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Republished with permission granted by The Washington Newspaper Publishing Co. LLC d/b/a MediaDC. Back to Montgomery Journal articles
Rowe: A Girl on the Run
By SHERRY SUNDICK
"I have no free time...running is my leisure," Dottie Rowe, an accomplished middle and long distance runner, says with conviction.
As a full-time student at Montgomery College with a part-time job, bracketed by her running, her statement is borne out. Dottie, 20, and her 13-year-old sister, Hannah, jog daily through the streets of Gaithersburg. "I like to run with someone else, it makes it easier to run longer distances. If you're going to run seven or eight miles, it takes patience and dedication.
"I run just because I like to run. It's mostly because I enjoy it. You get to meet a lot of people. But I'm also competitive and I like to win.
"AFTER WORKING and going to school all day, it feels good to get outdoors and just run. It helps to relieve tension and it's good exercise."
A pioneer in cross-country running in Montgomery County, Dottie was the first girl to participate on a boys' cross-country team in the county. While a student at Gaithersburg High School, she wanted to go out for the cross-country team but was told she couldn't compete in boys' cross-country racing. So her principal and her parents appealed to the Board of Education and the ruling was reversed.
In her first two years of high school, she pointed out that there was no state cross-country championship for girls as well as separate girls divisions in invitational meets.
Among the highlights of Dottie's career were running in the Junior Olympis twice and making it to the nationals twice, receiving a trophy for being the outstanding Potomac Valley AAU Junior Long Distance Runner in 1975 and winning the Maryland state track meet where she set records for the mile and the half mile. Both records have since been broken.
"I PROBABLY will run for the rest of my life. I run every day. I never take a day off. I plan out homework while I'm jogging and review material in my mind for exams.
"One of my goals is to teach business subjects on the junior high or high school level and to coach either cross-country or track. Right now, I'm coaching my sister. I like watching the progress she's making." And she reported that her sister recently beat her in a local race.
"I come from a large family and we're all athletic," indicates Dottie, the middle girl and the fifth child in a family of three girls and six boys. "My parents run six miles daily. They used to just watch us and encourage us, but now, they participate.
"Everybody jogs in the family. My sister, Hannah, and I are probably the ones in the family who are really trained.
"A LOT OF people don't like to run in the rain but I do. I think the heat's the worst because of the humidity. When it's cold out, you can put on more sweat clothes and you get warmed up after the first mile. But it's hard running in the winter because it gets dark so early."
Dottie ran her first marathon, the U.S. Mexican Marathon in December, 1974, running 13 miles in Texas and 13 miles in Mexico and was the first woman to finish.
In the spring of 1976, she splaced seventh out of 90 women runners who participated from four or five different states in a Ten Kilometer Race in Baltimore.
Dottie's future plans include graduating from Montgomery College in December and enrolling in the University of Maryland in January. She received a partial scholarship to Maryland and will run on the women's track team.
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