Good and bad times for Joyce

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, August 11, 2004

LYNNWOOD – It took a little while for Regina Joyce to appreciate her Olympic experience for what it was, which could be expected from someone who ran one of her worst races ever.

The disappointment of a 23rd-place finish in the marathon was tempered a bit when Joyce visited a grocery store a few days after competing in the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

“I got to the register and was like: ‘You mean I have to pay for this?’” she said recently with a chuckle. “After being there for two weeks, it was really hard to come back to real life. I realized how pampered we had been.”

Joyce calls ‘84 Games “very Hollywood” because of the media coverage, the number of high-profile stars and, of course, the location.

Joyce’s main reason for being in Los Angeles ended in heartbreak. She was ranked among the top 10 in the world, had recently won the Bloomsday Marathon, and had a legitimate shot of medaling in the Olympics. Yet Joyce, a University of Washington runner who competed for Ireland that year, fell far short of expectations.

“I was relatively new to the marathon event. The Olympics was only my fourth marathon, so I didn’t have enough experience with fluids and things like that,” said Joyce, who won the NCAA title in the 3,000 meters in 1981 and also broke UW records in the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000. “I didn’t hydrate enough. I guess you could say it came down to hydration and nerves.”

A native of England, Joyce says she did not make the British team because of “politics.” She had come over to the U.S. to attend the UW, so British officials decided not to let her represent their country at the Olympics.

Her parents were of Irish descent, so Joyce and her sister, Monica, competed for Ireland at the 1984 Games. Monica took seventh in the 3,000 meters. Shortly thereafter, Regina Joyce went back to the UW, but lasted only a week. She said her mind was not in school, so she temporarily dropped out. She returned in 1995 and got her degree in the spring of 1997.

“I was trying to do too much,” Joyce said of the fall of 1984. “At that point, I decided I could always go back to school, but I can’t always compete at an elite level.”

Joyce continued to run competitively, including a fifth-place finish at the Chicago Marathon that fall. She now lives in Lynnwood, where she coaches high school cross country (at Edmonds-Woodway) and track (at Lynnwood High) and occasionally competes in marathons. She won the 45-and-over age group of the Twin Cities Marathon last October.

“I still keep myself in shape,” she said. “Two years ago, I could have made the boys’ varsity team (at E-W), but now I’m not so sure. Either they’re getting better, or I’m getting slower.

“I still haven’t had a girl beat me in a race, but I think that’s going to happen soon. We’ve got a couple up-and-comers.”

No matter what happens, Joyce always has the Olympics.

“The whole experience was great, but it took a year to realize that,” said Joyce, 47. “I wish I hadn’t let my performance ruin it.”