THE STRUGGLEDS IS AWESOME

Erin Azar's back-of-thepack antics made her a TikTok starand inspired millions of runners to forget about speed and just get out there.

- JILL WALDBIESER 

ERIN AZAR IS CROUCHED OVER THE starting line, feet firm against the blocks, fingertips grazing the track, muscles trembling. Next to her is Aleia Hobbs, who was part of the team that took silver in the 4x100meter relay at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and who recently set the North American indoor record for the 60-meter. Erin turns her head slightly to look at Hobbs as she springs to action, then says, "Oh, my god. I think I'm going to face-plant."

Erin is not a professional athlete. And she's not competing against Hobbs. Clad in a royal blue hoodie and orange shorts over black tights, her hair pulled back into a messy ponytail away from her signature oversized glasses, she's filming a video for her popular TikTok channel, where she goes by the handle @mrs.space.cadet. It's part of an ongoing series where she attempts all the events of a heptathlon; in a previous installment, she jumps hurdles with Olympic silver medalist Trey Cunningham while exclaiming, "Oh, my crotch!" 

Despite three marathons under her belt, multiple brand endorsements, and an actual position with USA Track & Field (where her title is Official Hype Woman), Erin is the first to admit that she's out of her league here. "But," she says, "I just did a campaign for Nike, which is so surreal." It is surreal that a 39-year-old mom of three from a tiny Pennsylvania town so remote that the internet service goes out during a thunderstorm, a woman with no special athletic prowess, who doesn't even know her own personal best on a mile, has netted a deal with a world-renowned sports megabrand and regularly gets recognized by elites at races.