Silvia Garcia - "Choose the harder option"

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Silvia Garcia had nine half marathons, a stretch of obstacle racing and CrossFit five days a week behind her when she decided 2020 would be the year she ran a full marathon.

Disney ended in a heat advisory and a DNF at mile 22, and that spring, at 31, just as COVID was shutting everything down, she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer.

Sixteen rounds of chemo with no visitors allowed, a mastectomy with complications, three months on a walker, and a full hysterectomy after learning she carries the BRCA1 gene - and through all of it one thought kept her going: "You can't die. You have a marathon to finish."

She talks about relearning to move one lap of the kitchen and one driveway at a time, gaining 70 pounds and jumping into an untrained half with her sister, finally finishing the inaugural Every Woman's Marathon in Savannah in 7:45, Project Athena's 26.2-mile hike in San Diego, why grief and gratitude can coexist, her mom's "Why not me?", and her work helping people without insurance get screened.

She's about to be six years cancer-free. Her reminders: thank your legs, choose the harder option, and movement looks different for everybody.


Silvia Garcia - https://www.instagram.com/s_ilviums/


Races Mentioned
Disney Marathon
Publix Half Marathon
Every Woman's Marathon
Project Athena San Diego Marathon Hike
Bras Across the Causeway 5K
San Diego Marathon
World Majors Marathon

Shout Outs
Project Athena
East Georgia Cancer Coalition

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