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1. Mirna doesn't run to lose weight

Mirna runs huge distances, but her goal isn’t to get a "perfect" runner’s body. “It’s not about losing weight, it’s about gaining life,” she says. She’s always enjoyed running, but said it became a passion after a health scare in 2008. "I thought I was having a heart attack. I thought I was dying. After going through a battery of tests and doctors and whatnot, I got on a treadmill. That is what continued to give me life – the act of moving like humans are meant to move. The act of doing something for my mental health and physical health.”

2. She’s been The Mirnivator for 11 years

As her love of running grew, Mirna’s enthusiasm spread. “I started doing a lot of running and posting about it on Facebook,” she says. “People got inspired by it… My colleagues and friends from work would read my posts and say, ‘Hey, I’d love to work out with you’.” She was encouraged to write a blog, “so I needed a name for my social handles. [My friend] said, ‘Why don’t you call yourself The Mirnivator? You’re always motivating us to do something else with our lives… to take charge.'” And the name stuck.

3. She’s fat and fit and proud

Mirna is very passionate about showing people that body shape is not always an indicator of physical fitness. She wants everyone to celebrate what their body is capable of, not how it looks. “This notion of fit, we really do have to broaden our perspective on what it means,” she says. “When I named my blog Fat Girl Running, I got a lot of questions… ’Why don’t you call it Fat To Fit?’… I can swim for hours. I can run a marathon… I can play tennis for hours, then get back in the pool, then run again. I am fit.”

4. She's been trolled while running

Mirna tells Joe about the time she was in the last leg of a 50k race and she opened a notification on her phone. It turned out to be a horrible message from a troll. “The email said: ‘You are a fraud… You do fake running videos.’… How I was promoting this idea of fat acceptance that caused people to die.” Mirna was shaken, but luckily she had friends with her. “They said, ‘Put your phone away. You are doing the thing that he said you don’t do. You’re doing it right now!’”

When Mirna had finished the race, she posted a screenshot of the message on social media, where it received an outpouring of support and became a kind of rallying cry for people sharing stories of similar abuse. “You have to know that people are coming at you from their own darkness,” Mirna says, “I know that [message] didn’t have anything to do with me. Even though it was hurtful – it stopped me in my tracks literally – I had the wherewithal to not let that stop me.”

5. Bears on their hind legs are not being aggressive

Mirna lives in Vermont, Canada, where black bears are not uncommon. She says they’re never really an issue, thankfully, except for a time when she saw two bears while she was running a 50k. “I didn’t finish, because I saw bears,” she laughs. However, she realised that the two adolescent cubs were not actually out to hurt her. “My bear knowledge kicked in, after I stopped freaking out. I know what to do. I make myself look bigger. I know to not have eye contact. I knew intellectually that they wouldn’t bother me because they were on their hind legs. All that means is that they’re curious.”

6. She's training to run 100 miles in one go

The furthest Mirna has run so far is 100km, in a single day. “It took me all day,” she says. “It’s the longest time I’ve ever been on my feet.” She has also run 120 miles, at an altitude of 20,000 feet, over six days. In fact, she’s done that event twice. “The first time I went out, I didn’t finish it. The second time, in 2018, I finished it.” Her next goal is to train to run 100 miles in one go. “Physically, I think my body can do it. Mentally? I don’t know!” she laughs. “But I want to find out.”

7. She thinks confidence comes from curiosity

Throughout her conversation with Joe, Mirna projects easy, open confidence. She says that is something you have to work at. “I’ve always been very curious,” she says. “What I’m curious about, I do, and I don’t always think about the consequences… I think that’s where confidence comes from.” She says the more you try, the more confident you get: “In the act of trying, you’re practicing confidence.”

8. She can sing in four languages

At the end of the interview, Mirna shows Joe one of her other talents: singing opera. She’s a huge music lover, of everything “except EDM and country.” She loves to sing whenever she can and can perform in several languages: “Spanish; English, obviously; French; Italian.” She can also do a little bit of German.

9. She lives by routine, not motivation

Mirna says she doesn’t always enjoy going out for a run, but she knows how to make herself do it anyway: “I am not always motivated… Maybe one or two days out of the week I’m seriously motivated to go out. But I have this routine.” Because she knows that running is part of her daily routine, she does it as naturally as brushing her teeth or making the bed. “I know that I’m going to feel better when I start moving,” she says.