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Mirna: I was going to ski on the bunny slope, but it's closed. Oh, here's what you do. Hop on this lift. You are gonna take it to the top. Same thing as the bunny slope.

Paddy: I feel like I know, I know where this story is going. And I am so scared.

Mirna: So I, I am getting my big wedge and I make my big right turn. I'm seeing all these five year olds, maybe four year olds, maybe three year olds, just zipping by, oh, okay. Fine.

I'm fine. This is great. You know, there's five year olds. I'm gonna be okay. I was not okay.

Um,

Paddy: Oh God.

Mirna: all I knew how to do was wedge and turn. I didn't know how to stop. I'm going faster and faster and faster and I, I said, I am not gonna be able to stop and I'm going to run into a tree.

, so I made myself fall

I guess somebody called ski patrol because they came up to me in a snowmobile, , helped me untangle myself, and they said, Hey, we think your day on the mountain is over. And I said, you know what? I'm not even offended. I'm not even offended. I agree.

MUSIC

PADDY INTRO VO:

I call it [00:01:00] "Adult Beginnerism," the trying of new things, especially outdoor sports, during that time in your life when you sound like this when you sit down - Paddy grunt here - To me, challenging yourself and that voice in your head that tells you to stay within the safety of your comfort zone is the secret antedote to the creakiness of aging.

In the last few years, as I hovered around turning 40, I've taken on all kinds of sports that I felt for years my body and my heart weren't strong enough to handle. And I got served heaps of humble pie while routinely falling on my face. I loved every second of it. But the sport I loved the most was ultra running. I trained for 5 months for a 40 mile race from Crested Butte to Aspen, Colorado. It was the hardest, most rewarding physical pursuit in the mountains I've [00:02:00] ever done. And I wish I could tell you that it taught me, once and for all, that I'm capable of doing hard things. Buuuuut I still have to talk myself into a jog around my neighborhood. And I don't understand that.

But I know who does -- ultra runner and ultimate adult beginner Mirna Valerio

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Mirna grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where her outdoor time primarily consisted of running amuck in the city and playing field hockey and lacrosse. She ran to train for those sports but when she was out of school, she was out of a reason to train. Mirna started running again in her thirties. She began with a mile, then a 5K, then a trail half-marathon, then a full road marathon, then her first ultra. She started a blog called Fat Girl Running in 2011 to highlight the fun of the sport, not [00:03:00] as an activity to lose weight. In 2018, she left her teaching and high school diversity program job of 18 years to focus on running, writing, and speaking, and became known in the outdoor world as The Mirnavator, to the delight of her one hundred and sixty six thousand Instagram followers and the scorn of the single-celled gremlins in the hellscape of the comment section.

Despite the trolls, Mirna has taken up cylcing, mountain biking, and in 2021 she commited to learn to ski with such vigor that she just returned from a skier's dream trip to Chamonix, France. Learning to wiggle on the bunny hill is one thing, but excelerating from a never-ever to a cruiser of slopes adorned with views of Mont Blanc is astounding. Every step of the way, Mirna has had to combat that thing that keeps us all from stepping outside of the boundaries we [00:04:00] place on our lives. And I wanted to know how she's done that and what's at stake for all of us if we don't.

MUSIC

Paddy: First things first, burnt toast. What's your last humbling and or hilarious moment outside,

Mirna: On the mountain in Switzerland, I mean, who gets to ski in the Alps. And I get food poisoning

really badly.

Paddy: Oh, no.

Mirna: had had two days before.

Paddy: we're friends. We can talk like this. Are we talking barfajahoos

Are we talking like Switzerland booty strudel? Is this,

is this what we're, is this what we're talking about?

Oh God.

Mirna: Strudel booty.

Paddy: Don't try the

Mirna: yeah, I barely made it to the bathroom to vomit,

Paddy: Oh my God.

Mirna: And at one point I just took my skis off and boot packed it. I think they were worried about having to maybe evacuate me off the mountain. It was that bad. , and then I skied down the first part of the mountain where it looks really glorious '

but as it flattened out, it cambered

to the left. And I just [00:05:00] kept toppling over. We were staying at this hut, with a bunch of monks. It was a, monastery. And since Monk kept skiing past us, I'm like, am I on tv?

I, what is going on?

Paddy: This like a Monty Python sketch

Mirna: I was so dizzy and so dehydrated and so they had to basically hold me up and sometimes they took my skis and my pack and, you know, , something that should have taken maybe 15, 20 minutes down the mountain, it took me an hour and a half and I was able to ski the last sort of quarter mile, I already made a plan to go back next year and do the same thing.

not eating oysters it was very humbling. Humbling in that I had no choice but to accept help.

Paddy: Well, luckily comedy is just tragedy plus time. And the moral, the story here is always ski with friends and don't eat the oysters, pals..

Mirna: Don't the oysters , . It's either a good experience or a good story and the story's just getting better as I get further away from the experience.

Paddy: Exactly. All right, let's get into it.

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. You were [00:06:00] first introduced to what you described as the big outdoors, which I love that phrase, at a summer camp in the Catskills when you were an 8-year-old living in Brooklyn. And up to that point, you were an outdoor kid, right?

As any, suburban or city kid is, which I understand growing up in the shadow of, Chicago, you know, like you ride bikes and you go to parks and you, , play sports. , maybe it's not so much like I'm going to the outdoors. It's like I'm going outside of my house,

which is, you know, syntax. But, there is something meaty in the difference there. Looking back now, do you think that you felt an appreciation or connection to the outdoors as a kid and you just had kind of like liChamonixd access to what you described as the big outdoors?

Or do you only realize later as you pursue trail running, ultra running, skiing, cycling, all these sports in your adulthood, that there are some things that you can only learn by getting yourself onto mountains and into the woods?

Mirna: Oh wow. Wow. [00:07:00] That is a great set of questions.

Paddy: Well, thank you.

Mirna: Our experiences, and I, when I say our, I'm talking about not just, you know, urban kids in general, but like my family in particular, I was one of the older ones and so , we had to watch over the younger ones and they were cousins and brothers and sisters and, friends, and we would all travel around in a pack.

We'd be. Basically kicked out of the house at around eight. In the summertime,

We would all go to free breakfast at a local public school. Sometimes we went to three or four different schools,

and then we would go to neighborhood parks and we had the agency, , to just sort of take care of ourselves. We'd go to parks, we would play, , we'd bring lunch. Sometimes we had a dollar or something, and we'd buy something at the corner store, as we say in New York. . Or bodega and then we just take care of ourselves all day.

And you cannot tell me that that experience is much different than being on a [00:08:00] mountain because there are definitely transferable skills that I learned being an urban kid, being outside all the time. You have to rely on yourself and you have to have skills

to take care of emergencies. You need to know how to, , bandage someone that has flown off of a swing,

um, because they were trying to go over the top bar.

That wasn't me, that was my cousin. So, but you have to have all of those skills. You have to have leadership skills. You have to know when to shut up and listen to other people.

You have to know how to make decisions.

And you have to have a sense of adventure and a sense of exploration because we were all over Brooklyn we'd be miles and miles away from where we lived, walking. Or, you know, sneaking on the back of buses or we would go to the open fire hydrants and get wet. , there were so many things for us to do. We just knew how to entertain ourselves. I just remember being on the ground, like crawling around in the grass, digging up worms, and then finding like peanuts growing in the park, around the corner. And then [00:09:00] sometimes, like we found ourselves in the faraway , Highland Park in Brooklyn, where there was more green space and more grass, and there were like little trails and stuff in the back. And we would be curious and we would go explore those things. Same thing.

That lends itself very, very nicely to me being at camp, , at eight years old in the Catskills where I didn't even want to come back home to Brooklyn 'cause I had such a good time. you know, and that Sense of exploration. Was a benefit, it allowed my curiosity to kind of be fed. I think all of that is, interrelated. Obviously they're very mountain specific and they're very sort of like the great outdoors specific skills that one must have.

But I think a sense of exploration, adventure, , leadership, , listening to your intuition, and I think I would not be as good as I am in the outdoors without having experienced those things in the city.

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Paddy: I am a begrudging runner mostly. I say that I am a long jogger for the purpose of eating more snacks. , and at the very core level of my personhood, I am shackled [00:10:00] to sensation, especially my emotional self. You know, like it feel good, Paddy run to it, it feel bad, Paddy run from it. Like physically and emotionally, but that is like diametrically opposed to running. I don't know if I've ever been on a road run or a trail run and thought like, wow, man, I just love the current way. I feel like I love this sensation. Give

me more of it. So with that in mind, why is running your thing.

Mirna: You know, there are definitely those moments that I feel like, why am I doing this? Everything

Paddy: 80 miles into an ultra and you're

like, ow, ow, ow. And I

Mirna: This sucks.

Paddy: Yeah. But you love it. And to me, even though there's like so many hard bits in your runs, like you just seem like this very joyous runner.

Mirna: I do get joy from it. And that, you know, I'll tell you about a recent experience that I had at the, , trans Rockies, Moab Run the [00:11:00] Rocks. It's a three day race. I don't wanna call it a, I mean, I, I think it's technically a race, but I don't want racing. Um, and I only did one day after I did the first day.

I was like, I'm just gonna hang with my friends and feed them. , I hadn't really been running. And actually I had been skiing at Park City that week and also doing a darn tough Vermont shoot for my Mirnavator sock. 'cause I have my own sock now. And I was really tired.

I was really, really tired. I didn't even know if I was gonna get through the first day. It was nine miles. Mostly on slick rock and loose sand.

super fun, super difficult. , I start at the back. I knew I was gonna be probably the last person, and that was okay. I was okay with that.

And I struggled a little bit on this hard Jeep road. , we make a right, we drop onto the trail. My body and my, mindset just instantly changed. I'm like, this is where I'm supposed to be.

I love technical trails.

I love the challenge of it. I love the way it makes you work your entire body in all different planes. and I just [00:12:00] passed the three ladies that were in front of me, I felt like a mountain goat. and then one of my friends, her name is Ally Solomon, says, this is where Mirna excels.

And I was just, you know, hopping from rock to rock. And I was like, thank you. Wow. cause that's exactly how, I felt in that moment. Did it last? No, um, because 10 minutes later they were ahead of me again, and then they finished like a half an hour ahead of me. And those are the moments I chase even, it could be like 10 hours of absolute .

Misery, but. That feeling of flow, that feeling of being in the zone of, of feeling like I am where I am supposed to be right now, right this moment, then I'm, gonna keep doing it.

And that's, what running is and. It's that sort of thing that I'm always looking for and that, that I'm always hungry for when I'm on the trail.

Paddy: Katie Arnold calls it brief flashings, and it's like, it's like these little, , tiny moments that are explosive,

right? Where it feels like all of the things, everything in me, [00:13:00] around me, surrounding me, through me, from the past, from the future, from the present, it all combusts in this giant, , emotional, kaboom. Is that what it is?

Mirna: That's exactly what it is,

and it doesn't last very long,

Paddy: No, but it keeps you coming

Mirna: yes, it's strong enough and just sort of poignant enough that you keep wanting it. You keep wanting to come back to that

even though you have to wade through a lot of pain

feel like I'm , now at a point in my trajectory, , where I, I don't have to impress anybody. I really don't have to impress myself.

I can do what I need to do for my body and for my mental and emotional wellbeing. Sometimes there's, fierce emotional stuff that happens and I welcome it. , I work out a lot of things in my head.

. A lot of my sort of relationships, friendships, , things that are going on in my life on a run, and I know that those things are gonna come up along with physical pain or, , anger.

And it's reflected in the body. And then the body reflects the emotional [00:14:00] state of being.

Paddy: trail running, I think is a paradox because the thing that I love about it is also the thing that I, despise about it. That running is hard. but for me, a very powerful thing happens in the hard bits of running. I'm put toe to toe with that monster

in my head that I think I've dealt with my whole life. This thing that does a great impression of my voice tells me to stop or I'm not good enough, or everyone's gonna laugh at you. , when big physical efforts become big emotional efforts, I get the chance to overcome that voice and that is the thing that I love. Is that part of what you are finding out on the trails? Is that part of what you love about running?

Mirna: Yes. And you know, I, I have so many stories

Paddy: Lay it on me.

Mirna: and this, this actually wasn't on the trail. This was when I was doing a VO two max test. Have you ever done those

Paddy: mean, every time I go uphill on a trail, I feel like it's a VO two max

Mirna: on your watch? 'cause that's what

Paddy: swallowed porcupine covered in hot sauce, and I hate [00:15:00] everything happening. Oh God. you know.

Mirna: Hyperventilating already. So I was doing a VO two max test, my very first one, in preparation for the Lululemon further event that I did last March. We are in a lab your nose is clipped, so you can only breathe through your mouth and you have this big tube attached. And you're trying to breathe simultaneously and run.

And every three minutes you jump off and they take a lactic acid sample from like a blood sample, and then you jump back on , and then you're at next level of speed.

So. And,

As soon as you sort of falter or, or ask for a break, it's over. And I lasted 12 to 13 minutes

I was spent very quickly

and I was embarrassed and sad and very frustrated

I'm not a big crier, but there are all these people watching me and there are all these like lab technicians and researchers around , all of these speeds I run at, all the time. And so, but there was this added stress of like, this is really serious.

There are cameras all over you. and I started crying, like [00:16:00] a big ugly cry with snot and everything. I'm like, I'm so embarrassed. And, but I'm mostly, I'm just really frustrated in that the lead researcher was like, well this is very emotional. And I hadn't really connected that to my emotions, you know, just like in an explicit way.

He's like, there are big emotions that come out of trying really hard and feeling like. You failed and feeling like you can't do something or that you disappointed yourself or you disappointed other people. And normally I don't care about those things. But I definitely felt the pressure and I was, very upset.

And I try to hide from the cameras too. Somebody that loves being, on camera, I was trying to hide from the camera is like a reality show.

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I do get emotional out on the trail mostly. , there are two emotions that I feel , I feel elated

and so filled with gratitude

and some of the time I'm like, why do I even do this? Because this is so hard. .

Am I too old to be doing this? Like, am I ruining my body? Uh, and there's like a lot of doubt. [00:17:00] Sometimes I, I do it anyway, but the doubt is always there. ,

Paddy: You wrote an essay. A couple years back about your first time running the 120 mile Trans Rockies race, and one part really stood out to me. You wrote, there's little else that can give you the sense of self-empowerment, strength, self-trust and self-knowledge, like having to reconcile yourself with your base physicality.

It allows us to be connected to what the human body is built to do, to move forward and arrive where we need to be not only sweaty and fatigued, but wiser, stronger, and more human. Okay, first of all, kaboom. Rude. Rude. That you're able to write that, , very upsetting to me as a writer also. Wow, that's beautiful. How does the confrontation with our base physicality make us wiser, stronger, and more human?

Mirna: First of all, thank you.

I remember [00:18:00] exactly what I was thinking. while writing this, my book was coming out a few months after I wrote that. And REI had just done this, film. REI presents The Mirnavator and I had been invited to this race that I didn't finish, that I couldn't finish.

, I wasn't prepared for the altitude. The photo that particular article was of me, , getting up to Hope Pass in Leadville

and uh,

Paddy: is like scratching the sky.

Mirna: it's 12,000, what?

12,600 feet up in the sky.

And I was really struggling and there was a lot going on, emotionally, physically, was struggling,

and going much slower than I thought I was going because at some point, you know, I'm not a contender for anything. So I'm with the sweeps amazing people. They're like, grab onto our poles.

We're just gonna pull you for like two switchbacks. They pulled me and I'm like, oh my goodness. I was just so spent, [00:19:00] like physically and emotionally, I was so angry at being so spent. , I was feeling exactly the same way in mind, body, and spirit.

And I had to confront that we have these brains and this bank of emotions that are intimately tied with our physicality.

And it like, and it was kind of like homeostasis.

Like everything was like in the same plane.

I was angry, my body was hurting and angry with me. And spiritually I was like, what am I doing?

Paddy: Yeah.

Mirna: What am I doing? but I was also grateful because here I was in this expanse. I could see all these peaks. And I was at this a point that I'd never been at. And then I got to run down. , and I love running down technical trail. I love that.

And then I was pulled off the trail, pulled off that the course when I got to the bottom.

I got into my head. I'm, I'm think seriously, like really angry And then finally my mind quieted, my body quieted, and I just started hiking out.[00:20:00]

And then we get to the trailhead to wait for another medic to come pick us up. I'm sitting down, I start getting in my head again. I start crying, and then I get a ping on my phone. It's a Facebook messenger message from my mom and my mother we had worked on going to the gym that was around the corner from her apartment. , because she had thought that gyms were referred skinny white people, but she is neither. I took her to the gym and I taught her how to use a treadmill, the StairMaster and the elliptical. And she had never been there by herself. I had always gone with her. And so she's, texting me , this message. She says, Hey, , just hoping that your race is going okay. I hope you're having a good time in the mountains.

I just wanted to let you know that I went to the gym by myself. , I did the 15 minutes on the treadmill, the 10 minutes on the, elliptical, and five minutes on a stupid stare thing you told me to do. God bless, hope to be back here on Friday. Hope you're having a good day. Love you.

And at that moment, all the stuff that I was feeling at the top of that pass [00:21:00] and at the, this trail head at the bottom, all of them went away

Paddy: Hmm.

Mirna: because at that moment I knew that whatever I was doing was the right thing.

And that if that got my mom to a place where she was confident enough to go to the gym by herself.

And just kind of delight in that, , I was where I was supposed to be.

PAUSE PAUSE MUSIC IN THE CLEAR FOR A BEAT

PADDY VO:

But what if being mindful also means falling down...a lot. That story from Mirna Valerio after the break.

MIDROLL MIDROLL MIDROLL

Paddy: most people know you as an endurance runner, but I wanna know what is your favorite thing to do outside, and why is it skiing?

Mirna: I love running I love cycling. , but my newest and deepest love is for alpine skiing.

Who to thunk, who to thunk.

Paddy: You know, I, I judge a lot of my outdoor activities by like the gauge of yippee, and the yippee [00:22:00] factor with skiing is through the roof.

Mirna: It's that it absolutely is a very large percentage of why I love skiing, but also the challenge of it.

There's always something to learn. And also because I started skiing like really, and consistently at the age of 45 and, the instructor that I work with, his name is Guy, , from Jersey.

And,

Paddy: Love it. So

Mirna: and, uh, he said, , you are a rare student. Most people come and they, might take one lesson a year if they do at all. , , but most adults don't continue to study.

And I, approached it like studying. I would have a lesson or two for each week, and then I would go out and practice it feeds my brain. , I think in significant ways. It also feeds my body and it feeds my spirit, you know, I mean, I just love it.

Paddy: One of the things I love about adult beginnerism is the continued force you have to put toward being vulnerable.

Especially like the trying of new [00:23:00] sports with, , the patina of a certain vintage,

which I so understand and so appreciate. , and a few years ago, you not a skier, were like, Hmm, I am going to ski. What made you try skiing for the first time ever in your forties?

Mirna: So, actually it was in my late thirties that I tried skiing for the first time, and that was back in New Jersey, I just was curious and I signed myself and my son up for lessons at Vernon Mountain, mountain Creek, so we go have these lessons on Saturdays. He goes with the kids, I'm with the grownups, the instructor was like, well, you're really athletic. I'm like, I know. Thanks, uh, I'm having a great time with my big wedge and my big pizza making turns

A couple of weeks later, it's spring break for me, not for my kids. So I'm home by myself. I have this time on my hands. I'm gonna go use , the passes that I have to go practice the skills that I learned in those lessons.

So I head up to Mountain [00:24:00] Creek and it's a little, it's, you know, warm down at the bottom and the bunny slope is closed. That's where I was planning to ski,

right? What am I supposed to do now? I'm like, ugh. Frustrated and, and kind of angry that I drove an hour and a half all the way up to the mountain.

so I see a lifty. . Hey, can I help you? Well, I was going to ski on the bunny slope, but it's closed. Oh, here's what you do. , hop on this lift. You are gonna take it to the top. Get off, hang a right. Same thing as the bunny slope.

Paddy: I feel like I know, I know where this story is going. And I am so scared. I'm so scared right

Mirna: So, so it's a little ice, it's a lot icy, right? And I had never been on a lift before, so I managed to get on a lift. I didn't fall. And he says, hang a right?

So I, I am getting my big wedge and I make my big right turn. I'm seeing all these five year olds, maybe four year olds, maybe three year olds, just zipping by, , oh. And their parents are there. They're zipping by, oh, okay. Fine.

I'm fine. This is great. You know, there's five year olds. I'm gonna be okay. I was not okay.

Um,

Paddy: Oh God.

Mirna: all I knew how to do was [00:25:00] wedge and turn. I didn't know how to stop. Well on the bunny slope. You just stop because there's no, there's almost no slope. . Well, not so on this very narrow, very windy, icy run. I'm going faster and faster and faster and I, I said, I am not gonna be able to stop and I'm going to run into a tree.

, so I made myself fall but then I kept sliding, so I slid into,

Paddy: a terrible thing to happen to a skier.

Mirna: I still slid into the trees

and I got tangled

Paddy: Oh

my God.

Mirna: the run.

I guess somebody called ski patrol because they came up to me in a snowmobile, , helped me untangle myself, , put me in the snowmobile. I wasn't hurt, I was just embarrassed. And, and it was also kind of funny and they took me back to the top of the lift and they said, Hey, you know what?

We think your day on the mountain is over. And I said, you know what? I'm not even offended. I'm not even offended. I agree. He said, [00:26:00] kudos for trying, , come back next season, you'll have a better experience.

And I'm like, thank you so much.

, rode the lift down to, to the bottom, and the lift was like, what happened? I'm like, I don't wanna talk about it.

Paddy: How did you, did you just headbutt him? How

did you not at least dance fight him or

Mirna: I got out, I got outta my skis and I left. I like returned all my rentals and I left 10 years later.

Paddy: It only took me a decade, . Hey Lifty, you're out there, we're gonna find you. We are gonna find you. I can't believe though, you even went back.

Mirna: I said, well, you know what, I'm gonna, I'm gonna try skiing again. I Get an email from Jen Gurecki from Coalition Snow.

She's like, I want you on my skis.

Huh? Uh okay. Um.

Paddy: , have I told you about a tree in New Jersey? I should probably warn you.

Mirna: Mirna, the lifty, the ice and the snowmobile. [00:27:00] That's,

Paddy: Is that your

version of the lion? The witch of the wardrobe.

Mirna: yes, exactly.

The Chronicles of New Jersey.

So we have a call. I'm like, you know, funny thing, I don't really ski. I would love to really learn. So she's like, so what do I need to do? How much do I need to pay you? And I'm like, oh, we're talking money now. Okay, so here's what we're gonna do. , then I immediately had a plan.

Paddy: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I get that.

Mirna: So I said,

okay, get me a season pass to my local mountain, which is Bolton Valley you get me lessons twice a week I will story, my learning process and progress on Instagram, and I'll write a blog post or something

and she's like, great. She sent me skis and then I had to learn about the whole process of getting bindings and boots and all the other things that are required, , to ski.

And it's a lot, you know, and I think even that would scare people away.

And so they paired me up with guy

who has been my instructor since early 2021.

And I love him. , he's incredible. He's amazing. And he would come to my lessons with a lesson plan. And, that has been a life changing relationship.

Paddy: What was the [00:28:00] moment when it went from like, oh my God, I'm huffing and puffing, , like putting boots on and I'm forgetting them in the car , how am I supposed to carry my ski?

Is it this, when did it, like, click?

Mirna: It took a whole season. . I'm pretty intrepid, but I, I do have some fears, but I, I'm pretty adventurous and I'm not afraid of falling.

You know, I felt a lot, a couple of times. She's like, oh, okay, well get up. and then at some point it did click. I learned over the course of that season, how to do all the things right outside and negative 80 degrees and. I just went out there on my own.

I practiced and I practice, you know, not looking at my skis and, you know, looking down where I wanted to go, y yada yada.

, and then I was out there like in the spring, I was by myself this is it. This is what I wanna do. Look at where I get to be

like, look at where I get to be,

you know, look at how I get to use my body,

Paddy: one of the most challenging parts about being a beginner is dealing with a voice in your head that says, you suck at this. You're not gonna be good at this.

And the fear of looking stupid, especially looking stupid in public,

, has your experience standing up to the [00:29:00] trolls, the dick-a-lopes of the internet, who have come after you, just for being an athlete, enjoying yourself and helping others

enjoy themselves outside.

Has that helped you combat the internet trolls

Mirna: whew. It, you know what it has. , and it's a practice. If I were someone who didn't have the experience of always being vulnerable and always like thinking to myself, well, I look stupid and like, I, I look like an idiot. if that weren't normal for me,

then I think I would have a harder time dealing with the trolls.

Those trolls, like whether they're, , internet trolls or like real people or, or bots, they all know me.

They don't know me, they don't know what I do. They see what they see on, on Instagram. They don't know how much work goes into it. They don't know, what it takes to do what I do. And so they are inconsequential. That's not to say that those things don't hurt.

Paddy: Yeah.

Mirna:  They absolutely hurt. I have a, physiological reaction

to when someone says, oh, well you're gonna make a hole in the [00:30:00] slope.

Paddy: Oh god, dude.

Mirna: but then, you know, it hurts for a little bit and then I make fun of it and then I post it on Instagram so other people can make fun of it and then I'm gonna move on.

Paddy: Does that type of exercise help you deal with that voice in your head.

Mirna: Absolutely, absolutely.

Move on. Okay. I'm be a jerk to myself.

I can say whatever I want to myself and I allow it, I allow myself to feel the things that I need to feel, and then I move on. It's the only way I cannot get stuck mired in it, because if I get stuck, and mired, then I can't move on. you know

Paddy: And you can't do the thing.

Mirna: Yes. And then like when you're not moving, you die.

And I think that's a physical thing, but I like if, but it's also an emotional thing. If you're not moving, you are dead.

Paddy: Yeah. There's no such thing as standing still. Right. You're

either moving forward or you're moving backward and

Mirna: exactly. Or toppling over to the left on the slope. Um, when you don't have any energy.

PAUSE PAUSE

Paddy: The late great ski legend, Shane McConkey always said that the funnest thing about any sport is the period of time when you're going from being a beginner to being an intermediate, because he enjoyed the [00:31:00] process of figuring things out so much and felt that that window was when you had the most breakthroughs, the most frequently.

I'd love to hear your reactions to that. If you agree with it or if you relate to it.

Mirna: oh. I absolutely agree with every part of that, , sentiment. I'm still having so much fun, even though so many things are so hard, going from doing. Blues and what, whatever they call double blues out, west to your first black runs. going from your first groomed black runs to the un groomed black runs or double blacks.

Or when your friends say, oh, you'll be fine. , and they take you out on some crazy, , un groomed, just really bumpy run and then you just do it and it's hard. It's really hard.

But then at that moment, what I love about the whole learning process is that now I know I have the skills to do this. It is scary. There is a chance that I will fall I know that I have these skills , I ski with [00:32:00] people who have been watching me, watching my learning process from the beginning.

They know my skiing better than I do. And they said, we're gonna take you on this run. It's, it's hard, but you can do it. And sometimes it's a, , tough love. Well, you're here now. Just do it. Drop in. Oh, I'm dropping. Just drop the F in. Just drop in, you know what to do. And then, and then it turns out that I do know what to do.

And so there's, that hesitation and, then there's that realization that, oh, I have been working on these skills. I have practiced. I'm not going in without experience and without knowledge and without practice. And so the time to let go and that moment is, one of the moments that I live for, actually getting to utilize the things that I've worked on that's exciting. And it just like keeps feeding my brain and I keep wanting more.

Paddy: Does that trust in yourself and working toward, , a goal incrementally, does that translate itself to your indoor life?

Mirna: Well, it keeps me wanting to learn, like, I'm always reading, I'm always, uh, just trying to learn new things. �����ԹϺ��� of being, you [00:33:00] know, a sponsored athlete , , I do not say influencer, I say possibility model.

Paddy: Ooh, I like that.

Mirna: Because I show people what different possibilities there are for like living a really good

Paddy: Mm-hmm.

Mirna: And leaning into that. , I do a lot of work shopping. I do a lot of speaking.

And so like, I'm always looking for. That extra thing, you know, whether it's a new kind of workshop, , whether it's calling DEI something else, like, you know, because that's what I do professionally.

Paddy: Yeah. Yeah.

Mirna: You know, I'm always looking for the excitement of learning, the excitement of finding something new or, , of viewing something in a different way or in a different perspective.

And yeah, absolutely translates into that. There's the adventure, physical adventure, , geographical adventure. There's also , the adventure of the mind. And I love that.

PAUSE PAUSE PAUSE

You always have to zoom out. And look at the big picture. The big picture is that everything is a very long, drawn out process and you just have to be patient

the same thing with anything, any sort of change that we want, any sort of [00:34:00] progress in any areas of our lives, that is what is necessary. patience knowing that it's gonna take a long time and grit.

PAUSE PAUSE

Paddy: you commit yourself to really learn to ski in 2020.

You just got back from Chamonix, like this is a dream trip. did you have like a pinch me moment? I've been there one time and I have never seen a mountain town with more people on crutches and in like knee immobilizers. Like it is an intimidating place, man. Like, like it is. For real, for real. And you just went there that doesn't happen. You do realize that right?,

Mirna: Well, let me tell you, let me tell you that there was a lot, I had a lot of fear going in I've been to Chamonix a couple of times before for trail running, bringing ladies out there to work with Run The Alps and to have like amazing experiences.

But I really wanted to go ski. , 'cause everyone's like, you gotta go ski in Chamonix. And I get there and I'm like, I didn't even know where to go. ' now I have to like, utilize all my grownup skills to like figure out how to [00:35:00] get to a ski area.

So, so I go down to the desk, Hey, um, what do I need to do? I wanna go ski. They're like, oh. They're like, are you a skier? Uh, I am okay, so you go to the bus, it's uh, 400 meters and uh, and then you go and you get on the bus and you get done where do, and then he showed me an, showed me a map

I find my way to the bus, get on the bus, and, and I just get off where skiers get off.

Paddy: I'm gonna follow that dude with the ski poles. Yeah. Okay, cool.

Mirna: I'm just gonna get off here. Hopefully they're not all going on , back country expeditions

Paddy: Yeah. Yeah. Don't follow the guy with the harness on outside of his ski pants

Mirna: ice, and the ice ax. Like,

Paddy: Don't follow that guy. That guy is not the guy to follow.

Mirna: And I get there and I have a phenomenal time. I, you know, tend to like do the same two runs over and over again because I'm like, I'm not, I don't know where I am really. I, I really didn't know where I was

Paddy: Yeah.

Mirna: and I'm just gonna have a good time and I'm gonna eat some raclette,

and I'm just gonna, be, I'm just gonna be, you know, and I skied , , [00:36:00] the snow was great. I felt really strong and powerful. I felt like I knew what I was doing. I was like, I, again, I'm in the right place at the right time. This is what I'm supposed to be doing right now.

And then when I was done, I, I got back on the bus. , and I did the same thing the next day and I got on a different bus and I just got off when skiers got off.

Paddy: God, I love that so hard.

Mirna: But there, there's that sense of adventure again, not much different than when I was growing up in Brooklyn. , we just explored.

We were like, okay, well we have a whole day. Let's just go,

Paddy: And so are you in these moments, like are you jettisoning the. Intimidation factor or the fear,

Mirna: all of the above.

I have the fear with me. It's living with me. It is on my shoulder. It's on both shoulders. But I also give myself room to quit , if I'm not feeling great about something, uh, it's okay for me to turn around. It's okay. I'm in Chamonix. There are other things that I could be doing. I could just be eating cheese all day and that's fine.

Paddy: Almond croissants

Mirna: ex Exactly.

or oysters don't do that.

Paddy: Don't do the oysters. the croissants. Don't do the oysters.

Mirna: PUASE PAUSE

Paddy: [00:37:00] You don't let the fear keep you away from experiences, but you still allow it to inform your intuition, which is like, how do you thread that needle?

Mirna: the fear is there, it's always present. It's always, always present.

Confidence does not come naturally to most people, and confidence is faith in oneself and that faith in oneself comes from experience and precedent , number one, I know that I can ski, Number two, I know that I can ski steep runs. , number three, I know that I can speak French. Okay? Number four, like I grew up in a city. I know how to navigate buses and public transportation this is an adventure, right? I just did a speech, , this weekend to a school, a K through five school, , we were talking about, being a, superhero or feeling like a superstar.

And I was like, when people make you feel like a superstar or superhero, like it allows you to dream big and to kind of step out of your box. And I had to let them step out of the box of their every [00:38:00] day. Right. And that's how I felt. I felt I was like stepping out of the box of my every day, which is a practice, , that I welcome.

Paddy:  As you are the President of the East Coast chapter of the League of Adult Beginners. What's at stake if we don't try new things?

Mirna: never progressing. That is what is at stake. Never progressing as human beings, both individually and in community with others.

Paddy: Hmm.

Mirna:  Anything that's interesting or really cool. , any sort of like scientific advancement, any social advancement, cultural advancement, those are all from people taking chances and stepping outside of their comfort zone and learning something new.

So when that doesn't happen, when you're not learning, you're just dying. I wanna stay alive as long as I can.

PAUSE PAUSE PAUSE

Paddy: It is time for the final ramble. One piece of gear you cannot live without.

Mirna: My Leki trail running poles. I take them everywhere.

Paddy: I call 'em four by [00:39:00] four. They're the best. Thank

you. Running hiking poles.

Best outdoor snack.

Mirna: Salami

Paddy: oysters,

Mirna: Not that

Paddy: no, wha wha what is your hottest outdoor hot take?

Mirna: this is gonna make some people angry. I. am actually okay with people playing music

Paddy: Oh,

Mirna: on the trail

Paddy: shocking.

Mirna: as long as it's not super loud.

And I know that this is like against the leave no trace principles,

but I think that different people have differing relationships with the outdoors.

And we should respect that and so I think that if you're by yourself and, uh, if you need to play some music, play some music, , but remember that there are other people out there. I know people I know. I can

Paddy: This is sh this

Mirna: is not what I believe or think.

Paddy: No, I got this little handlebar

speaker, for bike rides, or sometimes I put it on a, the waistband of a fanny

pack when I'm skiing on the resort in the springtime.

I will say this though, if you have like a [00:40:00] bloated Phish solo happening on your speaker, we're gonna have some problems, which I'm sure you run into a lot in Vermont.

Mirna: listen, I'm

Paddy: oh, Phish and Birkenstocks. Shocker.

Mirna: I, I mostly just sing to myself and that sometimes has bothered people. Uh, Jenny Lake at, in Grand Teton National Park. They They were like being rude about it. Like we were just singing Indigo Girls.

Love struck Romeo seems of strange sounds.

Jenny Lake, grand Teton National Park, everybody. Anyway.

Paddy: OUTRO VO:

Mirna Valerio is an athlete, writer, educator, a stellar trailside serenader, and the ultimate adult tryer of new things. Check out the events she is a part of, her speaking engagemnets, her book, the films she's featured in, and all things Mirna at The Mirnavator Dot Com. And follow along with her adventures on Instagram at The [00:41:00] Mirnavator. You're gonnna wanna do that. Thank me later.

Also, cherished audience memebers, yeah you, if you are digging the chitchatting you're listening to and want to send us ideas, reactions, outdoorsy free verse poems, you can. Email us guest nominations and your thoughts to �����ԹϺ��� Podcast At �����ԹϺ��� Inc Dot Com. This show is for you, your head and I  was 8 years old when my dad changed my life forever. In the summer of 1992, on my family’s first Western road trip, we were strolling around Utah’s Snowbird Ski Resort when I stepped on a storm drain grate. The grate gave way and fell into the dark abyss of the drain; I fell, too, barely catching my fingers on the lip of asphalt, screaming for help. Was this to be the end of lil ole PaddyO? No, because my dad grabbed the back of my shorts and yanked [00:42:00] me to safety with the giant tug of a rescue wedgie. To this day, I refuse to walk on grates of any kind. I see wedgies in a whole new light, too.

That was not the first, nor the last, time my dad was there when the ground crumbled underneath me. I'm not really sure what my life would be like without my dad. But I hope it would be as filled with perspective, laughter, and gratitude as that of avid fly fisher and professional chef Ranga Perera.

MUSIC

Ranga was born in Sri Lanka in the 1980s. He remembers good times, like fishing and beach parties with his family and friends. It was also an incredibly dangerous time in Sri Lanka. A violent civil war broke out in 1983, one that would last until 2009 and eventually claim the lives of an estimated 100,000 people. For safety, Ranga's parents [00:43:00] moved the family to California in 1991. But less than a year after emigrating, Ranga's father had a massive heart attack and tragically passed away at the age of 39, an event that haunted Ranga until his own massive heart attack that nearly killed him in 2017.

He has every right to be bitter and angry. But Ranga is the opposite and leans into the two passions that have shaped the last quarter century of his life: fly fishing and cooking. When he’s not feeding flies to the giant fishies in Montana’s legendary rivers, he’s feeding clients as one of the region’s most sought-after private chefs, and each activity has a surprising influence on the other.

I thought this would be an emotional conversation about dealing with tragedy, but it’s one of the most joy-filled chats I’ve ever had. Ranga lets what was taken from him and what he’s endured [00:44:00] float past him, focusing instead on all the good that still fills his life and the possibilities just around the bend. I found it remarkable, and I think you will too.your heart, and the tickling of your ear canals.

The �����ԹϺ��� Podcast is hosted and produced by me, Paddy O'Connell. But you can call me PaddyO. Storytelling support provided by Micah "Captain Stubbens is my co-pilot" Abrams. Music and Sound Design by Robbie Carver. And booking and research by Maren Larsen.

The �����ԹϺ��� Podcast is made possible by our �����ԹϺ��� Plus members. Learn about all the extra rad benefits and become a member yourself at �����ԹϺ��� Online Dot Com Slash Pod Plus.

Oh my God, Mirna, you know, I did not think that I was going to, word car crash booty strudel, today. Yeah,

Mirna: You have to say it in German accent.