Podcast: Episode 160 with Stephanie Howe and Jorge Maravilla

Mario Fraioli | May 10, 2021

“All of this adversity that we’ve been dealing with, you know, adversity is nothing new to me. I’m officially claiming that I’m the dean of Adversity University. As an immigrant, as a brown-skinned man, as someone—who, Spanish is my first language—having to always assimilate, having to always adapt, having always to comfort others with the comfort of who you are, those are just daily adversity situations and circumstances that I’ve existed with, so adversity is nothing new. And I’ve dealt with so many other adversities, from emotional to life, just like everybody else. We all have our stuff and it’s how you face and deal with those things that build up your character, you know? It’s no different than, ‘Sure, maybe I’ve placed well in a certain race,’ and honestly I hate to say this but I can care less how well I do or not, but that moment we described earlier where it took me 3-1/2 hours to walk 7 miles while I watched Stephanie win Western States—that to me was very character-building and a really, really important part of who and what I am today and how I can utilize that as a skillset and a toolset to face life.”

Stephanie Howe and Jorge Maravilla are quite the power couple and it was a treat to sit down with the two of them recently at their home here in Marin County, where we all live. A little on their respective running backgrounds: Stephanie is the 2014 Western States Endurance Run champion, she’s finished in the top 10 at UTMB, and won numerous other races at various distances over the course of her career. Jorge is two-time national champion on the trails at the 100 mile and 100K distances, he won the Masters national cross country title in 2018, and he’s also got a 2:21 marathon personal best to his credit.

In this conversation, we talked a little about running, but mostly about how their relationship came to be, navigating new beginnings, their different backgrounds growing up, and becoming parents together recently—and all of this was intertwined around themes of respect, trust, community, exploration, and a lot more.

Stephanie Howe: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Strava

Jorge Maravilla: Instagram | Twitter | Strava

the morning shakeout: Instagram | Twitter

Mario Fraioli: Website | Strava

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Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford.