The Speed Project adds Inma Zanoguera to its roster

What You Need To Know

More than running

The Speed Project has signed writer, researcher, and trail runner Inma Zanoguera as its latest athlete, continuing to build a roster around people whose work in running goes beyond the race.

The signing follows Brazilian ultrarunner and tattoo artist Biel, who joined TSP in 2025, and points to a broader approach to athlete sponsorship by the organization.

“We believe some of the most interesting people in running are the ones you can’t fully capture in a results sheet,” said TSP founder Nils Arend. “There’s a distance, there’s a clock, but those numbers only tell a fraction of the story.”

Zanoguera is a former professional basketball player whose current work sits in the middle of endurance sport, writing, and research. For her, the relationship is less about traditional sponsorship and more about building projects together.

“To me, TSP is a vision for how we can create beauty, adventure, and togetherness through endurance and culture,” she said.

​TSP says the partnership will include racing, writing, research, exhibitions, and community projects over the coming years.

We had a chance to chat with Inma while she was in Copenhagen before heading to Chamonix to meet the TSP team. We wanted to learn more about her past, her jump into running, and how she feels about the sport.

BITR: You started your sports career in basketball; tell us a bit about that time.

Inma: ​Basketball was my first sport, and it introduced me to what becoming an athlete means. I was very young (seven years old), just having fun with my friends from school in Spain. Around ten or twelve, I started showing some talent and was scouted and recruited for a sports academy in Mallorca.

I trained very hard there for four years, playing professional basketball as an amateur on the roster. Then I linked with a university in the United States, and they offered me a full ride. I played at the college level in Ohio. That was the beginning of opening myself up to the world, learning English, and getting off the island.

BITR: How much did you play after college?

Inma: I wanted to go pro, but I was burnt out. I did sign with a professional team in Italy, but halfway through, I just couldn’t do it anymore, so I went home to rest and figure out what was best for me.

BITR: And why did you shift into running?

Inma: ​Running was a second opportunity to become an athlete. Basketball had been mostly about performance. Running was about being outside in the mountains, something I’d never cared about before. I was into indoor things, like basketball, video games, being in school. For the first time, I was seeing people running outside, and it made me curious.
​
BITR: How do you choose trail running versus road running?

Inma: I never sat down and thought, “Do I want to be a trail runner or a road runner?” I never had to choose; I just wanted to get to the mountain top. I see them as completely different sports. I love city running; I went for a run here in Copenhagen, and it’s a completely different world from trail. If I had to choose, trail gives me more, but I need both. I couldn’t do just one. For me, trail is about the challenge and the competition, and the city is more of a daily hobby.

BITR: So what’s at the core of running for you now?

Inma: I think running came to me because I could do things differently, with competition, with my body. But the core of it has to be sustainable, and it has to happen organically for me, rather than me imposing certain goals on myself.

It’s not about performance, it’s about devotion. I’m very serious about it; it’s the thing I love the most. I’m happiest on the trail, pushing it. But the real task for me is figuring out what it means to generate something in the world. Some of my hypotheses have to do with a kind of beauty that only exists in the space of endurance. It opens the mind; it opens perception differently; it helps me feel the world. That’s what invigorates me as an athlete.

BITR: How did you first come to The Speed Project?

Inma: ​I had a friend who’d done TSP before, and she was putting together a team to do TSP, LA to Las Vegas and back. I didn’t think I’d be able to do it, but it seemed so new and different, and there was real intention behind the whole thing.

On day three, some teammates were out of steam, and I felt pretty strong, so I volunteered for the longest segment. I remember one night running through the desert: for whatever reason, I had to run nine miles with a pacer, rest 40 minutes, then run 13 more miles. At the end of it, I was just bawling and crying. I did well, but I’d been falling asleep while running. I thought, “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, are you happy now?”

It’s a space that only exists in endurance, and it became ingrained in my brain as something you only experience at TSP. I understood why so much magic happens there; it opens you up to the unknown, a blank slate.
​
BITR: How did your connection with Nils, the founder, develop?

Inma: ​At one point I asked Nils to go on a run with me. I wanted actually to know him, rather than this mysterious persona. We did a super early run, 6 am on a trail in Chamonix. I think we just clicked, simply because he’s such an open-hearted person, and we both share this immense respect for the possibilities of what running can offer people. I never knew I’d become part of the team, but I knew he was onto something.

BITR: How did the proposal to join TSP as an athlete come about?

Inma: ​In the last year, I made the decision to commit to modeling and trail running one hundred percent. I’d finished a PhD, and I said, “I just want to make it work as a runner and a model, and be found in the running world.” Funnily enough, Nils became a kind of mentor and advisor. The conversation began there, me sharing my inspiration and intentions, and at one point it became natural and positive for both of us for him to ask me to be part of TSP.
​
BITR: Let’s talk gear. What are you running in?

Inma: ​A lot of what I use has to do with my travels. I’m loving the Hyperboost; I can wear it as a lifestyle shoe. Usually I travel with that, a pair of trail running shoes, and a headlamp. In Chamonix I’m going to wear the Asics Trabuco Max. I love them so much; that shoe is the best thing. As long as it has good grip and cushion, I can wear pretty much anything.

BITR: Any gear you’re especially geeky about?

Inma: ​Let me give you my real geeky side: watches. I have zero sense of orientation, but I’m a fan of maps, data, cartographic data. For a trail race watch, the Coros Apex 4 is amazing: super seamless to use, easy to integrate maps, with information about altitude and climb. It really guides you through what’s coming next, and it tracks efforts in threes, which I need.