Put on your shoes, and start running

“I am grateful for my legs, for my health. for my body…” Diandra Frias Miranda’s mind recites once again. She glances at her watch, she’s almost there – she’s run 18 miles now. Four hours have passed since she started running at 3 a.m. By this time it’s already 7 a.m and anyone that might run into her will see a blonde-haired girl with blue leggings, a black belt bag for her water bottle, a black sports bra, and a cap shielding a face that is lost in a fight.

Her mind is begging her to stop, to just walk, but she continues reciting her gratitude list with resolute perseverance. The cobbled-stone streets of Puerto Rico’s Viejo San Juan unfold before her as the finish line finally enters her line of vision. She can spot her friends with a neon pink banner that reads “FINISH.” It is January 7, the day my dear friend turns 20, and it’s the first time she's ever run twenty miles.

As a pre-med student at the University of Puerto Rico, sports have always been a necessary outlet for Frias Miranda. In 2023, she quit the university’s soccer team and decided that she was ready for a new challenge. Her running journey took off as she set herself the goal of running a marathon.

“I wanted to die,” Frias Miranda said, reminiscing about her first 5K, the breast cancer foundation Susan G. Komen’s annual fundraising event.

She’s been playing soccer since she was 7 years old, and this had granted her the discipline she needed to become a runner. And yet, the amount of physical endurance she would need for the races was incomparable to her typical soccer game.

This first race unlocked a door for Frias Miranda as an amateur runner. She learned that running was not an individual experience, but something she was sharing with hundreds of others. The banners and cheers from the crowd encouraged her every step as she began to cheer and scream back at everyone in the sidelines. 

“In the most difficult moments, seeing people is just the thing I need to keep going,” Frias Miranda said. The adrenaline and excitement encouraged her until the end. “So, maybe the first one wasn't the best for me, but I could do it all the way,” she said. From this moment she made her number one priority to “never stop.”

Before that 5k, Frias Miranda hated racing – “it wasn’t something natural on my part.” She had played soccer for most of her life. The challenge of getting better and winning with her team had always pushed her forward. She met her best friend, Laura Rosado Philippi, when she first joined soccer. 

“She was always super determined and very aggressive,” Rosado Philippi said. “That was good though, because she was a defender on the soccer field. We could all see that she just wanted to get better and she would get very frustrated if she did something wrong. She got good; never scared to hit the ball with her head. In our senior year, our soccer team started to drift apart because of college. But Diandra just kept going.”

After starting college though, Frias Miranda wasn’t certain if she wanted to continue playing soccer. She joined the university’s soccer team, but the dynamic was different. Problems within the team just proved to be an added stress in Frias Miranda’s already full pre-med plate. 

She decided to leave soccer, but being active had always been very important for her. Trying to keep her mind off the stress her team caused, Frias Miranda began to run before and after practice. With time, running became her new outlet. Her friends admire how “the only person she has to prove herself to is herself, not a coach,” Rosado Philippi said.

Frias Miranda grew to understand that running is all mental. “Your body can be begging you to give up and just start walking, but in the end, this is a ‘you vs. you’ problem you must take the reins of,” she said. Most recently her limits were tested this past February. A half marathon held since 1965 in Coamo, Puerto Rico, San Blas is celebrated as one of the hardest races in the island because of the slope named “Ajoguillo,” renowned for its 904 ft. elevation.

“The sun is already hot, and you’ve run 10 miles, just two more to go and then you take a turn and there is this massive hill daring you to just give up right then and there,” Frias Miranda said. “That’s the thing with all these harder races, because my body is begging me to give up and start walking. Stop, it hurts. So, the thing that has helped me the most when I'm in that situation is to list the things I'm grateful for. Whether it is for the strength in my legs or that I get to participate in these races in the first place or for having a mother that comes to all my races, the list always takes a new shape.”

Her progress in her running journey has also been fruitful in her day-to-day life. The same way she can triumph in a race, she’s now certain she can triumph in her personal and professional goals.

 “Since I started running over a year ago, my life has changed a lot because I believe in myself,” said Frias Miranda. “I know that I can do whatever I put my mind to. I know what I can accomplish.”

“On paper she can seem really intense, but she’s the funnest person to be around,” Rosado Philippi said. “She’s so smart, social, loud and fun. She’s unforgivably herself no matter what. She’s a social butterfly and I think that has really helped her create new friendships through running.” One of Frias Miranda’s goals is to create a community of runners. “It would be for anyone who’s interested – it could be the fastest runner but also someone that has never run in their lives but wants to try. It’s important to have people with the same goals because it just motivates you. And I want to create that space for myself and others to just get to where we want to go.”

With her eyes set on med school, Frias Miranda is determined to excel in her academics. Since she started running her grades have improved as well. If she can win a race, of course she can ace a biology exam. She even started an organization at her university, Student Society of Oncology, and has joined many other academic extracurriculars. Frias Miranda doesn’t see pursuing medicine as a daunting route, but the many years of hard work and dedication can appear to be endless.

 “I know that I'm always going to give 100% to this career. I'm not going to give up,” Frias Miranda said. “Running makes me feel like it’s possible.”

As Frias Miranda continues her bachelor’s degree in preparation for med school, she knows she has further to run. From the very beginning her goal has been to run a marathon, and she aims to match her pace and get into the renowned Chicago race this October. Running 20 miles for her twenty years symbolized a big step in her journey –  it was the most miles she’d ever set herself to complete.

“Seeing all of my friends there when I finished, that made me emotional,” said Frias Miranda. “For me, when I finish a difficult race, I'm out of my mind. Because about two years ago, I would never think I’d be able to run those distances. In life, you sometimes think that things are unattainable, or that you can't accomplish them, but everyone starts from somewhere. You know that everyone started at a certain point, and that’s where you are. The most important thing is to have discipline. Even if you don't want to for a few days, you get up from where you are, put on your shoes, and start running.”

Diandra Frias Miranda