Featured Runner of the Month – Connie Teague
When you ask Connie Teague what her most memorable race has been in her nearly 15 years of running competitively, she won’t say it was when she set a PR of 1:16:44 in the 2013 Rock and Roll Phoenix half marathon, finishing as the third overall female. She also won’t say it was when she ran a 2:44:47 last month for a new PR at the Cal International Marathon in Sacramento. She will tell you that it was at the Kansas State Cross Country Meet during her junior year at Shawnee Mission South High School. “I knew going into the state meet that we had a pretty strong showing of girls in the state of Kansas,” she explains. “I had to run a strong race to hit my goal which was to win. During the race, I followed my coach’s plan to a “T” – run with the lead pack for the first 1/2 mile and throw down the hammer – and I crossed the finish line in 1st.”
Connie is a runner, a very good runner. But even more so, Connie is a competitor. A competitor who has captured top honors at a variety of distances from 5K road races to marathons. Even when she is not running, she enjoys talking with other runners, learning about their experiences at different races, locally and across the country. “I find it to be very up-lifting to talk with runners about training philosophies,” she shared, “as well as discussing personal running goals.”
Connie has been able to combine her passion for running with her job since graduating from KU, where she ran both track and cross country. As a sales representative for Garry Gribbles Running Sports, Connie found that working at the store opened her eyes to the world of road racing. After returning to school and getting her physical therapy degree, she has taken her advanced skills to Boost Physical Therapy and Sports Performance, where she works with patients of all ages, many of whom are impacted by orthopedic injuries. “A good percent of our patients are athletes at different levels, including a lot of runners,” she explained. “Runners are an interesting breed, but I feel like I am able to relate to them and their injuries with my background and experience with running.”
Connie trains according to a personalized training plan put together for her by her running coach and when she isn’t training by herself, she can usually be found training with some of the few men in the area who are able to run her training pace. Most commonly that is her husband Caleb, an accomplished area runner himself.
Connie’s favorite local races reflect her diverse running interests, and include the Trolley Run, the Plaza 10K, Rock the Parkway, Leawood Labor Day 5K and the upcoming Sweetheart Run. She hasn’t confirmed her race schedule for 2014, but plans to do some shorter races and a possible half marathon this spring and finish the year off strong with a marathon in the fall.
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