in 7 hours and 34 minutes, first in the women’s category, carrying something more than her body: the Rarámuri tradition of running long distances as a way of life and, according to anthropologists, almost like a prayer.
“This victory is for my family”, she said as soon as she finished. She was not the first from her people to achieve it — in 2017, another Rarámuri woman had already won an ultramarathon — but every time it happens, the world once again wonders how they do it.