A 30-year-old Mexican woman with no running experience and no running equipment managed to win a 63km (39 miles) ultramarathon while wearing sandals and the traditional dress of her indigenous tribe.
With a time of 7 hours and 34 minutes, Candelaria Rivas Ramos won the 63-kilometer women’s category Canyons Ultramarathon in Guachochi, Mexico, with no running equipment and no training other than her daily life in the mountains. Rivas is a member of the Rarámuri, an indigenous group local to the Chihuahua region whose traditions involve long-distance foot races and persistence hunting, a style of hunting involving simply driving prey to exhaustion over a long period of time. Known for their superhuman stamina and tolerance for pain, the Rarámuri are born to run and can overcome professional athletes even when lacking modern running equipment.
In an astonishing display of pure talent and unbreakable spirit, 30-year-old Candelaria Rivas Ramos of Choreachi made history at the 2025 Canyons Ultramarathon in Guachochi. She had never competed in a marathon before, but after being encouraged by her community, she made the trip with her husband from Choreachi to Guachochi, walking continuously for 14 hours. After this arduous trek, she not only ran the 63-kilometer ultramarathon in a traditional Rarámuri dress and handmade sandals, but crossed the finish line first.
“This victory is for my family,” Candelaria said after the race. “I was already familiar with the race that takes place here every year. I’d never participated before, but I came this year to register for it in April.”
Speaking about the Rarámuri and their legendary ability to run for hours on end in traditional sandals called huaraches, Harvard anthropologist and marathoner Daniel Liberman said that the indigenous people’s superhuman stamina is closely tied to their religion, claiming that they seem to enter a trance-like state that helps them overcome obvious signs of physical strain.
“For them, this is spiritual,” Lieberman said. “A form of prayer, a symbol of how the world works, and giving thanks to their God.”
Candelaria Rivas Ramos is not the first Rarámuri to win an ultramarathon in Mexico. Back in 2017, we wrote about María Lorena Ramírez, a native Rarámuri sheep woman who won a 50km ultramarathon.
