But these days, Huddle — who had hoped to make her third Olympic team this year before the COVID-19 crisis forced the U.S. Olympic Track Trials and Tokyo Olympics to be postponed to next year — is met with the unsettling reality that no one knows for sure when major races will resume.  

“Weekly, I wonder what am I gonna do? What is next year going to be like? How long will this last? Will everything collapse? I just train. It makes me feel normal,” said Huddle, 35, who lives in Providence, R.I. with her husband, Kurt Benninger, a former middle distance standout at the University of Notre Dame, and their newly adopted puppy, Rusty. 

Finding so-called normalcy during a tumultuous time is no small feat. 

The year got off to a rocky start for Huddle. 

At the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta in February, Huddle, with a personal best of 2:26.33, and her training partner, Emily Sisson, a 2:23 marathoner, struggled on the hilly course in windy conditions, both dropping out around mile 20. 

But Huddle, a two-time track Olympian, immediately looked ahead to redeeming herself at the U.S. Olympic Track Trials. 

“I gotta focus on the next starting line,” she wrote on Instagram after the Trials. “(Emily Sisson) and I are going to sharpen up all this strength we’ve built and pour it into track season.”

That opportunity wouldn’t come. 

Nor would a chance to shine this fall in the New York City Marathon, yet another major marathon that has been canceled this year as the COVID-19 crisis continues. 

“I was holding out hope that by November things may have turned a corner,” said Huddle, who made her marathon debut in 2016 at the NYC Marathon, finishing third. She took fourth in 2018. 

The loss of big race opportunities also means the loss of prize money, appearance fees and bonuses, which make up about 20 percent of Huddle’s income, although her sponsorship with Saucony remains solid, she said.  

Training mostly solo these days, she hopes to compete in one of the elite “micro" track meets that have been popping up around the country. 

Now, more than ever, Huddle will need to draw on the patience and focus that has made her a 28-time national track and road champion. 

“She has an incredible ability to see how and what she needs to change to adapt to different situations and environments, so she can get the most out of herself as an athlete,” said Benninger, who sometimes paces in workouts.

“To be able to do this without having a large support team can be incredibly difficult and requires an incredible amount of discipline.”

With a wide-open race calendar, Huddle has time for her other passions, too, including “Keep Track” a podcast she hosts with 2012 U.S. 800-meter Olympian Alysia Montano and Roisin McGettigan, a 2008 Olympian and Irish 3,000-meter steeplechase record-holder. 

From interviews with two women who ran the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials while pregnant to a discussion with activist Alison Desir, founder of Harlem Run, on racism in running communities, “we hope to elevate inspiring stories in women’s sports, which only gets four percent of U.S. sports media coverage,” Huddle said. 

And without a doubt, the champion competitor is eager to get back into the headlines herself.