Melissa Ames is the founder of a global running movement and a powerful motivational speaker with the ability to spark a crowd back to life and inspire them to get up and run towards their dreams with new found joy by using her story of going from depression and heart palpitations to running 13 half marathons across the country in one year. Along the way she faced many obstacles and developed extreme resilience to find a way to return to her playful passionate energy.
Her journey started 6 years ago when she had heart palpitations was in deep depression, and didn’t think she could run past 3 miles. Making the decision to cross her first half marathon finish line in 2014 was incredibly life changing - both physically and spiritually.
Since then, she's documented her mission to run 13 half marathons in one year across the country while singing, dancing, and sharing life lessons. Somewhere through all that, her heart palpitations disappeared! And to prove we can connect beyond borders through fitness, she ran 5k’s across 7 countries in a month while interviewing locals. She now has ambassadors like her in 3 countries as part of her running movement - RUNfully Global.
After working as a production coordinator of Taco Bell Corporate’s
internal video team, she took a leap of faith to begin her career in
the entertainment industry by working as an executive assistant to actor, director, and social entrepreneur Justin Baldoni as part of his inspirational production company Wayfarer Entertainment. One of the hardest, but most rewarding times of her life. She was given the opportunity to coordinate an episode of the CW primetime special “My Last Days” as well as a carnival for over 4,000 people experiencing homelessness. There she developed her love for creating content and experiences that matter - and RUNfully was born. RUNfully Global is a movement to connect the world beyond borders through fitness of the mind, body, and soul.
She's been through so many ups and downs to know there’s absolutely no low you can sink to that you can't find the strength and the help to overcome. All it takes to experience great joy and find your purpose in the process is to get back up, find your connection to gratitude, and try one more time. Giving the gift of encouragement, support, and a little push to help others get back up and run is her life mission. She's gone through terrible situations that most people do not survive like being hospitalized for mental illness and has come out the other side stronger and ready to rise.
Because of her ability to bounce back and to breath life into others, she is like a fierce visionary cat with nine lives and has array of skills including professional salsa dancing, leading meditations, sound bowl reiki healing, writing, filmmaking, bonding with children, and speaking over 3 languages. She uses dance and running as a metaphor for life.
