LA Marathon: Jocelyn Rivas aims to be youngest ever to finish 100 marathons

LOS ANGELES – Jocelyn Rivas is connected the verge of making past but her moving roots spell each the mode backmost to simple school.

“The lone idiosyncratic that tin halt you, is you,” said Rivas. “Believing successful yourself tin instrumentality you precise acold successful life.”

Rivas, 24, remembers moving a fewer laps successful a carnal acquisition people and it was not a memorable experience.

“I did not person amusive astatine all,” Rivas recalled. “I truly tried my hardest but I ever came up arsenic an mean runner.”

To accidental Rivas comes from humble beginnings is an understatement. She was calved successful El Salvador with a breached back, breached feet, and a breached cervix connected January 19, 1997.  Back then, her prognosis was bleak. Doctors thought she would ne'er walk, fto unsocial tally marathons.

Jocelyn Rivas runs successful the 2014 Los Angeles Marathon, her archetypal completed race. (Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Marathon)

The archetypal 26.2 miles

At 17 years old, Rivas ran her archetypal afloat marathon connected March 9, 2014, astatine the Los Angeles Marathon. She was a subordinate of Students Run LA, a programme that challenges at-risk and underserved mediate schoolhouse and precocious schoolhouse students successful the Los Angeles Unified School District to acquisition the benefits of goal-setting by grooming for and completing the LA Marathon.

Rivas finished her archetypal marathon successful 4 hours, 31 minutes and 12 seconds.

That’s the magnitude of clip it took to alteration the mode she felt astir moving and her ain self-confidence, knowing that if she could implicit a marathon arsenic a teenager, she could bash anything, similar graduating from Cal State-LA successful 2019 and landing a occupation successful Information Technology arsenic a Technical Support Engineer.

Seven years later, she’s finished 99 marathons, 93 of them being tally since September 2017.

“My biggest inspiration were the runners themselves,” Rivas said. “I got inspired done Instagram essentially, conscionable going done hashtags and uncovering radical who were runners and seeing each their brainsick goals and past I heard astir breaking the satellite grounds and that’s erstwhile I work astir Elizabeth Tunna (who acceptable the satellite grounds successful 2011).”

During the pandemic, Rivas virtually picked up her pace. She’s tally 43 marathons crossed the United States since the past clip the LA Marathon was held connected March 8, 2020.

“Sometimes I did 3 marathons successful 3 days,” Rivas revealed. “One time, I did a situation of six marathons successful 9 days successful Florida.”

However, to get to this point, Rivas had to alteration her contention strategy.

“I was trying to decorativeness (all the marathons) successful nether 5 hours and I was getting injured, truthful it was taking the joyousness retired of it. I didn’t privation to support going,” Rivas said. “I was hardly successful my twenties but I was suffering truthful much.”

Rivas reached retired to her mentor, who suggested that if she was going to tally 100 marathons, she needed to dilatory down to scope her goal. That meant Rivas would person to commencement finishing the marathon successful astir 5 hours and 15 minutes to stay injury-free.

“I deliberation it was each astir changing my mindset,” Rivas said. “I decided to fto spell of my clip and conscionable tally for enjoyment.

“I’ve learned a batch done this full journey. I’m inactive learning but it’s taught maine a batch astir however to instrumentality attraction of myself and however to unrecorded my life. Don’t fto expectations of others get successful the mode of you enjoying the process.”

Jocelyn Rivas poses with the galore medals she’s received for completing 99 marathons heading into Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon connected a quest for her 100th finish. (Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Marathon)

The 100th Marathon

Now Rivas is astir 5 hours and 26.2 miles distant from her imagination of breaking the Guinness World Record to go the youngest pistillate and the youngest Latina to ever tally 100 marathons.

It’s a full-circle moment, arsenic she’s readying to interruption the grounds wherever her emotion of moving began astatine the Los Angeles Marathon connected Sunday, Nov. 7.

Her clip won’t beryllium the fastest oregon adjacent to her idiosyncratic grounds successful the marathon, which is 4 hours and 12 minutes. However, Rivas, who is simply a Los Angeles Marathon Ambassador said that won’t substance arsenic agelong arsenic she crosses the decorativeness line.

“The biggest happening I privation to permission arsenic a acquisition is that nary substance however hard your travel is, nary substance however galore times you cry, nary substance however down you are, nary substance however galore times you deliberation you can’t bash it, you tin bash it,” Rivas said.

Rivas’ Dream

She’s a arrogant DACA recipient and wants to amusement the satellite that “Dreamers” tin beryllium productive and impactful members of nine successful the United States.

“I wanted much radical to beryllium exposed to it, for them to enactment a look to a dreamer… similar look, there’s this miss who ran 100 marathons, was calved with a breached back, cervix and feet and she loves America arsenic overmuch arsenic everyone other and genuinely conscionable wants to beryllium portion of nine and assistance successful each azygous mode due to the fact that she grew up successful this country. The biggest happening is to enactment a look to a dreamer, I’m a dreamer,” Rivas shared.

Ultimately, Rivas wants everyone to pursuit their dreams.

“Whatever that imagination is, cognize you tin bash it. It is going to necessitate a batch of work. A batch of sweat, determination, a batch of guts, requires each azygous atom of you to get determination but if you truly privation it, you person to spell aft it. I deliberation the biggest happening is to beryllium fearless and beryllium yourself. Believe successful yourself. I conscionable deliberation the biggest happening I privation to permission with radical is I privation them to pursuit their dreams nary substance what that is.”