Candelaria Rivas Ramos, an extraordinary runner from Chihuahua, Mexico, stunned the world at the 2025 Canyon Ultra Marathon, winning the brutal 63-kilometer race in 7 hours and 34 minutes.

[u/Familiar-While9796]

[u/cellar_door_found]

The raramuris people are notoriously well known in the ultra marathon community. They live in high altitud and everyday walk/run several km up and down canyons

[u/asforus → u/cellar_door_found]

When I was in high school like 20 years ago my friend and I were getting ready for fall sports. We read about the Tajumarians and what they ate and how they ran (barefoot). So we made cornmeal milk drinks (tasted like ass) and ran around barefoot in the dark for a couple nights.

Best season of soccer I ever had in my life.

[u/Revolutionary-Key650 → u/cellar_door_found]

Do they run in a different way to "normal" athletes? I'm sure I saw something, somewhere a long time ago. The way their feet contact the ground. May even been some Native American tribe.

[u/BlueBicycle_ → u/Revolutionary-Key650]

It's probably the high altitude, living long-term in those conditions does some interesting things to your body

[u/Temporary_Event8451 → u/BlueBicycle_]

There is a reason altitude masks and body armor with weights are a thing.

Or that guy who speed trains with weights on his arms so he can grab something mid air.

Goggins I'm pretty sure does it from time to time.

Which is why exercising overweight sucks balls. You can have well over one hundred lbs of fluff on you, without the muscles needed to carry it in exercise.

The reality is that all the marketing does not actually give you the same real life advantages that always living in those conditions will.

[u/dogzi → u/Revolutionary-Key650]

Air is thin in higher altitudes, if you train in that environment your body reacts to the stress because it thinks you're running out of oxygen, so it produces more red blood cells to compensate for the lower oxygen. This makes your body more efficient at delivering oxygen, so once you go to a normal air environment to compete, you still have the elevated red blood cells but now there is elevated levels of oxygen in the air and so more oxygen is delivered around the body, increasing stamina and endurance. I'm sure someone more versed in physiology or medical terms can explain this properly.

[u/Overthinks_Questions → u/dogzi]

That's a good explanation. The effect is also remarkably short lived. If you spend a few weeks at low elevation, your body will adapt and the advantage fades

[u/iikarthikii → u/Revolutionary-Key650]

Soundman reference??????

[u/Gnomegnomegnome → u/Revolutionary-Key650]

Could be the shoes they were. Watched a video showing how barefoot shoes forces a different style of running compared to the super thick sole cushioned shoes.

[u/ellsego → u/cellar_door_found]

There’s the story of 1928 Olympics when a couple raramuri runners entered the marathon and finished in the back of the pack…when asked why they said “we were told this was a long race”…. This is probably only half true but part a fun story 😀

[u/AdLife6413]

Why stunned?? This is what these people excel at and are likely the best in the world at. Long distance running is a huge part of their culture. The book Born to Run goes into great detail about them.

[u/AGooDone → u/AdLife6413]

Born to Run also goes into wearing no arch shoes. Which I did for a couple years and it cured my ankle problems.

[u/f-150Coyotev8 → u/AGooDone]

I retrained myself to run as a toe striker after reading this book, and it completely got rid of all my knee pain, foot pain, and shin splints.

It’s been a while since I read it, but I think this tip was in the book: try running barefoot on concrete, and you will automatically land on your toes so you don’t smash your heal into the ground.

[u/Cocoononthemoon → u/AGooDone]

It saved me from lots of back pain!

[u/Great_White_Samurai → u/AdLife6413]

Hey buddy the post says they were stunned

[u/cncomg → u/AdLife6413]

I remember all these American white people running without shoes because they learned about these people and thought it was better because it was more natural and it was some stupid American phenomenon bs. And a film crew that were making a documentary showed a video of these Americans to the Mexican runner people and they were just basically like, That is so dumb, we run without shoes because we can’t afford them, we would love to run with shoes lol.

[u/Educational_Sir3783 → u/AdLife6413]

“These people”… wow

[u/youwigglewithagiggle → u/AdLife6413]

Yes. It's just one word, but it adds a very "but she's not even white or rich!" vibe

[u/Separate-Problem-270]

The raramuri ( tarahumara) people used to be well known for their hunting tactics.....they would just chase deer down until the deer cant run or walk any longer. They would literally chase it down until exhausted.

[u/Primary-Let-7933 → u/Separate-Problem-270]

Sure but that was nearly 100 years ago. It is exceedingly unlikely she or anyone she knows did persistence hunting. Currently, they just eat a lot of complex carbs, as in corn, beans, and squash is like 90% of their calories and run for everything.

[u/MyDoogieDaisy]

The pure joy on her face

[u/TheGivenKing → u/MyDoogieDaisy]

Girl just ran for 8 hours, the fact she's even conscious after finishing is crazy

[u/eternal_pegasus → u/TheGivenKing]

It took her 30 minutes longer than usual because of the crowds at the start, I'd be a bit upset too

[u/SealedRoute → u/MyDoogieDaisy]

I love that’s she’s so stoic and dressed in a flowy skirt and blouse, everything about this is peak.

[u/theLPguy → u/SealedRoute]

If not for her racers tag she would just look like someone who had stumbled into a marathon

[u/HyrrokinAura → u/SealedRoute]

She seems to have a walking stick, too!

[u/awomanphenomenally → u/MyDoogieDaisy]

I am mad they cut off her feet in the pictures. I am curious about what kind of shoes she used.

[u/why_not_fandy → u/awomanphenomenally]

huaraches

[u/GomGom11 → u/why_not_fandy]

From Putumayo I reckon.

[u/awomanphenomenally → u/why_not_fandy]

That is seriously hardcore. She must have great natural arches.

[u/thirdeyedesign]

the 100K course involves over 12,000 feet of elevation gain and over 16,000 feet of loss - there is no 63K distance

got the wrong race - the correct race has 2850m of vert so ~9300ft

[u/p1mplem0usse → u/thirdeyedesign]

The event description on Facebook says otherwise. There were three distances: 21km, 63km, 100km. Where did you get your information from?

[u/thirdeyedesign → u/p1mplem0usse]

I was looking at the UTMB one, makes sense this would be a Mexican race :D will edit my comment

[u/WakaWaka_]

Looks like she just did it as part of her routine and after was like "there was a race?"

[u/used_my_kids_names]

In a skirt. A SKIRT.

[u/ah_no_wah]

How old is she?

[u/flipper_babies → u/ah_no_wah]

30, I believe

[u/Vaanaram]

9 kms per hour. For more than 7 Hrs. Wow, thats simply amazing.

[u/RestepcaMahAutoritha]

Really bad ass to see some random villager take on supposed professional athletes and win.

[u/Canelosaurio]

Looks like she ran the whole race with that beat stick! I know there can be packs of feral dogs in some parts of Mexico

[u/d0npietr0]

Why is that so stunning? The 42km can be run in 3h even for hobby runners. So why is 63km in 7+ so good?