Julia Roman-Duval is a French-born astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, a mother of three children, and a competitive distance runner. She started competitive distance running in late 2013. Prior to that, she was a competitive triathlete, having won several sprint and Olympic distance triathlons. In 2007 and 2008, she was the collegiate champion for the North-East conference, and qualified for the ironman 70.3 world championship. After the birth of her three children between 2009 and 2012, she joined the Howard County Striders training groups and racing team in late 2013. This supportive group of runners and friends launched her on a competitive running path, and distance running then became a lifestyle and second job. She qualified for the US marathon Olympic team trials in December 2015 by running 2:40:55 at the California International Marathon. She competed in the US marathon Olympic trials in February 2016 and finished 50th out of 198 female runners. In 2018 and 2019, after struggling with the lasting effects of mononucleosis in 2017, she ran several personal bests in the 5k (16:47, March 2018), 10k (34:10, April 2018), 10 miles (56:23, May 2018), half-marathon (1:14:58, November 2019), and marathon (2:35:41, October 2019). This recent marathon PR, an Olympic A standard performance, was achieved at the 2019 Chicago marathon (19th F, 11th US) and was the second-best marathon time in 2019 by a female French runner (she has dual USA/FRA citizenship).