 After graduation 
"I was at softball practice when a teammate told me she was a track champion,” she recalls.“I thought to myself, ‘If she is a champion, I know I can be one, too.’ You might say I was a bit cocky.” 
Obera ran in her first meet in 1958 and made the national championships in 1959 eventually running against the likes of Wilma Rudolph.She ran in the 1960 and 1968 Olympic Trials, the latter just a couple of months before her 35th birthday, running the 100 metres in 12.1 in the semifinals 

She was featured in "Sports Illustrated's" "Faces in the Crowd" in the June 18, 1962, issue.