06/04/2025
💥ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT💥
🇨🇴 Meet Laura! She is 26 years old, a native of Colombia, and moved to Asheville in September 2024 to continue her studies in electrical engineering. (Side note: recently passed her electrical engineering certification exam! CONGRATS!)
Laura was always an athlete growing up, including playing basketball in college, but she did not begin her running journey until just 3 years ago. Though she loved basketball, she found it hard to continue after her college career ended, so on a whim she started group runs with work colleagues. She entered her first race, a 10K, which she finished in a very respectable 48 minutes. From there, she caught the racing bug, entering several half marathons (including finishing her first half marathon in 1:45 minutes). She’d never thought of herself as someone who would want to run a marathon, but it turns that is exactly what she did! With the help of a coach, she surpassed her goal of completing a sub-3:30 marathon when she ran the Medellín Marathon in 2024 in 3:27.
Laura found AWRC on Instagram, and decided to join us on a weekend long run in February. Initially, she felt intimidated by the idea of running with strangers of different abilities, as well as chatting in her second language while running. But we are so glad she overcame these fears because we’ve enjoyed getting to know her over these past few months! We were proud to cheer her on as she completed the very challenging AVL Marathon last March.
Laura has been such a great addition to our group, and we’ve enjoyed having her as a part of the club! If you have been thinking of joining us, but are intimidated by the idea of group runs, we hope Laura‘s story inspires you to GET OUT HERE and RUN WITH US! We promise you won’t regret it!
Buen viaje, Laura. ¡Esperamos vernos en el futuro! 🫶🏼
