You're alone out there, in the middle of nowhere.

A guy on a snowmachine stopped, and he said, "Are you okay?"

And I told him, "I'm running from White Mountain to Nome."

And he said, "Oh, you're just jogging out here?"

"Way out here?"

So I probably don't look like a runner to most people.

I saw that in the beginning of my racing career, I would go pick up my bib and people would ask, "Oh are you picking it up for someone else?"

I told them, "No, I'm picking it up for me."

They look at me and they look at my trach and they're like, "Oh."

People don't know what you're capable of if they don't know who you are.

I am Siberian Yupik.

I'm actually from saint Lawrence island.

My family moved to Nome when I was eight so I've been living here in Nome ever since.

When I landed here, I thought it was the biggest city in the world.

So it was a cultural shock.

It was also very difficult because alcohol is readily available and sold in the stores here whereas in Savoonga, it's not.

I had to deal with a lot of alcoholism growing up.

As a result I went through depression.

I eventually got into drugs and alcohol myself and it worsened my depression.

I had a few friends who completed suicide and I remember having those same thoughts.

I was 16 years old and it was a very dark moment in my life, where I knew I didn't want to be here anymore because I felt so miserable inside and I remember writing my final goodbyes and I love yous.

I barely remember the night it happened because I was under the influence of alcohol.

I don't think I would have done it if I had been sober.

I remember everyone screaming and my sister asked me to squeeze her hand if I was still alive, and I squeezed it and I remember her screaming she's still alive and then my vision was gradually fading and my...

I couldn't hear, it was gradually disappearing until I was in absolute nothingness and that was the most emptiest feeling I've ever felt, and I remember thinking, I don't want to die anymore.

and in that moment everything came back, like I could see everyone running around and I could hear them screaming and I remember thinking that felt like heaven compared to that dark void of nothingness.

And I survived.

So that happened in 1999.

I was still going through surgeries in 2003.

In 2014, I was very obese, depressed and I could barely get out of bed, but I told myself, "Carol, you need to get up and do something.

Go for a two-mile run.

How hard could that be?"

And a couple of blocks down the road, I completely ran out of breath, but I decided to walk the rest of the way.

I became obsessed with seeing how much farther I could go.

Like, today I went 0.75 miles without stopping to take a walking break.

How far can I go the next day?

My longest race is 100 miles.

I do go through dark moments still, but i know its not going to be like that for a long time.

I just have to get through that dark moment and everything will be good again.

Like in running far, I often feel very very good after going through a moment where I wanted to quit.

Running has definitely made me a lot happier and healthier.

It inspires me to be putting one foot in front of the other.

Even when things get tough, you just have to keep going.