Vanessa Chavarriaga Posada shared her story with producer Stephanie Aguilar for an episode of The Daily Rally podcast. It was edited for length and clarity.
Even though I called my mentor up on the top of this pass, what was she going to do? Fly a helicopter to pick me up? There was nothing I could do because it was my own willpower that got me there, and it would be my own willpower that would get me down.
My name is Vanessa Chavarriaga Posada. Some of my friends call me Vane. I’m originally from Colombia, and went to school in Mexico. I’m currently based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. So I’ve been all over the place.
I did not grow up with any sort of sports whatsoever. I was very much inside reading books and afraid of going outside and getting hurt, and it just wasn’t culturally a tradition within my family. I think being immigrants, it just wasn’t one of our values.
In elementary school, people used to make fun of me for being the slowest at running. All of my life, I grew up believing I’m not a runner. I hated running. So when I moved to Wyoming a few years back, I decided to completely dispel that myth…
