For Anna Shields, college track is a dream that never died

At 26, the former high school standout has found her opportunity at the NAIA level

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Anna Shields told herself over and over, for years, that her track career was probably over.

It had to be. So much of the momentum and self-esteem she had built up in her first three years of high school, when she piled up 16 state championships, had all but vanished in a matter of months before her graduation from Lewis S. Mills High in Connecticut.

She declined an NCAA Division I scholarship offer. She enrolled in a local college and her running went from bad to worse, hitting rock bottom when she ran a pedestrian 22 minutes, 58 seconds for 5,000 meters in a cross country race.

She left school and took a job at a bank. Then she worked at another bank, in her hometown of Torrington, Conn.

Four years went by.

“I had it in my head that it would be impossible to come back,” Shields said. “Once upon a time I ran a 4:48 mile, but you’ll never do it again in your life. I thought over the years that I was never going to get back there.”

The flame that had once burned so brightly in Shields was never fully extinguished. Even as she stood at the teller window all of those years taking deposits and issuing withdrawals, then went home each evening to her rental house, Shields knew in her heart that she was still meant to run.

This is a big week for Shields, who turned 26 on Feb. 21. She will run for Point Park University of Pittsburgh in the NAIA Indoor Track and Field Championships, scheduled for Thursday-Saturday in Johnson City, Tenn. Although she qualified for nationals in five events, Shields is entered in the 1,000 meters, the mile and the distance medley relay.

She will run in a national championship race for the first time since George W. Bush was president.

“I’m really, really excited. I’m just glad to have this opportunity,” Shields said.

Shields’ story isn’t unique, especially at the NAIA level, but it illustrates how life’s twists and turns can lead to unexpected opportunities, and the fulfillment of dreams.

Jim Husbands coached Shields in high school and still marvels over her achievements.

“At the end of her junior indoor season, Anna was ranked nationally in the top 10 in the 1,000, in the mile, the 1,600, the 2 mile, the 3,200 and the 5,000,” he said.

Husbands recalled that Shields bought books about running and studied nutrition, biomechanics and race strategy. She would stand in class, behind her desk, because she felt it would strengthen her legs.

“She was always better in track than cross country,” he said. “She’s one of the smoothest people I’ve ever seen run.”

Shields won a bunch of Connecticut Class S and Class M titles, and also won races at the State Open meets.

She won the New England championship in the 1,000 meters during that junior indoor season and then followed that up with a victory in the 5,000 meters at the 2008 Nike Indoor Nationals in her first attempt at that distance on a track.

After that, Shields went to Penn Relays and finished fourth in the mile in 4:48.52.

That PR in the mile has been stuck – frozen and elusive for nine long years.

Things started to change, very subtly, in the summer of 2008. Shields grew a bit. She got sick and didn’t run well during cross country. There was mounting pressure to decide about college.

Compounding everything else was an iron deficiency that went undetected.

“When things started going wrong, I got down on myself and I got depressed about it,” Shields said.

She had a scholarship offer from the University of North Carolina, but one disappointing race after another caused her to decide to turn it down.

Instead, she stayed close to home and went to Central Connecticut State University. She redshirted a year and then competed during the 2009-10 school year, but the results were discouraging.

Shields dropped out and got her first job at the bank.

“I really was sad about it, but (running) just wasn’t an option. I wasn’t in that body anymore,” she said. “How does it feel when your dream doesn’t come true? Like a wound that never heals.”

Shields tried to make the best of the opportunities she had and moved on with her job at the bank. She paid her bills and became an adult.

But at night, when she was asleep, Shields dreamed about racing. Her mind refused to let it go.

“I would jog to stay fit,” she said. “I might be going 15-20 minutes a day. But I wasn’t training.”

During the winter of 2015, Shields learned of an event that the bank was putting on, a steps challenge, for employees. She figured it was something she could do and possibly win.

She went to a nearby track and decided to test herself by running a mile. She ran 6:30.

Shields returned to the track, week after week, to see if she could lower her time, encouraged each time she went a little faster.

Within a couple of months, she timed herself in 5:11.

The bank event was canceled, but she was moving on anyway. She got a job as a manager at Dick’s Sporting Goods and joined her old high school coach, Husbands, at his new school, St. Paul Catholic in Bristol, Conn.

Shields entered a 5-kilometer road race, the Torrington Raider Run, and won it.

“I ran almost 20 minutes, but I was still super happy about it,” Shields said.

She increased her mileage. She took her iron pills. She kept feeling good and began to boost her mileage.

In April, she ran the Westfield Half Marathon on a bright, sunny day with gusty winds and temperatures in the low 30s. Shields finished seventh overall, won the women’s division, and clocked 1 hour, 25 minutes, 15 seconds.

As the spring rolled on, Husbands suggested to Shields that she could possibly return to college and run – at the NAIA level.

It was an option that Shields had never considered before. Unlike NCAA Division I, which starts a five-year clock to play four seasons when a student first enrolls at a college, the NAIA has a different set of rules.

Shields contacted Point Park coach Kelly Parsley and inquired about the possibility of giving college track another try.

Parsley welcomed Shields to Pittsburgh and it took her a little bit of time to get acclimated to a new environment. Although she got better week by week, she was not the best runner on the cross country team.

“I knew by the end of cross country that it was coming back,” Shields said. “Going on runs, my legs felt good again.”

Parsley was unsure what he had in Shields until December, when she opened her indoor track season with a 4:56 mile.

“I was shocked,” Parsley said. “That’s when I saw it, when she was on the track. She has a different confidence there.”

Shields has come all the way back to the form of her junior year of high school and has run some PRs.

At the Kent State Tune-Up, she ran 4:49.02 in the mile Feb. 18, just off her Penn Relays time from 2008.

At the NAIA Championships, she has a chance to smash through that lifetime-best barrier and take another step toward recovering the career that she feared was lost.

“Believe it or not, she still lacks confidence,” Parsley said. “She runs better literally every single week for us, but she still has a little bit of doubt in the back of her mind because she’s had stumbling blocks. I think she almost thinks this is too good to be true.”

Shields said she is ready to embrace her new opportunity. After all, she’s waited a long time for it.

“Don’t ever give up,” she said.

Shields has discussed the possibility of a career in coaching after she completes her English degree.

Before that, she has unfinished business. After all, Shields is only a sophomore and has many more races she looks forward to running.

“She went a long period of time getting (herself) in a good place physically, mentally and emotionally and now she’s ready to go,” Husbands said. “Never underestimate her. She could go win a national championship.”