Columbia Woman Who Won Marathon Is Also An Astrophysicist, Mom

Posted on by TheEllenBlog

BALTIMORE, MD — A Columbia astrophysicist was the women’s winner of the marathon at the Baltimore Running Festival. Thousands participated in the festival’s five races Saturday, including more than 2,300 in the marathon. It was estimated that 20,000 people would be drawn to the Inner Harbor area for the event.

Julia Roman-Duval, 36, finished the marathon in 2 hours, 47 minutes and 42 seconds. That is a 6-minute, 24-second mile.

Roman-Duval is an astrophysicist for the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. At the center of her research are the Milky Way and star cluster formation, according to the institute.

She has three children and told WBAL that she gets her running in first thing in the morning, before work and tending to the children.

The native of France, who has lived in Columbia for several years, won the Columbia Triathlon in 2014.

According to WBAL, her competitive running took off several years ago after joining a group of runners that trained together.

Roman-Duval is a member of the Howard County Striders, a running club that meets several times a week at the Columbia Swim Center to go for runs.

The course in Baltimore took Roman-Duval and other runners zigzagging north and south, east and west, around Baltimore, from the starting line near Camden Yards to the Maryland Zoo, Federal Hill, Fells Point, Lake Montebello, Johns Hopkins and the Inner Harbor.

This was her first marathon title, according to The Baltimore Sun, which reported she was the second-place finisher in the women’s division in 2014 marathon at the Baltimore Running Festival and when she crossed the finish line Saturday, her husband Miguel and children Clara, Liam and Luca were waiting to greet her.

Roman-Duval considered Saturday’s marathon practice for a bigger race she’s running in December, she told The Sun, calling the Baltimore marathon “a training workout” that was a “much more fun way to do a hard workout instead of just doing it by myself in Columbia.”

The big race she’s got her sights on next is the Dec. 2 California International Marathon, which ends in Sacramento.

Image via Shutterstock.

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