Meet the woman who wouldn't let trial, prison or a freak injury keep her from the Miami Marathon

Miami Herald

31-01-2025

Paola Soto had every excuse not to run in Sunday's Life Time Miami Marathon.
In 2022, she was on trial for charges of conspiracy and smuggling. In 2023, she was in prison. And in 2024, finally free from incarceration with plans to finally run, she fell in a pothole and injured her knee.
Many people would have given up. Marathons are a test of mental strength; just the very idea of a 26.2-mile run can be deterrent. Soto, however, isn't most people.
'Running saved me,' she said, calling the activity her 'purpose.' 'It's so much easier to stay in bed on a chilly day, watch Netflix or eat snacks. But I need it. It became something that just makes me feel better.'
After three years of setback after setback after setback, Soto will finally run the 2025 Life Time Miami Marathon, which starts Sunday morning near the Kaseya Center, runs through Miami Beach and ends downtown. The journey to get here was far from easy — just days before her interview she had a nightmare that Sunday's race had started without her — yet it strengthened her. Taught her. And arguably most importantly, humbled her.
'I learned that I'm capable of surviving the unexpected,' Soto said, later adding that she realized the importance of 'making myself a priority' and 'setting strong boundaries.'
'This is my way out'
It started in 2010.
A then-24-year-old Soto had began to work for renowned Colombian handbag designer Nancy Gonzalez, whose work was featured everywhere from 'Sex in the City' to the film 'The Devil Wears Prada.' The issue was Gonzalez, like most artists, struggled to meet deadlines. That meant Soto, a Colombian native, would have to transport the bags to the United States herself instead of through the proper channels.
'At some point when you're involved in this world and in that world, you're oriented to your goal,' Soto recalled, adding that she needed to have 'everything in for the exposition at the showroom, exhibited at the right time so the buyers from all these large companies can buy them.'
In 2019, however, Soto got caught. It was an experience that she will never forget.
'The company that I worked for was under investigation and I didn't know that,' Soto said Soto who was on vacation when the probe began. When she landed at Miami International Airport in December 2019, U.S. Marshalls greeted her. 'That was the beginning. I was terrified. I was praying that they didn't take me to prison.'
Although the Marshalls took her to the Miami Federal Detention Center, she posted bond the next day. Soto spent the next three years in litigation, eventually pleading guilty and agreeing to cooperate as witness. Longtime friend Jobeth Ramirez was shocked.
'It was just surprising,' said Ramirez who had known Soto for more than a decade. 'Someone like Pao facing the charge that they said she was facing was just so unreal. It felt like someone was setting her up. It didn't seem like Pao. It seemed like a situation where her kindness was taken advantage of.'
On September 28, 2022, Soto would begin her nine-month sentence at Marianna Federal Camp. That's when the fear began to set in.
'When I entered prison, I was in fear not just of the surroundings but of myself,' Soto said. Her mind raced with questions almost immediately. 'Is a really bad depression going to hit me? Am I going to be able to survive? Am I going to think about killing myself? What's going to happen to me?'
Negative thoughts, however, can often become a self-fulfilling prophecy and before long, she actually found herself deep in the doldrums, recalled friend Rebecca Cyphers.
'When you're first put there, you don't know what to expect,' said Cyphers, who arrived at Marianna with Soto. 'There are no doors and you're put up on the second floor and you're in quarantine for a couple of weeks at a time.'
Added Cyphers: 'We were very scared of what was outside of quarantine. We had all these 'Orange is the New Black' shows that had us sacred to death. We had been told about women killing each other and coming into your room.'
Then Soto remembered her old friend.
Running 'is therapy for me,' she said. 'This is my way out.'
Added Soto: 'I'm a different person when I run.'
Although Soto had planned to do the 2023 Miami Marathon alongside Ramirez, her incarceration prevented her from doing so. Soto, however, came up with an idea.
'While I was in prison, there was a track,' she recalled, 'and I was like 'You know what? If they can do it, I can do it. That was it.'
Armed with a training guide courtesy of Ramirez, Soto trained profusely during the next three and a half months to prepare herself for a makeshift, half marathon. Many inmates called her crazy. Some even told her she didn't have to do it. Soto, however, knew that she needed to run for her mental health.
'Prison is all mental,' she said, explaining that people often 'set the limitations' on themselves without. 'Even while being in prison, I felt free being able to break those barriers through running.'
Eventually, many of her fellow inmates decided to participate.
'So many people got involved and started getting motivated like 'Let me get out there and walk with you,'' Soto recalled being told.
When it came time for her own marathon, the prison and inmates alike did everything they could to make it appear some level of normal. They created lap cards and a medal while Cyphers put together a peanut butter victory cake. Her fellow inmates even shared their fruit — bananas in particular — so she could fight off cramps.
'This little group of us positioned ourselves around the track and had words for her on our signs to keep her positive and going,' Cyphers said. 'So she finished — I think it was 54 laps or something — and we had Winner's Circle for her and celebrated that day.'
'I was not surprised that that's how she took it but definitely inspired nonetheless because no one would've blamed her if she didn't choose to run a marathon,' Ramirez added, explaining that Soto 'didn't let her circumstances define her.' 'It just goes to show you as long as you put your mind to something and apply yourself and show up for yourself, you can meet your goals.'
When Soto emerged from prison in May 2023, she was a different person. Her resilience inspired Cyphers to write and release a children's book entitled 'Little Running Wolf Girl: Paola's Tale.'
'It's a heartfelt story but she's really coming out an amazing woman, an amazing winner because of all her persistence,' Cyphers said, later quipping that she 'would like to be more like her and I'm twice her age.'
Added Cyphers: 'There's really no one quite like her.'
Soto, like everyone, is far from perfect. Despite her jovial demeanor, she too has bad days. And when those come, she remembers the words of one woman in particular who cheered her on during her prison marathon.
'On my difficult days, I still have the girls in my head,' Soto said. 'There's one girl in particular. I remember I was tired and she's like 'Come on, baby. You got this! You got this!'
'Mind can be your best ally or your worst enemy'
As Soto sat at a coffee shop in Coconut Grove, reflecting on her life ahead of Sunday's marathon, she wasn't bitter. There were a bit of nerves – her last two efforts ultimately didn't pan out – yet she felt confident.
'I think the hardest one was being able to run in prison because your mind can be your best ally or your worst enemy,' Soto said.
But when Soto accidentally stepped in a pothole ahead of the 2024 Miami Marathon, she inflamed her infrapatellar fat pad, the tissue behind the kneecap, and the doubt started to creep back into her mind.
'When I fell, I cried but not solely out of pain — it was mostly frustration,' Soto said.
She immediately began to question whether a marathon was even God's plan for her. But the more inquiries Soto had, the more she thought about life behind bars. Whether incarcerated or on the mend, it was just another trial for her
'That's life,' Soto said. 'Life is always going to bring you ups and downs. You're going to fall then you're going to have to stand up again.'
Nowadays, Soto has her real estate license. She'll get married soon. Prison, as it seems, is way in rearview mirror. But when she finally crosses that finish line, expect a release of the emotions that she has carried around since 2022.
'I'm going to cry. I'm already emotional and I haven't even completed it,' Soto said. 'I feel like I'm closing a chapter in my life and this is graduation.'
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Miami Marathon
WHEN: 5 a.m. Sunday, February 2, 2025
WHERE: City of Miami and Miami Beach
PRICE: Free for spectators
For more information, visit https://www.themiamimarathon.com/