This episode of the Outside Podcast is brought to you by the North Face, telling stories of women pushing the boundaries of exploration, like Ultra Runner Fernando

My name is Vernanda Masieo, I'm a tour runner. I run in high mountains.

Fernando Masele holds the speed record on Aacincagua, the highest mountain in

north or South America. And she used that summit bid to help raise awareness of the

National Park's trash problem. She also holds the fastest known time up and down

Kilimanjaro and used that to help the Kilimanjaro Orphanage Center.

She's also an environmental lawyer,

so it's safe to say that she feels a deep need to do good in the world.

And she says it's because running is kind of egotistical and selfish.

And I feel that I need like to share with the others like this passion and I need to share and to help others if I can with my sport.

Fernando has won a lot of races, but she says it's still difficult for her.

She runs on the verge of giving up.

At her most recent race, a 100-mile ultra two weeks

after setting the Kilimanjaro record,

she struggled the whole way through.

That was for me, like the harder things

that I've done ever, because my body wasn't prepared for that.

It was so difficult she says and the terrain was so rugged that finishing the race was

going to get her home faster than being picked up by a helicopter.

Then I thought, well, I think it would be faster if I run to the hotel, to the finish line,

because the hotel is just beside the finish line.

With that kind of grit, it's not surprising that lots of people consider Fernando a role model.

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