After graduating from Camarillo High School in 1987, she went on to study at San Diego State University, where she began competing in several sporting events: the heptathlon, 200-meter dash, high jump, shot put, 100-meter hurdles, long jump, javelin throw and the 800-meter run.

Runyan won four gold medals at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in the long jump and the 100, 200, and 400 meter races.

[2] Her career as a world-class runner in able-bodied events began in 1999 at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, where she won Gold in the 1,500-meter race and was ranked second in the United States in that event in 1999 by Track and Field News.

She also released her autobiography "No Finish Line: My Life As I See It" In 2002, she added the road 5K and 10K National Championships,[3] and married her coach, Matt Lonergan.

She took 2005 off to give birth to her first child, Anna Lee on September 1, but returned to the roads in 2006 winning her second national championship at 20 km (her first was in 2003).