In 1981, she won both the Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon, becoming the second of only two women to accomplish the feat in the same year.
In Boston, she ran 2:26:46 to improve the course record by almost eight minutes, set the previous year by Jacqueline Gareau.
In New York, she set a worlds best woman marathon time with 2:25:29, to break Grete Waitz's time of 2:25:42 from the 1980 New York Marathon.
However, after re-measurement, the 1981 course was found to be 150 metres short, though Waitz's 1980 record is also disputed.
Also in 1981, she set a 20 km world record in Miyazaki, Japan.
At the 2013 Auckland elections, Roe was elected to the Waitemata District Health Board and the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board.
In the 2016 elections, Roe joined the Rodney First ticket and stood for re-election for the Health Board and election to the Rodney Local Board.
She was successful in both contests with the second most popular and most popular votes respectively.