American track and field athletes now have many opportunities to run competitively beyond college. In the past several years, groups such as the Brooks-Hansons Distance Project, Team Running USA, McMillan Elite, and Nike’s Oregon Project, provide elite athletes with an opportunity to train full-time with a team. “I feel like it’s getting better and better,” Molly Huddle said. Huddle, 23, could have gone to medical school after she graduated from the University of Notre Dame this year with a degree in biology. Instead, the nine-time NCAA All-American chose to postpone that plan and pursue a professional running career. “You can always work the rest of your life,” Huddle said, “Hopefully I can do that (medical school) later.” After offers from coaches around the United States, Huddle, from Elmira, NY, joined Ray Treacy’s group at Providence College in Rhode Island. Before selecting Treacy’s group, she said she also looked at Team Running USA and the Nike Oregon Project. Huddle described the group as having an ideal training environment that’s close to home, a good coach, and a deep group of women runners, including Amy Rudolph, Kim Smith, and Amy Mortimer. She suggests to former college athletes that professional running is worth trying, especially with all of the opportunities now available in the sport. “Give yourself a year or two,” she advised, “Definitely give it a shot. Go for it and see what happens.” Huddle, whose father also ran, first realized her running talent in her seventh-grade gym class. In high school, Huddle participated in basketball, soccer and track. When she was a senior, she quit her other sports to solely focus on running. It was also the first year she competed in cross country, with her father as her coach. Huddle was the only cross country runner at Notre Dame High School, which had about 100 students in her graduating class. Training by herself, she was the conference, regional and state high school champion. Huddle also set a two-mile high school national record that season, with a time of 10:01.08. After high school, Huddle attended Notre Dame, following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather. She said she enjoyed training with a team. Her workouts and mileage in high school made the transition to college running easier. “It was a smooth adjustment,” Huddle explained, “I was pretty prepared.” Huddle said she first knew she had the potential to be a professional runner when she was a sophomore in college. That year, in 2003, she earned four All-American honors. In 2004, Huddle focused on the 5000-meter run and qualified for the Olympic Trials in Sacramento, CA, where she finished seventh. Now that Huddle runs professionally, she has more time to train for the upcoming 2008 Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, OR, where she hopes to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. She has increased her weekly mileage to about 70-75 miles, but said she now gets a lot more sleep and is less stressed. “It kind of feels like every day is a Saturday,” Huddle said, “I have all day to run.” Despite her laid-back attitude, Huddle works hard when it comes to races and workouts. She said enjoys intervals the most, particularly repeats of 400-meters or more. “I really like being on the track,” she said. Although Huddle’s track season recently ended, she is training for the 2008 season. She said the Olympics are her primary goal. If she does not qualify, she said will likely aim for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. “If I don’t make it, I would need to try for London,” Huddle explained, “A lot depends on how this year goes.”