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From 5K to Ultra | How Mindy Jaramillo Got Started In Running
- Garmin Forerunner
- Brooks Hyperion Max
Our How It All Started feature typically involves me interviewing somebody via Google Meet. There is a transcription service that provides me notes and allows me to review the conversation and generate the feature. Every once in a while, somebody will submit their story through our link. When that happens, I get excited and immediately need to know more.
This is exactly what happened with Mindy Jaramillo. Her story came in and I went to Instagram to learn more about her so I could come up with questions to ask. I saw that she was followed by Jackson County Ultras and texted Joe Hardin if he knew her. This was a How It All Started feature, I wanted to share and needed to know more about Mindy.
I asked her if she would answer some questions and she graciously said yes. What you see below are the questions I asked and her responses (unedited.) Before you read those questions, here is what she submitted through our link and how this feature got started.
Mindy’s Original How It All Started Submission:
When I first started my health journey back in 2017, I was clocking in at 243 pounds. What really drove me to change was realizing I couldn’t keep up with my first born daughter who was born in 2015. As she became more mobile, I wanted to be mobile with her. It started with a combination of strength training and various cardio equipment at my local Planet Fitness.
Come the end of 2017, my ex father in law challenged me to run my first 5K. He was even generous enough to pay for it. So come January 1st, 2018 I started my training. I fell so deeply in love with the way running made me feel. It gave me mental clarity and freedom. By the grace of God and continually discipline and training, I have made my way down to 125 pounds and I’ve gone on to run multiple different distances including my first ultra at the end of 2025.
It’s something I will continue for as long as my body will carry me.
When you think back to your life in 2017, before the weight loss and before running, what did a typical day feel like physically and emotionally? What were you struggling with that most people never saw
Before The Change:
Back before I started my health journey in 2017, I never truly gave much thought to how I ate or what I looked like. I had a pretty sedentary life. I stayed home most days not really wanting to leave the house. I had no drive.
I think what I struggled with most is denial. I never believed I was as overweight as I had truly become. I would lie about my size and my weight. I would just spend my days eating and pretending all was okay. But really, I had just become a shell of a human who mostly lived to eat.
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You mentioned wanting to keep up with your daughter. Was there a specific moment, big or small, when it hit you that something had to change, or was it a slow realization over time?
The First Spark:
The first spark was probably when she started eating more solid foods. I made sure she ate a healthy meal every single time. Then when she started running around more, I realized soon I wouldn’t be able to keep up. I wouldn’t be able to play with her at the capacity she wanted and needed. Now with having two daughters, I need rhat energy even more.
You said you fell in love with how running made you feel. What did running give you mentally in those early days that you didn’t know you were missing before?
Learning To Love Running:
In the early days of my health journey, I did a lot of arc trainer or walking on the treadmill. When I started my 5K training plan, I remember going in thinking “Running can’t be THAT hard.” But boy was I wrong. I remember with each day that I was able to run longer and faster, it was like something unlocked mentally. I felt free. I didn’t feel trapped in my mind with the everyday routine.
This journey clearly took discipline and consistency but it couldn’t have been linear. What setbacks, doubts, or moments of wanting to quit did you face along the way, and what kept you moving forward anyway?
The Hard Part Nobody Posts:
I think a lot of doubts I had was in scale progress. I jumped from one eating disorder to the next. It played a lot of negativity in my mental health. I remember some days just thinking “What’s the point? All this hard work and your mind still doesn’t keep quiet.” A lot of back hand compliments made me question my decision making as well. I would get a lot of “Wow. You’re so beautiful now. You’re so this now.” Or a lot of “I hope you never go back to this or that.” And it really hurt me to think they didn’t think of me positively before.
What really kept me moving was the freeing feeling running gave me. It was my me time. My quiet time in such a busy life. I also wanted to keep moving for my kids. To set a good example and to live my healthiest life.
After going from your first 5K to completing an ultra, how has your relationship with your body, and with running itself, changed? What would you tell someone who feels like the starting line is “too far away” for them?
What Running Means Now:
I would say from going froma 5K to an ultra that my relationship with my body has significantly improved. While the dark thoughts still linger some days, I try to remember that God created me to be exactly who I am. I do my best to honor my body through healthy eating and exercise. My relationship with running has deepend and some may say I’ve gone a little mad. I’m always ready to take on more and this year I’m looking to double my ultra distance.
My best advice to someone who says the starting line feels too far is to just start. There is no better day than today and no matter how slowly you go, no matter how long it takes, no matter the setbacks, the pain, forward is forward and if you keep chasing forward, you will find that joy.
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