Some champions start early. Julia was born in Auburn, New York, on March 15, 1965. She started running at the age of fourteen because she was too old to play on the co-ed soccer team that she had played on the previous summer. Julia was always one of the first kids to finish warm-up laps and her coach encouraged her to try running the local 2.5 mile road race. In her first road race, she was the second female to finish and had a lot of fun. Julia was hooked on running from that moment on! She ran local road races for a year and played field hockey as a freshman that fall. In fall 1980, Julia enrolled at Northfield Mount Hermon, a prep school in Northfield, Mass., with a reputation for winning cross-country teams. Her success there foreshadowed greatness.

Julia went to Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she was the first female athlete in NCAA history to win individual national titles in three separate sports in one academic year: 1984 cross-country, indoor 3K 1985 and outdoor 5K 1985. The Twin Cities Marathon is a race that is near and dear to her heart; in fact, it’s her favorite road race. It goes by Macalester at about mile 23. For four years Julia watched the Twin Cities Marathon. It inspired her to think that one day she would run the 26.2-mile course. She did it as her first marathon in 1994, qualifying for the 1996 Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials. At the Trials, Julia placed 14^th. She ran the Twin Cities Marathon again in 1995; the 1997 Women’s National Marathon Champion in a personal best 2:37:46; the 1999 Boston Marathon, placing 13^th for women in a time of 2:39:45; and qualified for and competed in the 2000 Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials for a second time, placing 23^rd;

A Maine resident since the early 1990s, Julia finds running in Maine wonderful and appreciates being able to run in such a beautiful place. She coached the Harpswell Harriers Kids cross-country team in 1999-2000. In Orono, Brunswick, Harpswell and Portland, Julia has special running routes with spectacular views of the ocean, forests and fields. On days she runs along the Maine coast, she feels a sense of peace.

Career highlights:

• 8-time NCAA Division III National Champion; cross-country, indoor and outdoor track mile and two-mile
• 16-time All American; cross country, indoor and outdoor track; 1500, 3000, 5000 & 10,000 meters
• Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials; 14^th 1996, 23^rd 2000
• 1996 RRCA Roads Scholarship
• 1997 National Marathon Champion, 2:37:46 personal best
• Track & Field News US Marathon Rankings; 5^th 1997, 6^th 1998, 7^th 1999
• 1999 Boston Marathon; 13^th place women 2:39:45
• Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race; Maine female winner 1998, 1999, 2000