Alvina Begay

Alvina was raised in the small town of Ganado on the Navajo Reservation. She grew up watching her father run and her mom pursue a nursing career. While her mom worked at the hospital in town, her father trained for marathons. Her parents and her community instilled a strong work ethic. After running for Adams St. and Arizona St. and graduating with a BS in Nutrition, Alvina continued to run competitively as a Nike N7 Ambassador. This gave her a platform to give back to her community by promoting physical activity and proper eating. Alvina is now a registered dietitian, private running coach and nurse with a masters in health administration. In this episode we talk about her community, and how and why it has been so negatively impacted by COVID-19. We discuss getting into running, which at first thought, some might think would have been unlikely growing up on the reservation, but it turns out she was raised to run and endure. We get into her transition to college and how she endured some rough patches in the sport and then went on to give back to her community as an N7 Nike Ambassador. Alvina's Running Resume: Eight Top 10 U.S. road championships 2008 and 2012 Olympic Trials in the marathon 10th female overall in the 2008 New York City Marathon Qualified for the 2012 Olympic Trials in the 10,000 meters 10,000m: 32:34 Half Marathon: 1:12.25 Marathon: 2:37:14 You can connect with Alvina at:   https://coaches.vdoto2.com/alvina-begay Producer:  Andre Laboy Song:  Breakadawn, by Mike Quinn