CONSTIEN Valerie

General
LEARNING FROM SIMPSON
She has spent time training with Jenny Simpson, who won bronze in the 1500m at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. "Training with Jenny is amazing. She's not only a legend at CU [University of Colorado Boulder], but she is a track legend in general. And to top it all off she's like the nicest woman in the world. She's really brought me under her wing these last two years [speaking in 2021] and she's helped me out a lot. She was an amazing steeplechaser so she does sometimes give me advice in practice or she'll just compliment me on my form, which is really, really great." (womensrunning.com, 25 Jun 2021)

COLLEGE STRUGGLES
She had issues with her mental health while she was at university. "I actually did suffer from some eating disorders early on in college. Freshman and sophomore year there was a lot of pressure to be good. I kind of saw that as a shortcut. I did end up qualifying for nationals in the steeplechase that year but shortly after that success and making it to nationals, I actually broke my foot due to bone density problems. After that, I had to take a lot of time off. I transitioned straight from an eating disorder to some depression, which was horrible. When you can't run and you're not really looped in at practice and you can't see your friends every day and school's really hard, it's just easy to fall into these really bad cycles. My junior year I was dealing with that. Going into my fourth year of college, I started to feel better. Things got better and I was able to take that momentum into my fifth year. It was a long road and I think I'm finally far enough removed from all those mental health problems where I can finally focus on being happy and my physical health too. I'm really happy that other women have been open about their mental health illnesses so that it's easier to share my own." (citiusmag.com, 14 Jun 2021)

OCCUPATION
She works as a customer service agent for a running tech company called Stryde. "I answer emails with technical questions about the product. Luckily my boss is very supportive [of my running], but I am still obsessed about having good numbers. I am still committed to working 40 hours a week. I want to be a contributing member of that team as well. I think that being a blue-collar runner is really cool. Anybody with a full-time job can still have Olympic aspirations." (womensrunning.com, 25 Jun 2021)