Adriana da Silva was born in
Cruzeiro, São Paulo, and started her career as a
cross country runner. She represented Brazil in the junior races at the
IAAF World Cross Country Championships in 1998 and 2000. Following a national title win in the half marathon, she made her first senior appearance on the world stage at the
2004 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, coming in 39th place. After a break in her
athletics career, da Silva returned to action in 2008 and ran for Brazil at the
2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, ending the race in 82nd place. She made her marathon debut at the Santa Catarina Marathon in
Florianópolis and won on her first attempt, recording a time of 2:41:30 hours. She was selected for the Brazilian squad at the
2009 World Championships in Athletics as a result and improved her best to 2:40:54 hours to finish 43rd in the Berlin race. In 2011, she ran at the
Vienna City Marathon and was sixth with a time of 2:33:48 hours. She set a personal best of 2:29:17 hours at the 2012
Tokyo Marathon, finishing ninth overall. She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics, finishing 47th in a time of 2:33:15. In 2015, she was the gold medalist in the marathon at the
Pan American Games in
Toronto, Canada after the
Peruvian athletic
Gladys Tejeda lost her gold medal. She also broke the
Games record with a time of 2:35:40 hours. ==Personal bests==