What would you do if someone told you you’re too old to chase a dream? For Miriam Diaz-Gilbert, the answer was simple: prove them wrong. At 59, Miriam laced up her running shoes and completed her first ultramarathon—something many wouldn’t attempt at any age. On this week’s episode of the More Than Your Age podcast, Miriam shares how ultramarathons have become a metaphor for her life, inspiring others to see age not as a limitation but as a gift.
The Start of Her Ultramarathon Journey
Miriam didn’t let age deter her from pursuing something extraordinary. “At 59, I completed my first ultramarathon,” she recalls. Despite skepticism from others, she believed age was irrelevant to her ability to take on challenges. Her first race not only tested her endurance but also became a symbol of resilience, grit, and determination.
Ultramarathons are more than just running—they’re about pushing through pain and embracing discomfort. Miriam shared, “Ultramarathon running is a metaphor for life. We don’t run away from life; we run through it—through challenges, struggles, and pain.”
Breaking Stereotypes About Age
Society often ties limitations to age, but Miriam has turned that idea on its head. Running ultramarathons has taught her that physical ability is closely tied to mindset. “People said I was too old, but I said, ‘No, I’m not.’”
Miriam encourages others to see age as a gift. Whether in your 20s, 40s, or 70s, every stage of life comes with its own opportunities. “The older you get, the crazier you can be,” she says with a laugh.
Her Most Recent Marathon Milestone
In the podcast, Miriam reveals her plans for her upcoming ultramarathon. This will be her 24th ultramarathon, and she’ll be 66 years old at the time. Miriam continues to challenge herself and inspire others to redefine their limits.
Life Lessons from Ultramarathon Running
For Miriam, ultramarathons aren’t just about crossing the finish line—they’re about what you learn along the way. Here are her key lessons:
- Resilience is Built Through Challenges: Life, like ultramarathons, is full of adversity. Embrace the journey rather than fearing it.
- Mindset Overcomes Limitations: Your age doesn’t define what you can achieve; your attitude does.
- Rejections Are Opportunities: “A rejection is not failure. It’s just an opportunity for future success.”
Encouragement for Women to Dream Boldly
Miriam’s story is a testament to the fact that it’s never too late to pursue your dreams. “When you feel overwhelmed, that’s good—it means you’re alive,” she says. Her advice? Take the first step, no matter how scary it feels, and surround yourself with people who encourage your growth.
Conclusion
Miriam Diaz Gilbert proves that life’s challenges, whether in running or otherwise, are opportunities to grow stronger. At 66, she’s gearing up for her 24th ultramarathon and showing the world that age is not a barrier—it’s a gift.
Listen to Miriam’s full story on the More Than Your Age podcast, and be inspired to pursue your dreams, no matter where you are in life.
Read the full transcript here:
Erica Pasvar (00:01)
Joining me today on the More Than Your Age podcast is author, gardener, hiker, ultra runner, and painter, Miriam Diaz Gilbert. Welcome to the show.
Miriam Gilbert (00:14)
Well, it’s a pleasure for me to be here. Thank you for inviting me. I’m very happy to be here, Erica.
Erica Pasvar (00:20)
Well, it is an honor Miriam. You have this robust, rich life fulfilled with impactful careers, difficulty, resilience, new ventures, struggles, fulfilling hobbies, faith.
So much more there. could go, we were talking before the recording, we could go a bunch of different directions just regarding your life specifically and just all that you’ve accomplished. We do not have enough time for that. That’s why you have books. That’s why you have other things to share and just the things that you’ve had to endure. And I do wanna address a handful of them during our time and just.
how you’ve used your life circumstances and your age specifically to act as an aid for your accomplishments in the pursuit of the hobbies and your dreams that you have. So you’ve been interviewed multiple times on Running, Endurance, Faith and Sports podcasts about your ultra running, which is so fascinating to me and different health challenges. And so I wanna start off with your initial introduction to the running world. You began running in college after a heartbreak.
Why did you specifically choose running compared to other sports or exercise?
Miriam Gilbert (01:26)
Yeah, that’s a good question. Yeah, I’ve always been an athlete my entire life. I play sports, field hockey, softball, basketball, but I never participated in track and field. I was not a good runner. I was tall, lanky, and I lumbered a lot. And then, you when you go to college, there’s the stress of school and being homesick and you have a little bit more free time. So when my heart was broken,
I went for runs. know, I, some people would do other things, maybe start drinking, smoking, you know, using drugs, being promiscuous. I don’t do any of those things. I run and I found it extremely healing through the tears. helped me to cope with the loss, with the breakup. And then I realized that I really enjoyed it and it was good for my spiritual health, my mental health, my physical health. And I just kept running recreationally for
for many years. And I did meet, there was a silver lining to the breakup one, I started to run, which was good. And two, my senior year, I met my husband in a history class. And so those were two good things. So then my husband, John and I started to run together and he’s a very good cyclist. So we would cycle together and
I continued running. It was like brushing my teeth, know, something that I would do almost every day. I graduated from college, you know, I got my first job. I still ran. And when I was running up to the first trimester of the pregnancy with my firstborn, my daughter. Yeah, I just kept running. And then I realized, wait a second, I’m pregnant. I don’t have to do whatever I don’t want to do. And then I…
Erica Pasvar (03:11)
Whoa.
You
Miriam Gilbert (03:23)
I stopped running and let me tell you, it was great for labor. I had natural childbirth and I wanted natural childbirth. And when she was two years old, I ran my first 5K charity run. 5K is 3.1 miles. And that snowballed into more 5Ks and 10Ks is 6.2 miles. And I was running a half marathons. ran my, then I was pregnant with my son three and a half years later.
And I trained as soon as he was born. I ran with him also the first trimester pushing my daughter in the running stroller. And then I started training as soon as I gave birth to my son. My daughter’s Jonna and my son is Sebastian. And when he was six months old, I ran my first half marathon. That’s 13.2, 13.1 miles. And I did a few more of those. And when my son was
Two, I ran my first marathon. You know, at the end of 13 miles, I wasn’t tired. So what if I’m slow? I still want to go, you know? And I ran a lot of those marathons. I ran, I believe, nine, I ran about eight half marathons and nine marathons. And after I my ninth marathon, during that time, I was having some workplace mistreatment.
experiences. It was not a good thing. And during winter break from the university job that I had, I was watching CBS 60 minutes one Sunday night and Leslie Stahl is interviewing two ultra runners. And I knew what runners are, but I didn’t know what ultra runners what was ultra running. So I was intrigued and
I just started watching this interview and I was so impressed and so inspired. I was in all of these two very famous runners, Dean Carnassas and Pam Reed. And they would run 300 miles at a time, 200 miles at a time. Yeah, in the desert and all terrain everywhere. And they talked about their diet and their food and why they did it. And at that moment, when the interview was over, I got on our desktop in our family room and I Googled Ultra.
running and the first thing that came up was the JFK 50 mile ultra which is the oldest 50 miler in the country. It takes starts in Maryland and goes through Virginia and West Virginia and I said that’s it that’s my goal. It was in January the JFK 50 is every November the week of Thanksgiving and I started running marathons 50 milers and then that snowballs into 100 milers and then
I am now training for my 42nd ultra, which is a 72 hour race. And I have to tell you, ultra running was not anything that I ever knew about, nothing that I ever planned on doing, but ultra running saved my life when I had my medical nightmare. In 2012, I had a schedule laparoscopic hysterectomy.
to remove massive fibroids. My fibroids were being watched over a 10-year period. And then one day I woke up like I looked like I was pregnant. And one thing led to another. At the time I was 53 and I’m no longer going to have children. And I was just a little bit worried. There’s ovarian cancer in my family. I lost a dear cousin to ovarian cancer. May she rest in peace. And many, many, years ago. And I thought, wow.
You know what? I’ll have the hysterectomy, laparoscopic hysterectomy, total hysterectomy. And three days before that, I ran a 24 hour race. It was my first 24 hour race and I placed third female with like 83 plus miles. I was like, wow, but I didn’t go in to place or to win. I just go in to finish. That’s my goal every time, just to finish.
Erica Pasvar (07:28)
Wow.
Miriam Gilbert (07:39)
And three days later, get my, it was, my laparoscopic hysterectomy. was, they said it was just a simple procedure with an overnight stay, you know, and I go home. A week later, I became very sick. Long story short, it, the doctor, my surgeon, transected my left ureter. He cut it.
during the laparoscopic hysterectomy. And that caused a week later, that terrible, terrible unbearable pain and nausea. And I had a small bowel obstruction. And I was admitted to the hospital for 14 days. But when I first found out that I had a small bowel obstruction, I was told in the emergency room after I had the CT scan, I didn’t panic. I thought, my father had a small bowel obstruction a few years ago.
And he’s fine. So I thought, I must have inherited my father’s digestive system. He has a small bowel obstruction. I have a small bowel obstruction. I had my appendix removed when I was eight. He had his removed when he was 62. So I thought, okay, my father survived it. He was like in his seventies and that wasn’t, it was nothing to do with genetics. I was in the hospital for 14 days. I was sent home.
While I’m in the hospital, I’m leaking nonstop, nonstop. I have to replace maternity pads three or four at a time every hour. I just kept leaking. They told me that this was normal because my organs were trying to get back into their normal place and I believed them. I went home and I became sick again.
Erica Pasvar (09:20)
Wow.
Miriam Gilbert (09:36)
with a high fever on Labor Day, go back into the emergency room, to the operating room where they discover. On Labor Day of September 2012, they discovered that on August 1st, my left ureter had been transacted and I was now becoming septic. Yes, so an infection was setting in and I was admitted to the hospital for five more days because they had to
place on the frost to me tube in my left kidney to drain all that urine out and I had to wear a urine bag strapped to my left thigh. And now I’m on medical leave. I cannot return to work. And I have to wait seven weeks to have my ureter repair by a urologist surgeon, urologic surgeon. And
And during that time, I just visualized crossing the finish Erica. I was a marathon of a different kind. And I would just think about my ultras, what I had put my body through willingly. The training, the blisters, the chaving, the hallucinations, the losing cognitive functioning.
I’m not able to tell time after certain miles, even being exhausted. And so I said, okay, I’ve done marathons, I’ve done ultras, I’m going to also cross the finish with this one. And God was with me the entire time. Okay. And I prayed to God. Also at the same time, Erica, speaking of age and doing new things as we get older, I was in a theology doctoral program.
that started that June 2012, my first residency. So I was working on my dissertation papers and they all had to do with saints and martyr them and God and Jesus and all the wonderful thing about Christianity and Christian spirituality. But I survived. The surgeon put me back together again, another surgeon and my ureter was back in place and I’m training for my next ultra.
Erica Pasvar (11:58)
Wow. Well, Mary, okay, so fascinating. You said when you’re in the hospital and your eye is on the finish line, because that’s what you do when you were a runner. And when you’re thinking about recovery and healing and you said, God was with you this entire time. In this time, as you’re visualizing this finish line,
Miriam Gilbert (12:00)
That’s it.
Erica Pasvar (12:25)
What would you do or how would you, like what, I guess I’m kind of the question I’m trying to ask is when you were visualizing, let’s say you weren’t visualizing and you didn’t think like, I’m just gonna get out of it. You may have this like, my gosh, woe is me, I’m in pain, this hurts, this is horrible. How do you think the visualizing the finish line compared drastically and helps you compared to a woe is me mindset?
Miriam Gilbert (12:52)
Well, that’s not my mindset. Woe is me. Never. I never see myself as a victim. This is not the source of my suffering is not God. God is the source of my strength. And it just so happened that during this surgery and what I was going through, I was also doing my doctoral work, Christian spirituality, and the saints helped me through it.
St. Catherine of Siena, St. Perpetua, who was a very young martyr in the second century. He was martyred at age 21 and she wouldn’t renounce her Christianity. And their suffering and what they were willing to do for God, for Jesus gave me strength. I thought about them. I thought about friends and families who had suffered and died from cancer. I’ve seen them with my own eyes and
their suffering, my suffering was nothing compared to theirs. And then I meditated on Jesus Christ on the cross and his suffering. And my suffering was nothing in compare. Their suffering gave me strength to carry on. I would not have been able to do it without my faith, without God, and of course without my husband and family and friends who prayed for me. And so, yeah, that’s.
Erica Pasvar (14:19)
that,
yeah, that’s powerful and so important. you’re in there and the recovery, when you were finally released, you said the recovery was seven weeks.
Miriam Gilbert (14:31)
Well, I had to wait seven weeks to get my ureter repaired. So I finally, it was repaired on October 23rd. So the hysterectomy happened on August 1st. The transaction, the small bowel obstruction was the following week. I was in hospital for 14 days, sent home. I became sick again with a high fever.
Sepsis was starting to set in. I go back to the hospital on Labor Day. I’m there for five more days where the nephrostomy tube is inserted. Then I’m sent home and I have to wait till October 23rd to get my Ureter repair. Then I’m finally able to return back to my teaching job when the new semester in the spring of 2013.
Erica Pasvar (15:26)
Okay, and then when were you able to start running again?
Miriam Gilbert (15:30)
Well, I started running by first walking. You walk, put one foot in front of the other. I remember going out for a short walks, maybe three miles with the nephrostomy to strap the urine back strapped to my Capri running pants and going out with John who it was just baby steps walking really slowly. But for me, movement is healing.
So anytime that you’re injured or that you have to recuperate from an illness or surgery, just walk, walking and being outside in nature. It’s so important and so healing. So, you know, I started training like December, you know.
baby steps and then I started, you know, doing longer runs and actually really running and because I had a trail ultra coming up in May, 50 mile trail ultra. So I was training for that. I felt good, but I was still very tender and very sore, but mentally I was super strong. Okay, and my legs were strong. So I went into that 50 mile trail ultra and
I stopped at mile 26 and a half because I knew I would not make the 35 mile cutoff. But how pleased was I to be able to do 26 and a half miles? I was so happy. It was a DNF, which in ultrarunny means did not finish, but I don’t see DNFs as failures. I see them as opportunities for future success.
Erica Pasvar (17:02)
Yeah.
love
that.
Miriam Gilbert (17:15)
A few years later, I returned to that ultra. I was much older. was 50. yeah, I was 57. Four years later, I returned. It was grueling. I was like, goodness, what have I done? I enjoyed it, but I did walk the last six or eight miles. But the whole time I’m meditating on the saints and Jesus and God and Mary and the Rosary. And I finished third place in my age group.
winning. Yeah, so I just kept going, keep going because God is with me. I’m not alone, you know. I can feel God’s presence. I can talk to God. I can feel the saints. I can feel them cheering me on. And once again, I think about the suffering that they endure. My sore feet is nothing compared. And I still have time on the clock. A gift.
Erica Pasvar (17:45)
That’s incredible. I mean.
Miriam Gilbert (18:15)
Let me take advantage of it.
Erica Pasvar (18:17)
Absolutely. Yes, I love that. There’s time on the clock and that is definitely a gift, a thousand percent. Now, I want to know for myself and others who are not ultra runners, you know, we have an idea of what marathons look like because it’s more common language in half marathons, but ultra marathons, when there are these 50 miles, 100 miles races, you know, for the normal person who doesn’t typically run, a mile is a long time.
Miriam Gilbert (18:22)
Yeah.
Erica Pasvar (18:45)
So when you think of 50 miles and 100 miles, what are you doing the entire time? I know you had mentioned to, you’re praying, you’re meditating. That’s a lot of hours. And so what, are you talking to people? What does the restroom situation look like and food?
Miriam Gilbert (19:00)
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, okay. it’s yeah, you know, a 50 miles compared to a mile, but a 50 miler is just one mile 50 times, you know, a hundred mile is one mile a hundred times. But yes, ultra runners, this is the beauty, the beauty. One of the beauties of ultra running is the very supportive community. We really support each other out there. We make new friends.
Erica Pasvar (19:09)
Hehehe.
Miriam Gilbert (19:26)
We feel each other’s struggle. We feel each other’s pain. We cheer each other on. And we also have crews. A crew is, in my family, it was my children, my son, my daughter, my husband, when my children were younger. And they feed me. They change my socks. They put sunscreen on me. They help me to change my clothes. know, I want, you know, getting a new pair of sneakers, you know. They feed me.
They massage my feet and they say, get out there and off I go, you know? And when you have a pacer, my son has paced me in a hundred mile races. My husband has paced me in a hundred mile races. My daughter is always good at crewing. Like she knows exactly what to do when I have to, you know, she changes my socks. She’s like the pit crew on NASCAR, you know, that kind of, you can.
Erica Pasvar (20:17)
Yeah, I thought I’m picturing.
Miriam Gilbert (20:20)
Yeah, can you picture that? That’s
my daughter, you know, putting my sunscreen on and mom in this and shoving food in my mouth and I’m going forward. And yeah, this is the other thing. would not be possible to run these ultras without God and my family. It is truly a family affair. And now that my children are adults with their own children, they can’t really help me out. And we live in separate states.
and now it’s just my husband. But I’m so experienced that I can handle things on my own if need be. And the older they get, the more wisdom, the more experience you have, the more you can do, in my opinion. Yeah.
Erica Pasvar (21:04)
When someone runs a 50 mile or 100 mile on average, the average person who does run this, how long would that take a person?
Miriam Gilbert (21:11)
Okay, well, they do have limits. So when you sign up for a 15-miler, it could be a 12-hour limit or a 13-hour limit. And that’s it. So if you don’t make it, then you get a DNF. Yeah. And with a 100-miler, it’s typically a 30-hour time limit or 32. And there was a 100-mile that I ran in Pensacola in 2017.
and it was so hot and humid. It was Labor Day weekend. But I realized why they give us 40 hours, because it’s grueling. Yeah. So I’ve done that and I hallucinated in that one. At the end of the 100 miles, it was a terrible hallucination. I finished the race, you get your buckle, you’re really happy, you’re really tired and hungry. And we were in an RV that we rented.
and we ran out of food and everything is closed. It’s 10 o’clock at night. It’s Labor Day night, you know, it’s closed. And the only thing that was open was Walmart. So John went in there and said, all I could find was a Cobb salad. So here’s the Cobb salad and he opens it and I look at it and I’m like, I’m not eating that. He says, you said you wanted Cobb salad. I said, that’s not a Cobb salad. There are people in my food. Look.
Erica Pasvar (22:34)
You
Miriam Gilbert (22:35)
There’s a mom and the
dad and look at the kid. I’m not eating that. There’s people in my food. goes, there are no people there. That’s just grilled chicken. That’s the grill. I’m chicken. He goes, I’m not eating this. There are people in my food. And then the next day I realized I’d hallucinated. And I recently had another hallucination last year in October. I ran a 48 mile race. And the second night, I mean, both nights were so cold.
I have blankets on, have layers on, have gloves, hats, scarves, you name it, I had it on. I look like a homeless bag lady. I was just covered from head to toe. I see this person in front of me and I’m like, my God, what’s that elderly patient doing out in the cold with their walker? They had a hospital gown on, the one you tie in the back. I’m thinking, my God, it’s probably from a nursing home.
Erica Pasvar (23:28)
Yeah.
Miriam Gilbert (23:33)
they just left because maybe they don’t know where they are and they took off and they’re out on this trail, I mean on this path and I’m like and I try to walk to catch up to help this person and the closer I got I realized my god that’s a fellow ultra runner she has a cape on and I thought it was a person with
Erica Pasvar (23:51)
Hahaha.
Miriam Gilbert (23:56)
a walker. It looked exactly like that. And I thought, no, I’m not hallucinating. I want to help this person out. I want to this person out. And we just started laughing and we started to share hallucination stories till we finished that laugh and then we continue on.
Erica Pasvar (24:11)
So then that’s common because of the lack of sleep.
Miriam Gilbert (24:14)
Exactly, sleep deprivation. Yes, yes. Some people, you know, I don’t always have hallucinations, but those are, I’ve had two severe and then others were, my God, there’s someone there. It’s just the leaf blowing in the wind, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah, but you do hallucinate, but I can’t imagine my life not running ultra marathons.
Erica Pasvar (24:29)
You
Yeah, I mean, that’s fascinating. you first shared with me too, you started ultra running at 46 and then it continued. Of course, there was that pause when you had the hysterectomy and then the malfunction of everything and picked it back up again pretty soon after.
Miriam Gilbert (24:54)
Yeah, yeah.
What happened was, did I tell you that I went back to the race a year later? Yeah, I went back to the race where three days I had before my schedule hysterectomy. I went back the following July to run it because for me, it was part of my healing journey. And when I went to register, the deadline had passed. So I emailed.
Erica Pasvar (25:01)
Yeah.
Yes.
Miriam Gilbert (25:23)
the directors and explain the situation and how I enjoyed the race last year so much and this and that. And I told them very briefly what had happened to me and if possible, can an exception be made? Because I just felt like I needed it as part of my healing journey. They were so gracious, so wonderful. And they got back to me and they said, absolutely, Miriam, you’ve been through so much, know, definitely just, you know, register here, no problem.
And when I ran that race, I was running with medication for rheumatoid arthritis. I was then diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in April of 2013. And I think it was the result of just the shock and trauma to my body from all those surgeries. And also I was given Cipro, which is the atomic bomb of antibiotics.
and I had a severe reaction to it. I was not able to dress, undress, squeeze the toothpaste in the toothbrush. Driving was hard, steering, getting in and out of the car was difficult. And we thought, you know, I did, what’s that called? Acupuncture. And it didn’t work. And finally, my doctor sent me to a rheumatologist and I…
was diagnosed with RA. So I was running that ultra on a super hot July weekend for 24 hours. And then I, at around 18 hours later, I had logged around 65 miles. I said, you know what? I am truly blessed. I’m so happy with my 18 hours and my 65 miles. I’m done. I’m gonna stop. And I still managed to play sixth female.
So I was really happy. But again, I was just so grateful and just so, just grateful for being alive and for still being able to do the ultra distance.
Erica Pasvar (27:35)
Yes, absolutely. I mean, just the fact with all of these health situations that have happened where you’re continuing to run and multiple times where running for you has been a healing, it’s been a therapy. And I love to kind of to go back when you first initially started running, you said, I didn’t chase alcohol, I didn’t chase drugs, didn’t chase whatever it may be. Yeah, yeah, and that running was what…
Miriam Gilbert (27:47)
Mm-hmm.
I’m just gonna cheat out here.
Erica Pasvar (28:01)
was the healthy and a safe option and a good option. And so I love that. And hopefully people listening to that, if they’re in a hard season, may not be running, but something physical.
Miriam Gilbert (28:10)
Yes,
try yoga, try whatever you wanna do. Just walking, just become a walker. In fact, I have to tell you, doctors were amazed I survived my medical nightmare. Because when the urologist, the consult came in on Labor Day, they said we need someone in the operating room, so they called this urologist.
And he later told my husband and I that when he saw me on Labor Day, he thought I had had the hysterectomy the day before, not August 1st. He said, it was just amazing that you hadn’t gotten septic sooner or worse. He was just, I mean, and the other doctors that care for me were amazed and they all said you are in such good
physical shape that you had a great immune system to help you fight the infection. But I didn’t know that until much later because they kept things from me. And John knew it, but he told me much later. But see, I’m like, I had no idea. I’m almost septic. I have no idea that I’m not supposed to be alive. No, no, I’m here. I’m breathing. I’m moving.
Erica Pasvar (29:30)
Yeah.
Miriam Gilbert (29:37)
let’s get this party started.
Erica Pasvar (29:39)
Do you,
just based on what you said, I’m thinking no, but I want to ask you anyway, do you think that had they’ve told you the reality that you were, you more of the information that they withheld from you that that would have changed things or no?
Miriam Gilbert (29:53)
No, no, no,
absolutely not. I said, okay, then I just have to pray harder. And I was so strong. And again, I just visualized the finish. was definitely all my years of training, my years of discipline, training is a discipline. My commitment really prepared me for this medical nightmare. And then this medical nightmare of mine,
prepare me to be my husband’s cancer caregiver when he was diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer in 2018.
Erica Pasvar (30:31)
Yeah, you dealt with so much with that with your husband and he’s a survivor as well, which is amazing. I want to also talk about the, I might mispronounce this, you had another obstacle, many obstacles in your life. And I think there’s something that you said that I love, I’m gonna pull that up what you said, to quote you, you stated that obstacles are not to be avoided, but to be overcome.
Miriam Gilbert (30:39)
Thank
Yes.
Erica Pasvar (30:58)
Love that. And you’ve had so many obstacles. We’ve already talked about several. The hysterectomy, there’s a B12 deficiency. You had a breast cancer diagnosis yourself and then with your husband as well. But then there’s this journey with ESF. This is where I’m going to.
Miriam Gilbert (31:13)
Eosinophilic
Ocephagitis or EOE.
Erica Pasvar (31:17)
Thank you.
EOE, and that’s what I’m going to refer to it as, but I really want to discuss when this happened in your life, how did this initiate, and then what was happening to determine that there was another issue.
Miriam Gilbert (31:21)
Yes.
Wow, yeah, that was a 26 year long journey. Yes, that started in 1996 in May. My husband, my children, it’s a May day. We’re eating dinner outside our home in the patio and a piece of meat. We were having rice and beans and pork and food got stuck and I thought I was choking and they’re like, what’s wrong?
Erica Pasvar (31:35)
Whoa.
Miriam Gilbert (31:58)
I’d never experienced that. there, you we don’t know what to do. But it resolved itself. The piece of food went down. But then I was wiped out for three hours. I went to sleep and I woke up three hours later. And then it kept happening, like food getting stuck. It would resolve itself. And when food would get stuck, I would bang on the dining room table or wherever I was. And that was a signal to my children and my husband, there’s something wrong.
Long story short, I went to a GI doctor who said, okay, well, I want you to avoid tomato sauce, no orange juice, no chocolate, don’t drink caffeine like Pepsi or coffee. I don’t drink coffee. I used to drink Pepsi and no Seltzer. and I want you to sleep with tons of pillows so that you reclined. And eventually I need you to put two bricks underneath your bed.
Yeah, so the bed’s like this, okay. And we did that for 20 years. And yeah, and I had all kinds of tests, video swallow, all kinds of stuff. And then I was told, well, you know, we don’t know what it is. So we’re going to give you a proton pump inhibitor like Nexium or Prilosec and that didn’t help. And then I saw another doctor.
in a top top hospital in this country who told me you have eosinic acypagitis. We don’t know what the cause is. It’s very rare. And, you know, take proton pump inhibitors and I took them again. They didn’t work. And I had a severe choking episode. I believe it was two thousand fifteen or I can’t remember what it was.
We were having dinner, Chinese food, food got caught. It was the rice noodles with a little bit of egg and pork. It wouldn’t go up and wouldn’t go down, it wouldn’t come up. I was in a panic and my husband and my son said, it’s time for the emergency room. Went to the emergency room. They gave me some medication to have it dissolve. It wouldn’t dissolve because it was really caught. Then I had to go get a-
emergency endoscopy and of course I’m told what I already know, you have a really abnormal esophagus. I said, yes, I know. Then my doctor who I was seeing went to another hospital in another state and then I went to my new doctor where my husband was getting his cancer care, the best cancer care. I had a severe, severe
Food Impaction episode, the day after Labor Day, September, 2019, 2021. We’re still in COVID and I had a piece of bread and a piece of pork and it got stuck really, really bad and it wouldn’t go down. And then we had to drive like 20 minutes to the hospital and I was gagging.
retching, I couldn’t talk, it was very painful. I waited in the emergency room for six hours and finally OR opened up and they had to do an emergency endoscopy and I saw the the CAT scan of this massive bowl of food stuck in my esophagus and the young resident who saw me in recovery said you know you have a really abnormal esophagus.
Erica Pasvar (35:23)
Hmm.
Miriam Gilbert (35:45)
It’s very inflamed. It’s white. It’s this and that. Have you taken proton pump inhibitors? I said, those don’t help. And so then the doctor saw me and he said, okay, let’s try this. Have you ever been on the six food elimination diet? And I’m like, no, what is that? He says, for eight weeks, I want you to avoid fish, wheat, dairy, nuts, eggs, and soy.
Erica Pasvar (35:46)
Thank
Miriam Gilbert (36:16)
So I couldn’t eat any of that. And I met with a dietitian and she gave me a diet. It’s called the Oregon diet and gave me a list of the food products that I can buy at the supermarket and some brand names and a menu, sample menus. Okay. I could eat everything else. Pork, fish, know, chicken, beef, corn.
everything else, all kinds of fruits and vegetables, all kinds of whatever, a lot of chips, a of corn chips, potato chips, all of that. So like a good patient, I said, okay, let’s see if this works because my eosinophil count at that time when I had that emergency food endoscopy was 49 and that’s high.
A diagnosis for EOE is 15 eosinophils. Eosinophils are white blood cells that need to stay in your bone marrow, but mine had been fighting whatever was attacking my esophagus. And that’s why they were up there. So, but they didn’t know what it was that they were attacking. So I’m on this diet for the six-foot elimination diet for eight weeks. How shocked was I?
when the endoscopy and the biopsy results show that my eosinophil count went from 49 to 100. Exactly. I’m like, whoa, that’s not good. So then my doctor says, well, let’s try some medications like a steroid that’s used for eczema and for asthma.
I said, no, I’m not going to use any off-label drugs because I have neither asthma nor eczema. With my drug allergy history, at the time I had 10 drug allergies, I’ve since discovered I have 11. I said, those are going to make me sick or they’re going to give me asthma or they’re going to give me eczema. He said, reluctantly, said, all right, have you tried the Elemento diet? I said, Elemento diet, what is that? He said,
It’s a liquid diet. It’s amino acids with maybe 20 % protein, no carbs or anything. And you need to be on this for eight weeks. The success rate to Heal EOE with this diet is 95%. But the compliance rate is 20%. So I did my research. It does the job, but
Majority of patients, only 20 % will comply. The rest stop it because it requires a lot of discipline, lifestyle change, at least for that period of time. It doesn’t taste good, tastes terrible. It smells awful. At first I would drink it holding my nose and adding sea salt just to give it a taste. It was terrible. But I have to tell you, Erica, four years later, it’s my best friend, Vibra-nex.
elemental diet. Anyway, so I and I lost weight because I had no food. I had no food in me. It was just this liquid diet. My pants were falling off. I had to go to Old Navy to buy skinny jeans because everything was falling off. guess what? I had another endoscopy. And this time
Erica Pasvar (39:30)
Wow.
Miriam Gilbert (39:56)
Zero eosinophils.
Erica Pasvar (39:58)
What? And now I’m wondering.
Miriam Gilbert (40:00)
Yeah,
that’s exactly what I said. What I said, he says, you don’t have any more. I said, my god, that’s great. So and then he says, not so fast. We have to find out what foods are the triggers. And of course, I can’t be on this diet the rest of my life. You know, I’ll shrivel to nothing. So he said,
We’re going to do like nine more food introductions. So that’s nine more endoscopies throughout the year, the following year. Well, let’s start with the food and vegetable diet. Okay. So only fruits and only vegetables for eight weeks. And I’m like, wow, I love vegetables and I like fruit too, but I prefer vegetables. And you know what they say? Fruits and vegetables are really healthy. So.
That’s all I ate for eight weeks. And my poor husband, he ate what he could, but he’s a really good cook. So he made me these delicious vegetable casseroles and vegetable meals. And he would also puree them in case they got stuck, you know? And I was so happy. I was in heaven. And that was the time, I don’t know if you watch court TV, but it was the time when Johnny Depp was being sued.
Erica Pasvar (41:02)
Mm.
Miriam Gilbert (41:15)
by his ex-wife and I caught, I started watching it like week two and I’m like, ooh, let me eat my baked potato with mushrooms and onions. And that’s what I ate every day watching the trial. Cause all I could have was fruits and vegetables. So I was thrilled. I’m going to my endoscopy. It’s going to be good. My eosinophil count went from zero with the elemental diet to a hundred with the fruits and vegetable diet.
It just didn’t make any sense. But while I was on this diet, the fruits and vegetables, I started to do research. I’m like, what do the fruits that I was allowed to eat, what do they contain? So during my trips to the supermarket, I would look at the labels of all the foods that I was allowed to eat. They were all filled with chemicals and food coloring and cornstarch and this and that and the other.
Erica Pasvar (42:08)
Mmm.
Miriam Gilbert (42:14)
stuff I couldn’t pronounce that I’ve never even considered looking at food labels my entire life. Never. We just buy and stick it in the cart, you know? And then I’m thinking, wait, these are chemicals. And then I realized what do fruits and vegetables have in common? Pesticides and insecticides. And I did my research on that. Grapes are the worst offenders. Their skin is so…
paper thin that the spray seeps right into the fruit. The same thing with potatoes. They have very thin skin. And I did all this research and I thought, goodness, I know what’s causing this. I had a theory. I think it’s the chemicals in our food supply that I’m eating that’s damaging my esophagus. That’s what my white blood cells are attacking.
because they’re attacking my esophagus. So I told my doctor, you know what, no more endoscopies. I’m done. No more food introduction. I have a theory. I’m going to start making food on my own that contains no preservatives, no additives, no food coloring, no nitri- hormones, antibiotics and steroids in my meat and poultry, and no insecticides and pesticides in my fruits and vegetables. And I said to him,
watch me. I’m going to create my own diet. This diet doesn’t exist so I’m going to call it the Miriam diet. Okay and I’m going to make my own bread, my own ice cream, my own brownies. The only fruit I ate was watermelon because I had read that it has a very thick rind so the chemicals don’t seep in and pineapple.
and I ate cabbage, red cabbage and green cabbage because they have a natural enzyme that warts off pests. So no need to really spray them. And organic beans, I would read the labels. And that’s all I ate. No meat, no chicken. no, we did get a chicken at an organic farm, you know. And that’s all I ate. I ate like 15 things. That was my diet. That was it. And my Vibonix.
Erica Pasvar (44:37)
Mm-hmm.
Miriam Gilbert (44:38)
my elemental diet drink. And guess what, Erica? I got my endoscopy and my biopsy. And normally the biopsy report is like two pages filled with nonsense that they say they found in your body, which is normal. This one had like one sentence, up to zero eosinophils. I’m done. I healed myself.
Erica Pasvar (45:03)
Wow.
Miriam Gilbert (45:07)
and I have not had a full impact since September 2021.
nothing gets stuck. It is, it is. And I took my eosinophils by the horns, I like to say, and I became my own advocate. I did my own research. I started to write about it for my blog and in a patient-worthy website and another place. And people from all over the world have reached out to me, text me, message me.
Erica Pasvar (45:13)
That’s fascinating.
Miriam Gilbert (45:42)
ask if they can call me and I said, of course you can call me. tried, I said, I’m not a doctor. I’m just telling you what worked for me and maybe avoid foods with chemicals. And then people were asking me, cause I post pictures of the food that I make. It’s all very delicious and very healthy. And they were asking for my recipes in my cookbook. And I said, well, now I got a write one. That’s what I’ve been working on. That’s what I’ve been working on.
And it’s just amazing. And I hope in 2025 to reach out to my senators and Congress people. I want to go before a hearing in Washington, DC to, I want to take on the food industry and they have to provide an alternative for people like me. And
The thing is, it’s increasing, EOE is increasing, more and more people are being diagnosed and children are being diagnosed with EOE. And we don’t eat in restaurants, we don’t eat fast food. We belong to a verified organic farm where we get our fruits and vegetables. We get our pork and beef that’s organic. get our chicken is halal.
It’s got no chemicals. And everything that we make is either verified organic. Be very careful with the word organic on food products. It’s a term that’s used as a marketing gimmick to get people to pay more. But just look at the label and you’ll see some foods that say organic and you look at the label and there’s some chemicals. Like, you know, there’s so many products that are filled with chemicals. Almost everything in the supermarket is filled with chemicals.
So yeah, so we make our own food. When we travel, we prepare our food and we carry it with us. When we hike in the national parks, we have our little stove or we have the RV. And I seek organic farms wherever we travel and I find them. Yeah, and it’s worth it. Yeah.
Erica Pasvar (47:56)
Yeah. Man,
I mean, I believe you 100 % just even thinking of just the value of life that you were able to gain back. I mean, you’re doing all these other things simultaneously. And when you said that this was a 26 year battle, I had no idea because we were talking about all the runnings, you’re doing all the running and there’s your whole career that we haven’t even, we’re not going to get a chance to talk about today. But there’s all that and then you’re here suffering with
Miriam Gilbert (48:13)
yeah!
Yeah.
Erica Pasvar (48:25)
the food that you’re eating and discovering that these chemicals and the way that things are processed. And I know you shared with me listening to one of the episodes where I had a guest who is a two time cancer survivor and one of her big things was her diet as well and taking and getting rid of the chemicals as well. And so it’s so huge and I love that you are going to continue to fight for it. I’m going to see your name fighting and I was like, Miriam and I, spoke.
Miriam Gilbert (48:37)
Yes.
Yep.
Yeah.
Erica Pasvar (48:52)
I
know Miriam, go Miriam, that’s great. I mean, I just based on what I’m hearing about you and learning about you, I 1000 % know that you’re going to accomplish this and you’re going to continue to fight that fight and working on this book. When do you know if it’s going come out?
Miriam Gilbert (49:04)
Thank you.
I, well, it’s
putting a cookbook together is a lot of work because I take pictures of everything that my husband makes and everything that I bake. I’m the baker and he’s like the chef, you know? And then deciding how many recipes you should have in a cookbook. It’s usually like 90, 220. But I have everything outlined and desserts and like one chapter is bagels, bread and.
bread pudding, know, but everything is very healthy. And I want people for this cookbook to be creative with the foods that they make. I want people to experiment. And it’s easy for me to say that this diet is wonderful and works for me because it’s just me, I don’t have children, you know, but when you have children and they’re in school and it’s a lot of work to do this diet.
Like just this weekend, it was my third grandchild’s birthday party. And what was the small one? It was just the grandparents and the parents. And I prepared my own food from home and took it. And I did not have the ice cream cake, but I do make my own ice cream and it’s delicious. Yeah. Next time I’m in Texas, I’ll stop by and I’ll make some ice cream. But yeah, so it’s a complete lifestyle change.
Erica Pasvar (50:23)
Mmm.
Please! I’d love that.
Miriam Gilbert (50:34)
But the more you do it, the easier it is. we eat really well, we’re never hungry. And the best part is I have zero eosinophils and I haven’t had one food impaction episode. Yeah, so. Yeah.
Erica Pasvar (50:50)
Yeah, that’s huge. That’s absolutely huge. Well,
Miriam, I want to just share some little information just for the listeners because we didn’t get a chance to talk fully. You mentioned you have a blog you write. The book you’re working on right now is your third book. Your first book is English for Pharmacy Writing and Oral Communication. You stated that your students were the inspiration for your first book.
If we have just, I have two more questions. want to ask this one question, then I’ll ask my final question. How did they inspire you to write this book?
Miriam Gilbert (51:20)
that’s a great question.
Actually, I talk about that in my second book, my memoir, Come What May I Want to Run, a memoir of the saving grace of alter running and overwhelming times. When I was teaching, this was many years ago, 2006, I think, I had third year pharmacy students whose first or best language is not English, but they’re pharmacy students and they’re very good in the science world.
And in this university, in order to graduate, you have to pass the writing proficiency exam. At the time I taught English and I taught English as a second language. And I wrote on the board, you cannot BS your way through the writing proficiency exam. And they looked at it and they were like, dear, caught in the headlights. And I could tell they didn’t know what BS was. So I said, can someone tell me what BS is? And one student,
raised his hand and was proud to announce BS is Bachelor of Science. And I said, yes, yes, that’s one meaning, but not in this context. And I said, do you guys know what bull is? They knew what a, do you know what shit is? you know what bull shit is? And that just spiral into spontaneous teaching. That was not what I was supposed to do that day. So I had to explain to them what bullshit means. And then in the con and then someone said,
What’s the difference between shit and poop? And then that took me to number two, then urinate, then void, then piss, then piss off, and it just spiraled. And it was such a magical, natural, spontaneous conversation. And then I realized these students were hungry for idiomatic expressions.
And when you become a pharmacist or a doctor and English is not your first or best language, but your patients are only English speakers who speak an idiomatic language in terms, you have to know what they’re saying as a pharmacist. And so at that moment, they planted this seed, they inspired me to write this book. And I then got two research grants to study the language writing.
skills and needs of pharmacy students whose first language is not English. And then I got another grant to study their vocabulary. And based on that research, I wrote a book proposal to write this book. And it was well-researched and it was backed by research, my own and others. And the publisher, the acquisitions editor, sent out my proposal to nine pharmacy.
professors and pharmacists. And the reviews, the peer reviews came back. There is such a need for this book. This is wonderful. So it’s got everything. It’s got listening comprehension. It’s got real conversations between patient and pharmacist and all the different medical areas. And it’s got the audio, which were created by professional voiceover people. And I was there directing.
say it this way or don’t say it that way. Yeah, and so that was the inspiration my students inspired me and I filled a void and I was happy to do that because I want them to go into the world armed with as much knowledge as possible. Yeah.
Erica Pasvar (54:43)
Hehehe.
That’s wonderful. You have such a great heart. I love it. And just your passion for life, you’ve done so much. And like I’ve already mentioned, we have not gone into so much more that I would love to talk about and share. But one thing I do want to let everyone else know too, in 2021, Miriam decided that something happened with work. so Miriam decided to self, she self-taught herself to paint. So now she’s an artist, a painter, which…
If you’re just listening, it’s just like, what can Miriam not do? But I love you. You’ve tried just so many new things, different careers, new hobbies. You’ve overcome so many tough obstacles. You could really help another woman who just may be scared to jump into something that’s super scary because life, can be scary. And if you don’t have them, if you have a victim mindset or even just a
Miriam Gilbert (55:32)
can’t do a lot of things, trust me.
Erica Pasvar (55:55)
Life is hard, mine said. There’s shifts that we can make, but it’s easy to use our age and the fear of getting older or just the fear of a difficult life situation to prevent us from living a fulfilled life. so, Miriam, if you could encourage just one woman who feels blocked or limited to pursue a dream or goal based on her age or life circumstance, what would you tell her?
Miriam Gilbert (56:20)
Well, first embrace your age. Your age is a gift. Okay, whether you’re in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond, it’s a gift. And whatever’s going on in your life, whatever struggles, adversity, challenges, situations you’re having, remember to always see the glass half full, overflowing with hope and possibilities. This is important.
and continue to do the things that you love to do. And there are times in life when there are situations that we can’t control, but we know that we can control them by the way we respond to the situation, whether it’s an adversity, a struggle or suffering. Embrace the good, the bad and the ugly. And that is life.
Life is adversity, it’s challenges, it’s setbacks and trauma and loss and struggles. But from those, we gain strength. So follow your dreams and you may face rejection, but that’s okay. A rejection is not failure. A rejection like a DNF, do not finish, is just opportunity for future success. So don’t give up and you know the older you get,
the crazier you can be. Yeah, really. And you can just do whatever you want. Like when I started painting, I didn’t know what I was doing. I started painting because I lost my job to the pandemic. And then I realized, wait a second, many years ago, maybe now 20 years ago, John had wanted, he said, I want to paint someday. And so I listened and I got him canvases and paints and brushes for Christmas. He never touched a stuff.
Erica Pasvar (57:50)
You
Miriam Gilbert (58:19)
Never. And then when he got diagnosed in 2018, I said, I know why he didn’t paint. I forgot to buy the easel. So for Father’s Day, I got him an easel. Still. So three years after his diagnosis, it was 2021, July, I started playing with paint, literally playing with paint. I’ve never painted anything in my life, but walls at home. And I’ve now painted 67 paintings, 66 acrylics, one oil on wood.
And I had my first solo exhibition last February in a small library, but a handful of people came and I just, it was such a joyful time because they came and they were happy to see my paintings and the response was good and to share. The paintings became part of my journal and my journey. know, Pablo Picasso wrote that painting is just another way.
of keeping a diary. And that’s true. And don’t be afraid to take that step like, no one’s going to like it or no one’s going to care. Don’t worry about stuff like that. Be creative, you know? And I used to say, well, what people are going to think. And then I realized, well, do I care what they think? This is what I’m doing. And Matisse wrote once, creativity takes courage. And so that’s the message I want to give women who feel.
like they’re setbacks, they’re overwhelmed. That’s natural. When you’re overwhelmed, that’s good. It means you’re alive. Okay. And just have courage and surround yourself with other people if you can. And yeah, just, and if you’re a faithful person, if you have faith, know that God will never abandon you. God is guiding you along the way. You know,
Sometimes we wish for things, we pray for things, and we don’t always get what we want. So I like to leave people with this thought. When we ask God for things or pray, God will respond in one of three ways. It’s been my experience. Yes, maybe, not now. But it doesn’t mean that you should give up that dream. Yeah.
Erica Pasvar (1:00:41)
Absolutely, Miriam, your age is a gift. I love that. The older you get, the crazier you get. I love that too. Miriam, this was so wonderful. I am just so encouraged by the words that you have shared and by just a glimpse of your story. I appreciate you joining me today. Please share your website. I’m gonna put it in the show notes, but for people who are auditory, if you could share that as well.
Miriam Gilbert (1:00:48)
Yeah!
Yes. Yes,
you can go to Miriam, Diaz Gilbert. That’s M-R-I-A-M-D-I-A-Z-G-I-L-B-E-R-T dot com. And there you’ll find my blog, my paintings, my books, my ultra running. Yeah. So my EOE, everything about EOE. So if you think you have EOE, give me a call.
Erica Pasvar (1:01:17)
Perfect, and there you can find your books.
Yes. Yes, I was looking at it yesterday.
Yes. I was looking at it all yesterday and I was just so impressed by everything that you’ve accomplished. Well, Miriam Diaz Gilbert, thank you again so much for joining me today on the More Than Your Age podcast.
Miriam Gilbert (1:01:41)
Thank you so much, Erica. You’re a wonderful person. I’m so glad we got to meet.
Erica Pasvar (1:01:45)
I’m so glad too!