FW: The race has so much historical significance too in terms of women’s running. RG: I agree. Sometimes when you get in these road races with guys, it can mess with you. You may have this guy running next to you and he looks over and sees that this girl is running next to him and it becomes a surge-and-go game with the guy because he doesn’t want this girl to keep up with him [laughing]. With Freihofer’s, it’s great because it’s a race where you can be competitive with everyone around you and every spot counts; it’s really exciting.

FW: Let’s rewind a couple weeks and talk about the Blue Cross Broad Street Run, your first 10-mile road race. You were third overall in the women’s field and the first American woman finisher. What a great day it was too, with the tail wind and the cool 55 degree temperature. Did you expect to place as well as you did?
RG: No, I was quite surprised; my pace was faster than it was for the 10,000 the weekend before at Penn Relays.

FW: Wasn’t your 10,000 time at Penn Relays a PR as well?
RG: [Laughing] Yes! I definitely consider the Broad Street Run now to be my most impressive PR. I was having a good day; the weather was great, and I just started clipping off very even miles. I had an Ethiopian woman [Naomi Wangui] and a Russian woman [Olga Romanova] right ahead of me, so I was reeling them in, and by the end I was still feeling pretty good. I was really surprised when I saw how fast my time was.

FW: When we were scheduling this interview, you mentioned that you had classes to teach. What exactly do you teach?
RG: I work at William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia; it’s a K-12 school. I’m a P.E. assistant as well as a track and field coach, so I’m pretty much there every day. Today is their big field day competition, so that will be fun. The kindergarteners might be melting out there, but I’m sure it’ll still be a lot of fun.

I love my job, though. Teaching and coaching are passions of mine; it doesn’t interfere with my training either; if anything, it helps my training because it keeps me on a routine and I have a well-balanced life. I tried last year to solely focus on running, and I ended up getting injured and it was just too much pressure, so I figured that I should work with something I love, and so far, so good. My job doesn’t even feel like work.

FW: So, are the Olympic Trials on the track something that you’re aiming for?
RG: Yeah, definitely on the track for 2008. For 2012, I’d like to give it a go for the marathon. My coach is keeping me back from the marathon right now just to develop my shorter distance speed. We’re being patient with moving me up.

FW: Have you and your coach discussed your progression? Are you looking at doing any half-marathons soon?
RG: I think in the next year, I’ll probably run a big half-marathon and then maybe in a year and a half, I’ll try out a marathon. The first marathon I run will probably be low key and then I’ll go out and race my second marathon. Then again, I just planned on running the 10-mile [Broad Street Run] as though it were low key [laughing]. I signed up for Broad Street the night before the race at 5:00 p.m. [Editor’s Note: The registration booth was open until 5:00 p.m.; Gunning was able to register just in the nick of time]. So, maybe if I go into my first marathon saying that I’m not going to race it, I’ll come out with good results.

FW: There you go; this tactic seems to work for you. Let’s look at your Penn Relays 10,000. You finished ahead of the second-place finisher [Katy Masselam of Nike Central Park Track Club] by nearly a minute!
RG: Running the Penn Relays is something very special to me. I ran it every year I was in high school, every year but one when I was in college, and I won the mile there in high school. Just going back and winning a race there again was awesome! I had all of my students there, and my family. I took the lead at 100 meters into the race and just started clipping off the laps. It was a PR; I didn’t really race a lot of 10Ks on the track, so just to go out there and run it pretty smoothly was a confidence builder. I think that time will get me into U.S. Nationals, and that will be a great race where I can run with some fast girls.

FW: You did well in indoor track this year as well.
RG: Yeah, I was pretty happy. It’s good to come out of college and be able to PR. I know a lot of runners who have had a hard time transitioning out of college and find it very hard to get PRs. My first year out of college, I had a rough transition with an injury, so just being consistent and performing well for this past year has really helped me. I’m anxious to see what I am capable of with this consistent training. I’ve never really been healthy for an entire year; I’m coming up on a year now, knock on wood.

FW: What do you attribute the difference to?
RG: I think overall with my training, I have a much more balanced life now. Also, my coach now really emphasizes not comparing days. Before, I used to think “I need to get this time in this workout because the last time I did it, I hit this time.” For example, today I ran a tempo run. A few months ago, I may have run a five-mile tempo run faster, but I am not going to let it get to me because every day is different.

FW: Does it feel good to be back in the Philadelphia area after running for North Carolina State?
RG: I’m such a Philly girl at heart. After college, I went on a few visits to a few teams, but my heart just brought me back to Philly. I think it’s important for runners to know that it’s not the area where you are that makes you a good runner; it’s the individual. It’s your commitment; you can train and be good anywhere. If you’re happy and you’re motivated, the place doesn’t really matter.

FW: When you came back to the Philadelphia area, did you already have the Philadelphia Runner Track Club in mind?
RG: I ran for Mizuno my first year out, but then I had the injury. Actually, my coach Charles Torpey was instrumental in developing the Philadelphia Runner Track Club [Editor’s Note: LaSalle University graduates Brian Gallagher, Pete Dougherty, and Tom Sabol started the Philadelphia Runner Track Club in 2000], so I decided to run for the team. It was just kind of something I fell into.

FW: You have been very passionate about running since you were in junior high school. How is it to see those heroines that you had back then continue to thrive in the sport? And how is it to see women runners that you met before college continue on with the sport like yourself?
RG: I think it’s great for American distance running. There are girls who seem to disappear after college. I’ll be out on a run and I’ll think “I wonder where this girl is?” But those runners like Jen Rhines and Carrie Tollefson are amazing; it’s just awesome to see their progress. They have been my idols since I was in eighth grade. My mom used to take me to Big East meets to watch them run.

It’s also great to have the opportunity sometimes to talk to Jen Rhines, Carrie Tollefson, and other runners like them. It makes me realize that they are just people like me. They’re not super-heroes or anything. It helps me to realize that if you put in the hard work, hopefully, it will pay off in the long run. That’s what I’m banking on. I’m putting in my time. I’m still young.

A lot of women have had to put in some years to see the results. Look at Deena [Kastor], who had a rough college season and ended up coming back later and becoming unstoppable. That’s very inspiring.

FW: So tell me what it is that you like about the roads that makes it your favorite sector of distance running?
RG: I’m most competitive on the roads probably because I feel most confident on the roads. I tend not to think as much. That’s one of the things that my coach and I are working on is taking the confidence that I have on the roads and transposing it onto the track. I’ll go out and run my 10K PR on the roads; I should be able to run under 33 minutes on the track for 10K, so that’s something to work on for me.

FW: Is there anything you would like to add?
RG: I’d definitely like to give some recognition and a shout out to my coach because I think he’s awesome. I mentioned him before, Charles Torpey. He’s at LaSalle University. I’m just so thankful that he lets me work out the same time that the team does. He gets these girls on his team who aren’t really top recruits in the nation and then he develops them into quite the runners. They come out and they’re running and beating teams like Villanova and Princeton, national powerhouses. I think it’s time that other high school coaches and fast athletes give LaSalle some recognition [laughing]. They have 12 kids competing at regionals this weekend, which is amazing.

FW: How did you connect with Charles Torpey?
RG: I ran with his team every year during winter break. I actually met Torpey during my freshman year at Villanova. My best friend, Sheila Klick, transferred there so I would go visit her. Through Sheila and my fiancé Bryan Skelly [who also went to LaSalle], I met Coach Torpey. Coach Torpey and I just hit it off. He isn’t afraid to tell me like it is, and I respect him. The results also speak for themselves. It isn’t hard to see how great of a coach he is and how well he knows his athletes. He has a great history of developing talent.

FW: Last but not least, I am going to read a quote from you from your senior year in high school; this quote was your response to the fact that you were unable to finish The state cross country championships your senior year in high school, when there was nothing that you wanted more than to win that race. You said “Everyday choices matter, but those choices that we make after big disappointments are the ones that will most likely determine our futures.” Now, I must say, that is a mature quote for a high school senior! Do you still find that to be true?
RG: Oh, I totally think that’s true still. I was just telling my mom the other day that it seems like after very low times in life, come big highs. After that low back in high school, I reevaluated why I was running and decided to stick with it. Then, I ended up coming back and moving up to a higher level. Then, in college, I had to make the hardest decision of my life to transfer [from Villanova to North Carolina State] and that was very, very, very difficult for me. At first I thought I wasn’t going to get out of this hole, and then again, I moved on and upped my running to another level. Then, the same thing happened after college. I got injured. I think a lot of times that if you just believe in yourself, you’re going to come out of a low with a super-high.

Interview conducted on May 25, 2007, and posted on June 1, 2007.