“We swing ungirded hips, and lightened are our eyes, the rain is on our lips, we do not run for prize.”
The poet Charles Hamilton Sorley didn’t have Regina Joyce or Gail Hall in mind when he wrote those lines.
As the two runners chat about the friendly rivalry they have forged over the years, it is obvious that they go for the throat every time they toe the starting line in a race.
Speaking about her long-time friend and training partner, Joyce has seen the competitive juices that flow through Hall’s body away from the race course. “I’ve watched her play Monopoly,” Joyce said with a snicker. “I thought she was going to kill somebody.’’
Then Joyce turns introspective for a moment. “I don’t mind if Gail beats me,’’ she says in that lovely Irish lilt of hers, “but I’d really prefer that she not. And if she does, I know that she had to work hard to do it.’’
Oh yes, theirs is a lovely — but intense — competition. One that reaches back better than a quarter century. And what fun years they have been.
Back in their heyday, they were part of a vanguard of standout Northwest women runners, making names for themselves on a national stage. Though they obviously don’t run as fast as they used to, Joyce and Hall have lost none of their ferocity as competitors. And they do compete.
On a dreary mid-January morning, they put in a leisurely two-hour workout together on the streets near their homes — Joyce lives in Lynnwood, Hall in Bothell, mere minutes from one another — then sit in the kitchen at Joyce’s place reliving memories of races long past.
One sticks out clearly in Hall’s mind. It was early in their budding friendship, a race they ran in Everett. They had been training together and Hall was feeling frisky. “I thought, ‘There’s no reason I can’t beat her in a race. And I did.’”
Joyce, standing a few feet away preparing cinnamon rolls, looked back over her shoulder with a cryptic grin and chirped, “You did? I must have really had a bad day.’ “
Not a catty remark. Just a friendly reminder that she — Hall — has watched the tail-lights on the Joyce rig more often than not as the two barreled across the finish line of a race.
Now they have reached middle age — Joyce turned 53 on Feb.7, Hall is 50 — and they are still barreling. In December, Joyce finished second in the women’s 50-54 age group at the 2009 USATF National Club Cross Country Championships in Lexington, Ky. Hall, not fully recovered from an injury, finished 15th. “I,’’ she says with mock humor, “was part of the (Club Northwest) team that finished second.’’
Like Joyce, when healthy, Hall can still beat a mean path on a race course. And with “ungirded hips,” they do still run for the prize.
They might not get the ultimate prize in the 26th annual St. Patrick’s Day Race that’ll be run through the streets of Seattle on Sunday, but they’ll finish in the upper tier, you can bank on that.
This just-under-4-mile sprint is a delightful kickoff to the Puget Sound racing season, a fun event that’ll attract around 15,000 runners and walkers. Both Joyce and Hall have run it numerous times and call it one of their favorite races.
Both have had some memorable races in their illustrious running careers. For Joyce, one was right here in the inaugural St.Patrick’s Day Dash, in 1985. She won the women’s division.
What made it even more meaningful: it was “her” race. Joyce’s coach at the time — and future husband, Al Bonney — had scoured the country for a short race to help prepare her for the world cross country championships. Failing to find one, Bonney decided to create a race especially for Joyce.
Not expecting a large turnout, Bonney got a surprise when nearly 5,000 runners showed up. “It was total chaos,” Joyce recalled. The big issue: not enough T-shirts for the participants, eliciting a lot of “Where’s my (bleeping) T-shirt?”
As recently as a couple of years ago, Bonney was still running into people complaining that they’d never gotten their T-shirt. “It brought out the nasty side of people,” he said.
And it brought out Bonney’s wry humor. On the 10th anniversary of the race, he had the phrase “Where’s my (bleeping) T-shirt?” printed on the back of that year’s shirt.
On the day she turned 53, Joyce might have wished for a T-shirt reading “What the hell am I doing on my birthday?” She was running the Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach, Calif., that’s what.
Not only that, she was placing second in the women’s division of the 26.2-mile race, less than a minute behind the winner, a 36-year-old Canadian. If she hadn’t had to make two port-a-potty stops with an upset stomach, Joyce might have won the race.
“Not bad for an old bag,’’ she joked.
The former Olympic marathon participant once vowed she would never be a Masters (over 40) runner. But, baby, look at her now. Shortly after her strong performance at Huntington Beach, she was considering another marathon in May. And she trains 60-70 miles a week, besides working full time as a legal assistant. “I have a very exciting life,” she laughs. “I work and I run. It’s OK. I’m enjoying it.’’
She and Hall enjoy one another’s company on their long Sunday runs. Joyce jokes that “Gail talks, I listen.’’
Each has been there for the other during difficult times. Hall lost her mother in October of 2008, Joyce’s mother passed in October of ’09.
Together, they have smoked the opposition on many occasions. For several years they “owned’’ the Nordstrom’s Beat the Bridge Race. During one stretch, Joyce won it three consecutive times. With gift certificates the reward, Hall said they needed to change the name of the race to “Regina’s Shopping Spree.”
Years after they were at the top of their game, they still represent a major running shoe firm, not necessarily for winning races but for being good ambassadors of the running world.
“I hope to run for the rest of my life,” Joyce said. “I love the feeling of running.”
On this day, they had come home with rain on their lips. And they had reached for and grabbed the prize: a cinnamon roll.
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