Shalane Flanagan

Her mother, Cheryl Treworgy, is a former marathon world record holder (as Cheryl Bridges – 1971) and a five-time U.S. World Cross Country Championship participant.

Her father, Steve Flanagan, was also a U.S. World Cross Country Champion participant and marathon runner (PR 2:18).

He raised Shalane and her sister Maggie in Marblehead with his second wife Monica.

She was the first American woman to win the New York City Marathon since 1977.

She holds the NACAC area records in both the 10k and 15k road races.

Shalane Grace Flanagan (born July 8, 1981) is an American long-distance runner, Olympic medalist and New York City Marathon champion.

Flanagan and Kopecky met in 2000 as teammates of the cross country team while attending the University of North Carolina.

After they graduated from college, they both moved to Portland, Oregon, where Flanagan went to run for Nike and Kopecky went to work in marketing for Nike.

Kopecky left her marketing career to pursue culinary nutrition school in New York City.

Flanagan attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she won national cross country titles in 2002 and 2003—becoming the first individual champion in the sport in Tar Heel history—and numerous track accolades, with best times of 4:11.24 in 1500 m (7th in the U.S. at any level in 2003), 9:00.22 in the 3000 m and 15:20.54 in the 5000 m. She won the Honda Sports Award as the best female collegiate cross country runner in the nation in both 2003 and 2004.

Early in her professional career, Flanagan was very successful.

Since advancing to the professional level in 2004, by 2007, Flanagan lowered her 3000 m time to 8:33.25 and her 5000 m time to 14:44.80, the latter an American record at the time; she made a slight improvement to her 1500 m time of 4:05.86.

She became a two-time outdoor track national champion in the women's 5000 meters and an indoor track national champion in the 3000 m. She won the short course competition at the USA Cross Country Championships in 2004 and 2005.

Flanagan has been a Nike-sponsored athlete since graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel hill in 2004.

She won the silver medal at the 2008 Olympics in the 10,000 m (upgraded from bronze following original silver medalist’s desqualification for doping) and the bronze medal at the 2011 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

Flanagan became the long course national cross country champion for the first time in February 2008.

She ran the 10,000 for the first time at the 2008 Stanford Payton Jordan invite meeting, in a time of 30:34.49 to beat Deena Kastor's American record of 30:50.32.

In the fall of 2009, Flanagan volunteered as an assistant coach for the cross country team at her alma mater, the University of North Carolina.

In the fall of 2013, Flanagan volunteered as an assistant coach for the women cross country team at Portland State University.

In 2013, Flanagan and Kopecky reunited in Portland where they came up with Run Fast Eat slow to prove that food could be both nourishing and delicious.

Their book went on to become a New York Times Best Seller.

They toured together in Oregon, San Francisco and New York City, where their events included running, inspirational talks and a chance to meet and get to know the authors better.

Due to Flanagan's New York City Marathon Training and the birth of Kopecky's baby, they had to limit the number of stops on their book tour.

After doing their book tour they had a better understanding of the impact their Run Fast.Eat Slow book had on the running community.

The fan feedback was that they wanted Flanagan and Kopecky to write a second cookbook which would be best suited for people with busy lifestyles.

Flanagan and Kopecky went on to write their second cook book Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow which focused on less time-consuming recipes whilst not compromising nourishment or flavour.

On August 6, 2016, Flanagan and longtime college friend Elyse Kopecky published their first cookbook Run Fast.Eat Slow.

She won the Women's 2017 New York City Marathon, the first American woman to do so since Miki Gorman in 1977.

Flanagan grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

She attended Marblehead High School, where she excelled in cross country and track.

She also participated in soccer and swimming, and was an artist and painter in the art major program.

Flanagan is married to Steven Ashley Edwards, a former track and field star at the University of North Carolina.

Together they are foster parents to Breauna and Keauna.

While training for the Rio Olympics, one of her teammates from Bowerman Track Club Team emailed asking to find a foster home during their senior year of high school.

Flanagan and her husband immediately welcomed Breuna and Keauna into their home.

Flanagan's parents are both accomplished runners.

As a student at Marblehead High School in Massachusetts, Flanagan's accomplishments included three-time All-State cross country performances, a first-place All-State outdoor track finish in the mile in 4:52.38 and the two-mile in 10:24.21 (state meet record still stands as of 2017 ); her 4:46.91 mile won the National Scholastic Indoor Championships.

Flanagan Their second cook book Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat slow was published August 18, 2018.

On April 29, 2020, Flanagan announced she and Edwards had adopted a baby boy, Jack Dean Edwards.

On January 24, 2023 Flanagan announced on instagram that she and her husband adopted a baby girl, Grace Morgan Edwards.