Veteran runner still winning races in her 50s

She has been grounded the past two years, but she says she's still happy. Watching her daughters compete helps a great deal. Just the fact that she and her husband Bob have seven children altogether is more than enough to lift away the blues, she said.

Connie had to stop running when she got "bone on bone" on her right knee. That's when one bone rubs against another whenever the knee moves, and it can be quite painful.

At first, she thought the pain was due to a small fracture in her tibular plateau. So she worked her elliptical and swam for about 10 weeks before trying to run again, That's when she got the bone on bone diagnosis, and that was the last time she ran.

"I get a cortisone shot once in a while. And I feel like I want to run, but I don't dare. I mean it actually does grind and rub together," she said.

But she still hopes to run again. Some day.

Connie is considering experimental (meaning non-FDA-approved) surgery that could put her back on her feet.

Doctors told her they could move her knee over a notch, allowing her to run on the outside, but she nixed that proposal.

"I think I've been very blessed with mechanics over the years, from the time I was a little kid, and I think I was meant to do this," she said. "So I feel if they're going to move my knee over a notch and I'm going to try to run on the outside, then I'm thinking, how long before that wears out? I guess I love running, but I want to be able to walk. So we're looking into some new technology. We'll see.

"I mean, if the day came that I can run again, that would be awesome. I would really just like to be able to run again with my daughters, like we used to."

ALL IN THE FAMILY

In the meantime, she is thrilled that Shelby and Shayla both seem to be headed to the Olympic Trials this year in Eugene, Ore. Stepdaughter Shayla will compete in the steeples, Shelby, who at 19 has already set school records as a freshman at Arizona State University will try to make it in the 1,500m or the 800m, she said.

Connie's passion for running has rubbed off on both.

Connie had her own moment in the sun back in 1987 when she took part in the Olympic Trials in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, she was battling an ankle injury at the time, and then her dad died right before the Olympic Trials. Her father's loss proved so devastating that a poor performance at the Trials was anticlimactic, even for a girl who was ranked fifth in the world and third in the United States at that time.

"I still ran like a 2:41 and walked part of it and handed my water bottles to other girls to help them," she said. "Had I not gone, would I have been sorry? Yeah. And my brothers wanted me to go. And my whole family was like, 'Oh, you need to go, you need to go. Dad wanted this,' I'm sure he did, but still it was extremely difficult.

"I've told my daughters, too, that when you have trials and tribulations like this, as soon as you get through them, they make you stronger. And the fact that I'm still running into my 50s and competing, that's why I could be able to do it."

IN THE BEGINNING

Connie started running, everywhere, as a kid. She developed her speed running the short races, the only kind girls were allowed to run back then. While at Hayworth Junior High, she was brought to East High to compete on the varsity team, thrilled to get out of school early just to run.

And she would run against anyone, including her brothers Bob and Bill who also excelled at running.

While at East, she broke a number of school records. And she found it shocking years later when she returned to Sioux City that she still held the 800/880 meter record, It made her think that, yeah, she was a pretty good runner, something she didn't think about at that time. That record was broken 31 years later by Ellen Dougherty. The current record holder, of course, is daughter Shelby.

Connie recalls that she was actually embarrassed that her record time of 2:19 not only wasn't broken a few years later but that it wasn't even her best time in that event. She would run relays in 2:15 or 2:14, but they didn't count.

A big problem for high school harriers in those days was that the best runners competed in too many events and that kept them from excelling at any of them.

"I was the best in the city and when I went to state, they would load me up with four or five races, and we'd have prelims in everything and I'd end up not running very well. I was just too tired," she said, happy that her daughters didn't have to compete under those conditions.

Then she went to Kansas State University where she started running 65 miles a week, helping to develop the distance skills that were accentuated when she started running with the school's cross country girls. But again, she was running just too many miles, she said.

FINDING A WAY

"I didn't really have that good of a college career. So I think I had to prove something," she said, of the successful running career she had after college. "That's the way runners are. And my mom used to say, 'Don't tell Connie that she can't do something. Don't tell her that because she will and she'll find a way.' And that's exactly what I did."

In her post-college career, she ran 10,000m and 5,000m races across the country.

"I had really started to compete again once I was in my late 40s and I couldn't really believe that I was able to beat 20-year-olds. It's just that I had hung on to my speed. I think I have hung onto it for all these years because it was natural," she said. "My daughter Shelby's the same way. She has the natural gift of speed."

Competitive as she is, Connie admits that Shelby is the better runner these days, even before that bone on bone thing.

She fondly recalls one of the last races she and Shelby competed in was a 5k. Sometime before that, she and Shelby, then a high school junior, had run a road race in Storm Lake. Usually Connie likes to take an early lead, but this time she decided to run side by side with her daughter. Then when they neared the home stretch, Shelby with her younger legs sprinted to the end for an easy win. So at the 5K, Connie decided that wasn't going to happen again, at least this one time.

"I just shot out and got away from her. I just took off up the hill, and she never did catch me. I was probably like 49 or 50, and she couldn't catch me." she said, laughing. "It was fun, But it's been fun over the years."

And whenever Shelby beats her in the future, she figures she can blame it on genetics.

"Knowing that she has that kind of speed, it's just that she got it from me, that part of it, and I think that's a pretty cool thing."