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For the Love of Coaching: Running as Freedom with Carolina Rubio-MacWright

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Lindsey Gallagher

By: Lindsey Gallagher

Lindsey Gallagher (they/them) is a nonfiction writer and runner from Guilderland, New York. They hold an MFA in Creative Writing from Northern Arizona University. When not writing, you can find them on outdoor adventures of many sorts.

A Note From Freetrail: For The Love of Coaching is a four part series from nonfiction writer Lindsey Gallagher. Just like sports broadly, coaching has long been a male dominated industry, but as the author notes this is changing – and we are here for it. Over the next several months this series will highlight women leading women when it comes to coaching, mentoring, and encouraging athletes to find their place on the trail. If you missed part one in the series find that here.


Over the last few years, we’ve seen a growth in the attention on female sports—female athletes, female coaches, female fans. Trail and ultra running has been no exception. In our sport, some of the biggest names are female. As an avid runner, I’ve taken note of just how many female athletes are finding success with female coaches. I quickly began to wonder about the experiences of these women guiding, mentoring, and encouraging athletes in a sport that remains male-dominated. So I’ve spoken to just a few of these female coaches to answer my questions. Over the next few months, I’ll share a conversation with each one I interviewed to bring their wisdom and energy to others.

To begin the new year, I spoke with Carolina Rubio-MacWright, a woman with a very full life using running to create freedom and community. Carolina’s words are better than my own, so we’ll jump right in!

Lindsey Gallagher: To start, I hoped you could offer a brief introduction to your professional life, personal pursuits as a runner, and all of the things that you do. 

Carolina Rubio-MacWright: I am an immigrant and I think my journey as an immigrant has dictated a lot of my choices and some of the whys. I am a seeker of freedom and everything I do is interconnected into freedom. I am an immigration lawyer, a mom, a beekeeper, a trail runner, a coach. I wear many hats. I feel a duty to help others find freedom because I found freedom. I think it’s a duty for us to uplift others if we have the capacity and the privilege to do so. A lot of the work I do is essentially that. I have a nonprofit called Touching Land where I’m the executive director; this is the focus of my work. We build programming around rights information and power for people to remember their power. We use clay—all somatic methods—so cooking, clay, and now running are all sorts of methods that equalize communities and allow for vulnerability to show up. 

I became a coach because there were not enough coaches of color and women that could understand that running is about a lot more than just how fast you could go or how far you can go. It is really very spiritual and kind of a tool to continuously feel freedom in a world that has so many systems of oppression that prevent us from imagining the world that can be possible. So much of why I run and why I create these spaces is for people to remember those freedoms and remember that there is always another way of building the world and a place where we can feel and be who we need to be.

Carolina with her Touching Lands - running to know your rights cohort.
Carolina with her Touching Lands – running to know your rights cohort.

Gallagher: When did you start running?

Rubio-MacWright: I started running when I was very young, like 10 probably. And I didn’t know I had ADHD but I really needed to release energy and I was good at running. I loved running and being outside. I ran in my farm [in Colombia] a lot because it was the only place where I didn’t have to be confined by the rules around civil war and the fears. My farm was where I experienced that freedom. I associate that freedom with nature. I started running at school. Ever since I started running, I really haven’t stopped. It’s a very big part of who I am. My coach saw that I had this thirst for running and that I could just go for hours and he took me under his wing even though I was the youngest on his team. He took me in very young and I kept running and it’s been amazing. It’s been such a grounding tool whenever I’ve had to move, it’s always there for me. It’s been so centering, which is why with Touching Land we’re offering it for immigrants and bonding already established runners with immigrants so they can find a tool that can bring them joy and dopamine and belonging, and all of that while so much of their life is unstable. It’s been really important to me.

Gallagher: When did you start helping, or even just supporting, other runners?

Rubio-MacWright: I feel like I have been supporting anybody that is interested forever. I have been evangelizing people into running forever as much as I can. I found a club when I moved to New Jersey four years ago and that has been a really big part of building running confidence and community. It’s called the SOMA [South Orange/ Maplewood] Foxes Running Club. I started coaching officially once I realized there were not many coaches of color and women doing ultras and coaching ultras. I remembered when I did IronMan I couldn’t find a coach that understood things about being a woman, you know my hormones, my period, how for me running is a lot more than just wanting to get faster. I want to take pictures because it’s so much more about the things I get to experience and see while I’m out there. 

Coaching became a big thing for me three years ago when I started getting my certificates as a coach and understanding different theories. I feel like I haven’t quite found the type of coaching that I want to do so I’ve been extracting different types of coaching. I’ve been focusing on women, specifically women of color if I can get them. I don’t take a lot of athletes because for me it’s not really a business; it’s more about getting to know someone and working with them. Coaching is much more an intimate relationship and I have very limited time since I have so many other jobs. I try to focus only on ultra runners that are really doing long distances. It’s been tough to find those and most of the women that I find are more mid distance and a lot of them are perimenopause or menopause. It’s been interesting to find how advocating for themselves healthwise has helped them fight for their rights even with their doctors so they can get answers as to why they feel some way or why certain lab results reflect certain things. 

Gallagher: Could you summarize the guiding philosophies behind your coaching?

Rubio-MacWright: I think the mental health piece is super pivotal. And the why, when you’re doing something that takes so much time away from family and other things that you’re doing, there has to be a why. I tell people that the race is a cherry on top, like a party. We choose running because it’s a lifestyle and a lot of us need to have a goal in order to continue that lifestyle and have order and rigor. For me, understanding what the athlete’s goal is, is important. As a coach, I think it’s important to know first, is it for their mental health that they need to run or is it because it gives them freedom or is it because it’s the place where they untangle what’s complicated in life or is it all of those things? All of the athletes that I work with experience running in some form in that way. I haven’t had athletes who say ‘I want to lose weight.’ It’s none of that. It’s all about the joy and that precious time that we get on our own or with community where we can go really deep into what we are feeling, into that vulnerability. 

Making sure that I build trust and understanding the why is super important to me because each athlete is gonna have a different why. Maybe your athlete is a little bit too aggressive and they want to run something that’s a lot longer than they’re ready for, and being able to have those conversations where you gently bring them down to reality is crucial. Obviously, I can’t tell them what to do, but I’m there to guide them and make sure we have honest conversations from the get go. The why is crucial to me and making sure that the decisions are made out of that why. If that person is gonna be injured and they need running for their mental health, we need to be extra careful not to push; being too close to that edge is not an option so we have to be a little bit further out from that edge. My coaching in that sense is very spiritual and very nature oriented. I try to find athletes that are on that same wavelength where running is a lot more than just collecting medals or goals. It’s about the process, right. It’s waking up early, being mindful of when you go to bed. It’s a lifestyle, not a race. 

Carolina (L) and Vanessa Chavarriaga Posada (R) sharing miles.
Carolina (R) and Vanessa Chavarriaga Posada (L) sharing miles.

Gallagher: What are some of the challenges that you face as a female coach coaching female athletes? What are some challenges that female athletes have that you need to be prepared to help them with?

Rubio-MacWright: Their doctors believing what they’re feeling in their bodies is the biggest challenge I have. Pushing back and making sure that they have access to certain tests they should be getting so we can get clues. I’ve learned a lot from my athletes and sending them to a nutritionist that knows what they’re doing. It’s been fun to be able to partner with a nutritionist like Dina Griffin who is based out of Colorado and knows exactly what perimenopause and menopause looks like for women and why we have to eat more protein or why taking creatine at certain times or whatever else is important. I think the biggest challenge is managing the lack of information that there is specifically for the bracket of women that I’m dealing with, which is specifically perimenopause, menopause, and after menopause. It’s been challenging to push back and then the time that is wasted between them not being believed, having to get another doctor, and then finally getting answers of suspicions that we had from the get go. We have a very finite time of pushing our bodies big time until we lose body mass and there’s issues with bone density, so I feel like getting answers feels urgent to me with my athletes. 

My best buddies, the people I run with, are guys. So it’s nice to have the female energy and to be able to talk about the things that as women we are dealing with, which are challenging and there’s not enough research. We have so many questions and we’re dealing with our periods mid-race and the luteal phase and we have to adjust how much weightlifting we’re doing. Forcing my athletes to do weightlifting has been life changing, especially at this age. Making sure that they’re lifting—it’s an integral part of the program. 

Gallagher: Where do you hope to see the sport go as we get more attention on female athletes and their needs?

Rubio-MacWright: I feel like it’s happening already where we are starting to see women taking FKTs that we would never imagine women could take, course records being demolished, and changing policies around pregnancy. There is so much that is in motion right now. It’s very exciting to see the sport and sort of the speed at which things are happening. Seeing more representation and seeing more diverse women from different walks of life and different body shapes is very exciting. 

There’s definitely not enough coverage of women and women of color. The sport still feels very white bro-ey. What I want is to see and hear the stories about a mom that left her family for the weekend and tried super hard to do this race and finished and she has a ton of cellulite in her legs and she inspires other moms that wish they had time and now they’re like maybe I could have time, this lady did it! Those are the stories that I’m interested in which many broadcasters are not gonna be sharing because they are just interested in how fast the first person is. The reality is nobody remembers who won Western States four years ago, but people will always remember Alex Staten falling at the end and being able to finish at 30 hours+, fucking fighting like a beast. We remember the stories that touch on a human level, not who was the fastest. I hope the lens changes. I’ve talked about this with Hillary Allen a lot. I hope we do races where it’s who can collect more “creatures” or interesting stories or which race has the biggest diversity of ages or people or origin. I hope the sport can diversify and become a little more holistic. Unfortunately, I think it’s just really hard for women and women of color to gain access into the space when the reality of the world is that we juggle a lot. Also, when you don’t see yourself out there it’s tough to feel included and feel like you can do it. 

People simply don’t trail run unless they have the resources to do so. Which is exactly why we’re [Touching Land] doing the Pass the Shoes program and the Running Rights and Land Program. I’m so grateful that Hoka continues to support us and this first pilot. They sent us 17 shoes for immigrant men and allies. We put them through an entire rights and climate education program and are now integrating them into a running group that already exists so that they can continue running and it’s not just ‘oh we did it one time and bye!’ We want them to keep connecting to community and we want consistency in investing in community so that maybe one day these men can run those longer distances.

Gallagher: What is the most joyful part of coaching?

Rubio-MacWright: When an athlete realizes how much more they have in the tank. That is my favoritest part. Or when they’re like ‘oh my god, I felt amazing the whole time. I didn’t feel like I was dying and I hydrated properly and everything went well.’ Also when things go really wrong and they’re able to just problem solve. Being able to problem solve and not getting bogged down, understanding their limits, whether it’s having to DNF or pushing right to the edge. That’s where the important piece of knowing an athlete comes in. Is this gonna be so important that they have to finish or is this something that because they need to run every day for their mental health it’s important for them to stop here and not push too much to the end? Seeing progress is my favorite thing and building those relationships that turn into friendships and closeness.

Carolina on the WSER course in prep for 2024

Gallagher: What has coaching taught you? 

Rubio-MacWright: Like parenting, each athlete is different and so certain methods will not work with everyone. You really have to almost have a different tone and voice with the different athletes that you have. Sometimes some respond to really aggressive “let’s go” and some others you sort of really have to baby. I crewed for the first time for 40 hours at the Bear 100 Endurance Run and the fact that I’ve coached really helped me understand where my friend was at; being able to push when he needed pushing and being able to lean back a little bit when he needed that quiet time. It’s really fun to get to use all the tools in my tool kit as a parent, as a lawyer, all the different tools, to be able to see where the person is at and push them or pull back.

Gallagher: What advice do you have for female athletes or women who want to become coaches?

Rubio-MacWright: Go for it. We spend too much time analyzing and balancing and trying to see what the benefit is and what is not. To me I don’t think there is one way to coach. We need more voices, we need more women, we need more women presenting coaching programs that are not designed and thought of as men because they don’t really work for women. That’s the most important thing: I have not found a coaching program that is really designed thinking of a woman’s body and a woman’s needs, which are completely different from a male’s needs and a male athlete. We need more women to come in and have that availability so that we can increase the women in the sport. 

We know that we can achieve incredible feats so I would just say go for it. Don’t linger. Go for it. Start coaching and start building relationships. No one is gonna come and save us. We’re the only ones that can save ourselves. The more that we push each other to be out there, the better. I think especially the piece where I have not found a program that fits women so I have been trying to find different programs and sort of do my own soupy situation and pick and choose. It’s the little bits. People feel like change happens in big ways like, ‘I’m a star and now everything is gonna be discovered.’ No, that’s not actually how it works. It works with little pieces and decisions that you make every day. The running community is such a big part of my life and they are my best friends. They are people who are in my life and my family. This is just another way I can give back. 

To learn more about Carolina and her work with Touching Land find her on Instagram and www.touchingland.org/.

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