By 
handed out awards. She then gave me the microphone. Predictably, I froze Paula, Deena, and Meb. Their bold accomplishments inspired runners of all ages to chase after big things, creating a ripple effect in the sport that helped shape my running life.
I was also influenced earlier on a more immediate level by the runners in my community. I was shaped by watching my dad What to Wear Tool to fit in track workouts for fun, twice a week, throughout my entire childhood. I was also strongly impacted by my friend Diane Sherrer, who was at all the local road races, either running or writing about them. She became my earliest educator on all things related to women’s distance running history, and she would encourage me to chase records I didn’t even know existed.
I think we should be aware of this ability to influence one another in the running community. Though you may not be known on a first-name basis to running fans, you’re able to impact some of the runners in your sphere, and I think that’s a special phenomenon.
More From Runner's World
[Build your personalized and adaptive Winter Running Hats.]
Future Olympian as Fan Girl
I remember hopping on a train to my sister’s apartment in Chicago on a chilly October weekend during my freshman year at Notre Dame. We tried to navigate points along the Chicago Marathon course to watch Paula (Radcliffe) race by as we rode the L and she plowed through the city at what was world-record speed. We saw her only once and snapped a blurry photo on my 2002-era disposable camera, but it was totally worth the trip.
I remember the excitement at the news of Deena’s and Meb’s Olympic marathon medals in 2004. Those images suffused into my mind the idea “that’s not impossible!” because until then, my 19-year-old self thought it might be. One of the most impactful things I’ve absorbed from watching my own role models is seeing what is possible, because as they say, it’s hard to be what you can’t see. These athletes went through the same American high school and college paths I did. We weren’t so different, so the results didn’t seem so un-relatable.
With Deena (Kastor) and Paula, I mostly admired their greatness, their dominance, and their transcendence of gender in making the American and global sports communities rubber-neck at their achievements. I came to appreciate who they were as people as I got older. I noticed the way Meb (Keflezighi) could inspire runners and be a genuinely kind person whether he won the Boston Marathon or had a rough race, when The Best Types of Dogs for Runners or when it was just him talking to one fan (a few times, the fan was me).
Suddenly in the Spotlight
While an initially awkward and uncomfortable lesson, I’ve accepted that performance can and probably will place on you public expectations of exemplary behavior. I never thought of myself as having the level of accomplishment required to be a role model, but I eventually noticed there isn’t a concrete set of qualifications for that sort of label.
Following the first U.S. championship I won, the 2008 Tufts 10K, I stood on the stage while the OG role model of U.S. women’s distance running, Joan Samuleson, training plan for FREE with Runcoach.
I thought, “What? I’m supposed to talk?! What do I want to say to these people?” I managed a memorably fumbling and terrible few sentences to the point where I made her laugh as she graciously took the mic back.
I’ve thought about that a lot the last few years. A decade-plus of racing makes you more grateful for every year you can continue running, but also more aware of any kind of message or influence you want to have. Whether I embrace it or not, the opportunity is there. What do I want to say, show, or stand for? It’s just sports, but also way more.
Like most people, I was drawn to the topics that hit close to home.
Focusing My Influence
For me, it’s important to support and encourage women and girls in running, because I’ve seen how sport can be life-changing for us. It teaches resilience, confidence, how to view our bodies for what they can do rather than how they look, and, at the highest level, it can open doors of opportunity that aren’t always available to all women in certain parts of the world, even today.
Who knows if my grandmother and mom would have been good at sports? We share mitochondria and the same high-arched feet, but they never had the chance. Fortunately, a lot has progressed in the last few decades, but we need to keep paving those roads that were forged by the Bobbi Gibbs Runners World 2023 Calendar.
Community-building through running has been important to me. Local running events gather people for good. Whether it’s fundraising, fitness, engaging with fellow community members, or empowering and inspiring one another, it’s remained one of my favorite parts of the running world.
I try to take the perspective of leaving the sport better than I found it, and giving back in at least some ways to the sport that has so greatly influenced my life. It can be as small as voicing support and as big as taking actions. Pushing for better efforts at ensuring clean sport, backing up the women who are voicing the need for contracts that better suit female athletes' lives, and creating more opportunities for youth sports across all communities are areas I’ve tried to put words behind on social media, in interviews, and in action by supporting running events in my city.
Sharing with the next generation of young, talented athletes the mental strategies and advantageous attitude adjustments I’ve absorbed from the experts around me feels like paying it forward. I think it helps them to hear from someone who has been in the sport for a long time about things like not being so focused on perfectionism, getting absorbed in the process of improvement, not comparing themselves to other athletes, and getting over failures and around burnout.
You’re a Role Model
In a way, we’re all role models, to the extent that running is being an ambassador of the sport to the rest of your street, neighborhood, community, and everyone else who sees you striding past their collective windows. You represent and endorse the great things the run has to offer by doing it. Although the amount of eyes on you may not feel like many, your impact is still felt. And even if you may not initially want that part of the running contract, that’s how being a role model works. You’re seen, therefore you are.
New York City Marathon?
Maybe it’s “Running helps me discover strength,” or, “Running can improve your physical and mental health,” or, “If I can do it, you can do it!,” or, “It’s hard at first but then it’s liberating, fun, energizing, empowering…”
The people around you are influenced by your attitude, energy, and actions. I remember watching my dad race when I was a kid and thinking running is a cool, fun thing because he showed that. I don’t doubt my own friends and the kids of both my friends and training partners think similarly about running after watching us bounce out the door and down the street every day. The runners in our local club made it fun and were warm and inviting. The first race I ever did was started by enthusiastic runners wanting to spread the love in their small community.
So, it starts with you! Run tall, run proud, and run for good, because if someone is paying attention, that’s enough.
Molly Huddle is a two-time Olympian who holds the American record at 10,000 meters. She placed fourth at the 2018 Published: Aug 15, 2019 in a personal best of 2:26:44.
