“A Runner’s Mind” names Shannon Rowbury “Runner of the Month”
July 2022 - Runner of the Month: Shannon Rowbury
“Our July runner of the month is as much a local legend as a national one! Shannon Rowbury is a three-time Olympian, representing the United States in the 1500 in 2008, 2012, and 2016. She also represented the United States in the World Championships five times, and she's been on a world record-setting distance medley relay team. Now, she's bringing all of that experience home and sharing it with runners and coaches coming into the sport back home in the Bay Area. We asked Shannon a little about what drives her and her upcoming Women's Empowerment Through Sport one-day camp in August, and here's what she had to say!
How did you first get into running?
I never wanted to be an athlete growing up. With only the NFL, NBA, and MLB to watch on TV, there were no sports role models that I could really aspire to be, so instead I wanted to be a dancer. I started Irish Dancing at age 5, as a way to strengthen my bones after I broke my leg in kindergarten. I fell in love and danced until age 16, placing as high as 7th nationally and competing at the World Championships in Ireland. I played soccer in elementary school but I actually started running in high school on a whim. I wasn’t good at sitting still, so on the first day of freshman year, when my friend said she was heading to cross country practice, I figured it would be fun to try. It turned out that all the work I had done in dance and in soccer translated very well into running. By the end of my freshman year, I won CCS in the 800m and competed at the State meet, and by my Junior year I was a State and National Champion!
I have had a very long and successful career as a professional athlete (15+ years). I credit my parents and my high school coach Andy Chan for my success, because from an early age they emphasized the importance of 1) focusing on the long-term goal, and 2) working thoughtfully and diligently towards those goals.
How have you been managing life after professional running? Has it felt more like a shift or a continuation of what you've built so far?
I would say my transition out of pro running has been a gradual one. Back in 2016, I knew that I was nearing the end of my career and I started to put the pieces in place to hopefully make that transition as smoothly as possible. After having my daughter in 2018, I did get back into competition and was aiming to make my 4th Olympic team in Tokyo, but first Covid and then an injury altered those plans. I just had my second child in March and I am slowly getting back into running, but my life and mindset have definitely shifted. I am happy to be back home in San Francisco and excited to finally be able to start working with the Bay Area running community in ways that I have been dreaming of for years.
Tell us a little about Imagining More and how it got started.
My husband, Pablo, and I co-founded Imagining More in 2012 with the goal of encouraging women in sports and expanding the narrative about what it means to be an athlete, both at home and abroad. I thought back to my own childhood, where I never wanted to be an athlete because I didn’t think it was something girls could excel at. As a pro athlete, I experienced significant gender inequality in pay, in training methodologies, and in maternity. Through Imagining More, I want to expand the conversation about what it means to be an athlete, so that we can do a better job of including women’s experiences. I have hard-earned wisdom that I want to share with future generations. Just as our predecessors paved the way for our generation, I hope we can continue to move the needle in women’s sports.
In August, you'll be holding a one-day development camp for high school women and coaches at Sacred Heart Cathedral, your alma mater. What does it mean to you to be able to take all of your experience as a professional runner and Olympic athlete and bring it back to the place where that journey began?
In 2017, Rose Monday (3x US Olympic Team Coach & Women’s T&F Chair) and I had the honor of representing the US Department of State as a Sports Envoy to Morocco. We spent a week leading clinics and talks across the country, ultimately reaching 300+ athletes and coaches with the message of Women’s Empowerment Through Sport.
This year, Rose and I received a prestigious grant from the Department of State’s "Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund” to continue the work we started in Morocco back at home. We are thrilled to be partnering together again to host this best-in-class Track and Field clinic in the Bay Area. It feels wonderful to have come full circle, hosting the clinic back at Sacred Heart Cathedral, where my running career first started! I am grateful to ARM for immediately recognizing the value of our clinic and supporting us as a session sponsor!
What changes do you most want to work toward in women's running and development at the youth level?
Parity. Every year ~$66 billion is spent annually on sports sponsorship, but only 0.4% goes to women’s sports. Not only is that unjust, but it also doesn’t make business sense when you consider that 70-80% of the consumer spend is in the hands of women. This lack of equity is a vicious cycle, because without spending in women’s sports, then limited coverage leads to less fans, which is treated as justification for continuing to spending less. But it’s more than just equal pay, it’s envisioning a sporting world that is inclusive of a women’s experience. Athletics has been around for millennia, but Title IX was passed only 50 years ago and women have been competing as professional athletes for even less time. Given the short history of women’s sports, it’s understandable that the there are blind spots, but it doesn’t make it acceptable to ignore them. I want to expand the narrative so that the sports landscape my children encounter is more inclusive and fulfilling!
At ARM, our motto is Movement is Life. What does movement mean to you?
I always say that I “meditate through movement.” When I’m running, it's the only time when I can tune out of life and tune into me.