Staff Writer – Ned Griffen
Emily Venters could’ve quit being a competitive runner years ago when her body and spirit broke down while in college.
Venters could’ve called it a career after finishing grad school at the University of Utah in 2023 and taken the road most traveled by graduates — find a job (or jobs) and settle into a life in the workaday world.
Venters hasn’t quit, though. On running, or herself.
“I don’t feel finished,” Venters said. “Maybe that’s something that I’ll never feel is finished.”
“I always feel like I have more to give to the sport and more to squeeze out of myself. And I feel like, at least right now, (I haven’t) reached my potential yet. I feel like, very deep within me, that I have a lot more to give.”
Venters, now a professional runner based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, will compete in Monday’s Faxon Law New Haven Race as she prepares for her first marathon on Oct. 12 (the Chicago Marathon).
Can’t stop. Won’t stop.
“It’s a U.S. championship, and a ton of my teammates are doing it with me,” Venters said. “It’s perfect timing before Chicago to do one last, hard-effort race (20 kilometers). It’s a perfect distance, too.
“And, honestly, I have to say, I do love the East Coast,” Venters added, before asking for the best place in New Haven to get pizza.
An early challenge
No one gets through life without troubles and struggles and Venters, 26, has already gone through a lot.
Venters was diagnosed with leukemia four days after she turned three. She doesn’t remember much about that time, such as her Make a Wish trip, and endured chemotherapy for almost two years. She’s cancer free, has annual checkups and remains in touch with Stephanie Meyer, a nurse at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.
Running came naturally to Venters as a child and began her passion, taking her from her home in Lawrence, Kan., to Boise State where she ran both cross county and indoor and outdoor track. She was successful from the jump, earning trips to both the 2017 NCAA West Regional and NCAA Championship cross country races as a freshman.
Venters’ injury struggles began as a sophomore and kept her from running outdoor track that season. She decided after that year to transfer to Colorado to continue her studies in psychology.
And so began what Venters has said were two of the worst years of her life.
A string of college injuries
Venters suffered five bone stress injures at Colorado. The third one, a sacral stress fracture, was so bad she could hardly walk.
Venters redshirted the 2019 cross country and 2019-20 indoor track season, struggling mentally as much as she was physically. She considered quitting, which everyone seemed to be telling her, her mother included.
Venters graduated from Colorado in 2021.
She never ran a single race.
She refused to give it up.
“My parents have said that I’ve always had just this unwavering drive since I was a little kid,” Venters said. “There was just something within me that I knew if I could get myself out of this injury cycle and I could get myself to a different environment, which I felt like was a healthier environment, and I was little bit more supported by my coaches, I felt I would be able to get back to a good place with running.
“It kind of made me realize that environment plays such a big role in your happiness and your performance.”
The right choice
Venters shot her shot and entered the transfer portal. Utah reached out and sold her on joining its cross country and indoor and outdoor track teams.
The Utes didn’t want Venters the runner, though. They wanted Venters, the person.
“Coming to Utah was the best decision I could have made,” Venters said. “I found just, I don’t know the right word, almost peace when I came out here. The pressure was taken off me. My coach (Kyle Kepler) would say, ‘I just want you to come here and being a good teammate for others (and) being a good leader.’
“That was kind of just everything I needed to run well again because I felt like I was cared for and seeing, like, I’m more than just what I run on the track.”
Venters thrived at her new home. She placed third at the 2021 Pac-12 cross country championship (20:47.7), the best individual finish in program history, to help Utah finish third.
Venters, over two years, set school records in the 5,000 indoors (15:20.37) and 10,000 outdoors (31:48.35, then the sixth fastest time in NCAA women’s history). She finished her Utah career earning eight Pac-12 or U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association honors in both athletics and academics.
Not finished yet
Venters decided before graduation that she wanted to be a professional runner, so he got herself an agent who hooked her up with brands.
“I’ve always known that I wanted to do marathoning, and when I signed with Nike, that was kind of what they had projected for me in my future,” Venters said. “Like, ‘We want you to be ready to make the Olympic team, or try and make the Olympic team in 2028 in the marathon.”
Venters has been training in her now adoptive home of Salt Lake City, running 100 miles a week over six days.
“It’s given me a great perspective of who I am,” Venters said when asked how the past few years changed her. “Running doesn’t have to be my whole identity and I don’t want it to be my whole identity because there are times whenever you do struggle, if it is everything for you, then you feel like you’ve completely fallen apart.
“I think I did realize during that time that I do love running but, again, I’ve got to find new ways to make it feel happier for me instead of just so stressful. I’ve changed my environment and I’m around really positive and encouraging people, and not just good runners, but people. I truly enjoy them. And then I have a coach (Ed Eyestone) who is very understanding and very caring.
“My finish line is not there yet.”