However, she made an athletic comeback in 1998 and she won two national road titles, as well as appearing at the Goodwill Games and IAAF World Half Marathon Championships that year.

She made one more appearance at the World Half Marathon event in 2000, but retired to focus on education studies.

[3][4] Steely made her international debut for the United States in 1985, and her fifteenth-place finish at the 1985 IAAF World Cross Country Championships helped the American women (including Cathy Branta and Betty Springs) to the long race team title.

[2] She began to expand her oeuvre to include road running and that year she took wins at the Cooper River Bridge Run and Great Cow Harbor 10K races,[7][8] as well as shorter distance wins at the Fifth Season Race and the Jean Bouin Memorial in Spain.

Steely ran a personal record of 8:48.54 minutes in the qualifying rounds, only finishing behind two eventual medalists (Susan Sirma and Yelena Romanova).

[14][15] She claimed her second national title at the start of the following year, winning the 3,000 meters at the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships with a time of 8:51.29 minutes.

[19] Steely was the 1993 USA Outdoor runner-up in the 3,000 meters but was replaced in the national team for the 1993 World Championships in Athletics.

She was in the top three at the 1998 USA Outdoors in the 10,000 meters, came fourth in the event at the 1998 Goodwill Games, and ranked second nationally in the distance that year.