Name: Zelma Garza Salinas Age: 24 Hometown: San Francisco, California Occupation: Software Engineer Time Running: 12 years off and on, but consistently the last three years Reason for Running: I started running to lose weight, but now I run to take a breath from the stress of life. I have fun singing and dancing when I run. I started running during my freshman year of high school, during the summer of 2014. I was overweight, and I thought only thin girls deserved love.
Who doesn’t want to be loved? So I joined my high school’s cross country team as an “extra.” At first, running was humiliating, especially in front of others. I was dead last every time. But after a year of training, I shaved almost five minutes off my two-mile time. I was running fast. My teammates asked me, “how did you do it?” My classmates didn’t recognize me in the cafeteria. I poked my quads going up the stairs more times a day than I’d like to admit. I was on top of the world. I felt strong. Then in 2018, I was diagnosed with insulin resistance, and my weight peaked at 191 pound