Runyan's squads have captured eight consecutive men's and women's conference championships. She has twice been named NCAA West Region Coach of the Year and four of her fencers have earned All-America honors.

She coached UCSD's 2011-12 fencing team to another standout year where the Tritons earned their eighth consecutive IFCSC Championship for the men and women squads. Her 2011-12 team traveled to Stanford where her top fencers competed in the NCAA West Regional, taking home second-place individual finishes in women's sabre and women's foil with Munira Gesner and Rose Forcier, respectively, and third-place individual finishes from Casey Gillcrist (women's epee), Alexandra Stanley (women's sabre) and Michael Fong (men's foil). Runyan's team concluded the season with Forcier and Gesner traveling to Columbus, Ohio, where they competed in the NCAA Championships.

In addition to her extensive coaching experience, Runyan has many years of competitive fencing under her belt. She began fencing in Hollywood under legendary coach and Olympian Ralph Faulkner and was then trained by Hall of Fame fencing Master Delmar Calvert as a collegiate fencer at Cal State L.A.

She returned to fencing in the mid 1990s and spent several years as a ranked USFA senior fencer in both foil and sabre. She trained under Dmitry Guy in sabre and is a three-time Pacific Coast Champion in women's sabre. Continuing to compete in both veteran foil and sabre, Runyan has been a member of four Veteran World Fencing Championship teams.

Runyan has a Bachelor's in business management.

She is married with two adult children.