When Andrea Ramírez Limón first started running as a 19-year-old student at Tecnológico de Monterrey, a private university in Monterrey, Mexico, she never expected it to turn into a career. Growing up in Mexico City, she was never involved in sports, and now, she was regularly running laps around the track on her own, simply for her general health.
One day, she was approached by one of her university’s track coaches, who had been watching her train. He saw something in her and urgently wanted her to join the team.
“He told me ‘you have something special’ and insisted I join the team, but I was hesitant and didn’t think I wanted to compete,” Ramírez Limón, now 28, told Runner’s World.
Ramírez Limón continued to turn down the coach’s pleas to join the team, but he persisted. One day, he informed her that he’d entered her to compete for the team in a 10,000-meter race at an upcoming track meet. Ramírez Limón was still reluctant—this would be her first race ever, and the event that she now says started it all.
“After that first race, [where I finished in second place] I was hooked,” she said. “I had so much fun and loved the excitement that came with competitions and the camaraderie that came with being on the team.”
After graduating with her degree in international business in 2015, Ramírez Limón admittedly felt a bit lost in life. She had run her first half marathon a year earlier and felt a pull to pursue a career as a professional runner and entered various races around Mexico that offered prize money. While she often placed in the top 10, it usually wasn’t good enough to take any of those winnings home.
“I knew I was very good at running, but in the beginning, I wasn’t good enough to take the top honors, which often ended up going to Kenyan runners who traveled to participate at these races,” she said.
Meanwhile, her friends and family were gently urging her to walk away from competitive running and instead focus on pursuing a career where she could use her college degree. But she kept at it, drawing on words of encouragement from her late mother; Ramírez Limón’s mother passed away when she was 17, after a years-long battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
“Losing my mom so young taught me to seize every day and every opportunity, because you never know what may happen,” she said. “I think about her being there with me and giving me strength and encouragement to perform my best at every race.”
Ramírez Limón, who currently lives in Toluca, eventually pursued the help of former elite marathoner Jonnatan Morales Serrano, who shifted to coaching athletes after failing to achieve his own goal of representing Mexico at the 2016 Rio Olympics. At first, Morales Serrano told Ramírez Limón he wasn’t interested in coaching female athletes. But just like her university coach was persistent with her, Ramírez Limón persisted and spent six months convincing him to train her. Finally, he gave in, and the two have been working together for the last two-and-a-half years.
“[Morales Serrano] initially also told me that he wanted to focus on his career and studies and didn’t have time to monitor my progress,” Ramírez Limón explained. “Eventually, he saw something special in me and took me on as his first elite athlete.”
“Being a part of [Ramírez Limón’s] athletic development has been a great experience, mainly because she has always had a great attitude, been fully committed to her training, and shown great determination in her racing objectives and goals,” Morales Serrano told Runner’s World. “For different reasons, I couldn’t achieve my own goals during three previous Olympic cycles, and I feel proud of what I’ve been able to achieve and accomplish as her coach.”
In November 2019, Ramírez Limón had a breakthrough and ran a 1:12:44 half marathon at the Nuevo Leon 21K in Monterrey, which qualified her to participate in the 2020 World Half-Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland. Following that race, she set her sights on the 2020 Houston Marathon for her 26.2 professional debut, with the goal to run the Olympic qualifying standard of 2:29:30.
“The Houston Marathon was my first time being invited to participate in a race’s elite field, which was an amazing experience,” she said. “However, I fell short of my goal because it was a windy day and there some unexpected small hills at the end of the course, and I finished in 2:32:36.”
From there, Ramírez Limón set her sights on running the standard at a spring marathon, settling on the 2020 Vienna Marathon, which would have taken place on April 18. But once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the race was one of many to be canceled for the foreseeable future as the world struggled to get a grasp on the situation.
“In the beginning of the pandemic, I stayed home and stopped training completely,” Ramírez Limón said. “I was admittedly a bit depressed for a while because many people in Mexico were getting sick and I even knew of friends’ family members who ended up dying from the virus.”
Ramírez Limón, who does some part-time administrative work for her husband Mario’s accounting firm, decided to focus on what she could do from home. She purchased a Reebok SL8.0 Treadmill, as well as some weights and resistance bands to focus on strength training. When she couldn’t find certain weights or other products she was looking for, she got creative with household objects, filling water bottles A Renewed Relationship With Running.
“Most runners in Mexico don’t prioritize strength training, but I found that it helped to boost my mood and happiness as I started to see the positive physical changes in my body,” she said. “Once I started to train again in July in the mountains and at Alameda Park here in Toluca (which is one of the highest cities in North America at 8,790 From Runners World for New Balance), A Great Day to PR in Houston.”
Train Like Andrea Ramírez Limón
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Ramírez Limón continued training for the World Championships, which had been postponed from March 29 to Oct. 17. She traveled to Gdynia, where she finished in 20th place with a new personal best time of 1:10:20. Once she returned home to Toluca, Morales Serrano and Ramírez Limón were eyeing a return to the 2021 Houston Marathon to once again pursue the Olympic marathon standard. While that race was ultimately canceled, a California-based friend clued her in about the Marathon Project, an elite-only race set to take place in Chandler, Arizona on Dec. 20. Ramírez Limón and Morales Serrano reached out to race organizer Ben Rosario, who granted her request to enter the race.
Based on her performance in Gdynia, Morales Serrano and Ramírez Limón knew she was fit to run well under the 2:29:30 standard she’d been chasing for almost a year now.
“My original plan was to go with the 2:26 pacer and [fellow countrywoman] Ursula Sanchez, but I felt like the pacer started out too quickly, while Sanchez eventually fell off the pace,” she explained.
That left Ramírez Limón to run most of the race entirely solo—but she showed that it wasn’t an issue. She finished in sixth place in 2:26:34—not only a personal best by more than six minutes, but unbeknownst to her, it was also the third-fastest time ever run by a Mexican woman.
Ramírez Limón’s time at the Marathon Project has most likely punched her ticket to Tokyo —while Mexico’s Olympic Committee has confirmed that her time has qualified her to represent her home country, it still depends on what the fastest times are at the end of the qualifying period. It’s worth noting, though, that Ramírez Limón currently has the fastest eligible time, with just Sanchez Highlights From the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials.
Ramírez Limón is also currently pursuing potential sponsorship opportunities and has been in talks with Hoka One One and ASICS. She and Morales Serrano are also aiming high with regard to future goals.
“In the short-term, I would like to see [Ramírez Limón] improve her times on the track to help her build a more solid base and be more competitive at the Olympic Marathon,” Morales Serrano said. “In Tokyo, our main goal will be for her to run an all-time best in the marathon for a Mexican woman [to beat the current top time of 2:22:59, set by Madaí Pérez at the 2006 Chicago Marathon], in addition to her being the top Latin American finisher in the race.”
“I would, of course, love to win a medal in Tokyo, but it’s a marathon and I know anything can happen, so I’m going to be prepared to run as fast as I can,” Ramírez Limón added. “It would also be great to finish in the top 15 and run a PR, maybe at least 2:24.”
Looking past the Tokyo Games, she hopes to compete at the elite level in more international races. One of her bucket list goals is to make the podium at the New York City Marathon, which usually falls around her birthday on Nov. 5. In the meantime, she is growing accustomed to being recognized by fans from Mexico’s large amateur running community.
“It’s been surprising and fun to be approached by fans at the supermarket, or to receive messages from girls saying I’m an inspiration to them,” she said. “I’ve loved being able to share my experiences and I hope it will motivate other people to chase their dreams.”
Emilia Benton is a Houston-based freelance writer and editor. In addition to Runner's World, she has contributed health, fitness and wellness content to Women's Health, SELF, Prevention, Healthline, and the Houston Chronicle, among other publications. She is also an 11-time marathoner, a USATF Level 1-certified running coach, and an avid traveler.
