Vanessa Ong

Hello! I’m Vanessa. I am a proud Vietnamese & Salvadoran athlete & creative from Los Angeles. I began my running journey in 2018 by joining community runs and training for the Los Angeles Marathon. At this point in my life, I’ve run at most around 2 miles. I remember I initially couldn’t finish the first couple of long distance runs. It humbled me, but I just kept showing up, putting in work, and over time familiar faces turned into friendships, and we turned into marathoners. I had no idea at the time that showing up every Saturday to community runs would make such a large impact in my life.

Then the pandemic hit, and the city was on lockdown. The normalcy of everyday life shifted; my work shifted remotely, and community runs were on hold. I experienced the loss of a loved one during this time, and when the city was reopening, I found myself craving running and community but too afraid of the outside world.

I then found out about GIRLAB through mutual friends and joined the Odyssey season in 2021. At this time, we were able to connect with each other through virtual experiences and I found myself bonding with the amazing women of GIRLAB in so many ways beyond running. Fast forward a couple of months later and we were finally able to meet in person, as we loaded our cozy little RVs for our journey across the desert!

Outside of running, I am a creative and help others find design solutions to everyday problems. I also enjoy merging my design expertise and passion for running to find creative solutions to give back to our community.

I’m very excited to support the women of GIRLAB to move mountains, together!