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photo by Rob Jerome.
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By Ray Glier
Joy Upshaw, 65, is going toe-to-toe with age. She holds board meetings in the mirror as competitor, coach, and human resources consultant and decides it is necessary and fun to maintain her training regimen of back-to-back quality workout days in the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, and 80-meter hurdles.
“The more I race,” Upshaw said, “the faster I get.”
The World Masters Athletic Championships are coming up Daegu, South Korea, August 22 to September 3, and the three Joys scheme for ways to go faster, or keep others from catching them/her. She is No. 1 in the world in the 100 and 200, and No. 2 in the world in the 80 hurdles among women 65-69.
It’s risky pushing for speed and Joy knows it. At 65 years old, Upshaw understands that her A-game regimen could get her injured if she is not careful. It’s not like she is 40 and can recover fast, but she has to prime the pump for Korea and be sharp…and stay healthy.
Not only will she do back-to-back training days before Daegu, once there she will welcome the two qualifying heats in the 100-meter race and the two qualifying heats for the 200-meter race and the semi-final for the 80-meter hurdles.
“I like racing. I like trials a lot," Joy said. "So yeah, I don't have a problem with doing heats. I don't mind racing three races in a 200 or three races in 100,” Upshaw said. “I don't mind at all.”
Joy writes down training plans and schedules and actually says to herself, “What do we need to do?” to get ready for the next track meet.
Upshaw, who has won 25 gold medals indoor and outdoor in the world championships, is vulnerable to injury, even with all her aging countermeasures, which include acupuncture, Epsom salt baths, massage, chiropractor, stretching, and routine visits with a physiologist.
“You got to be careful with our age,” she said of back-to-back quality days. “I try to make it an A (day), but it could be a B, but if it is, I'm not going to worry about it.
“What happens with masters track, we're hurt for a while, and then we have our mission of coming back and doing our best.”
Geezer Jocks are forever asking themselves, “How do I get better without risking injury pushing too hard?”
In a unanimous decision with herself, Joy somewhat surprised me, especially with her zeal for heat races, by insisting pedal-to-the-medal is an ideal approach this summer.
Is she different that way?
“Maybe. Yeah. I think it's like a rehearsal,” Upshaw said. “You practice going to the call room. You practice getting in the blocks. You practice listening to the starter. You practice your race model. You run through the finish line.
“It's very good to do that because you’re a little bit more used to it all, and can just flow and have a good race.”
Joy will not go to Korea 100 percent. She has a recurring foot injury. Still, she set an American record in the 80-meter hurdles (13.68 seconds) at the USATF Masters Outdoor Championships two weeks ago. Upshaw also took gold medals in the 100 and 200. She scratched from the long jump to protect that foot.
Upshaw may not be 100 percent, but she will be formidable in the world championships. She is the only woman 65-69 in the Masters world rankings to run below 30 seconds outdoors this season in the 200 (29.30). Joy expects to go faster in Korea because the competition will be extreme.
“I know there's some good girls in Europe and other countries that I know when we get together that we will push the times lower,” Upshaw said. “So that's what I like to do…racing the best because it helps all of us run faster.”
The race to watch is the 80-meter hurdles. The world record for women 65-69 is 13.22 seconds. Joy ran 13.04 seconds in 2024 (W60-64) and says, “I’m probably fitter now. With the hurdles, it's a matter of racing them a lot, and so I'm trying to race them a lot.
“I mean, I know we are supposed to get slower as we age, but two years ago I wasn't as fast, or fit, as I feel right now. That's the funny thing with masters track.”
By “funny” Joy means alluring. You can get faster with age and that's exciting.
**
Where does this enthusiasm for the sport come from?
Well, Upshaw is her own switchboard operator in master's track & field for a reason. She is the daughter of a long jump tactician and the older sister of an Olympian.
Her father, Monte,, broke the great Jesse Owens’ national high school long jump record as a California schoolboy. Before he could compete fully for a spot in the Olympics, Monte suffered a serious knee injury. He gave Joy her reverence for the sport and, pun intended, her joy for the sport.
Grace Upshaw, 50, Joy’s sister, competed for the U.S. Olympic team in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.
Joy has been a coach of Joy's Jack Rabbits since 2015-2016. It is a master's track and field team of 45 of her friends.
Upshaw, who lives in Lafayette, Calif., is also a professional track and field coach for children three years and up, also named Joy’s Jackrabbits, founded in 1998.
Above all else, she teaches children discipline can be paired with fun, but not the kind of discipline that comes with a scolding, but discipline that has to do with focus. Her children get the same cards to remember their planning for an event that Upshaw uses in national and international track meets. Joy writes the same ‘Good luck’ prompts on the kids’ planning sheets as she does on her own and her teammates.
Upshaw knew she wanted to be a coach in high school and she has reached high in that quest becoming a national coach for Team USA (U20).
Joy is a collage of track: competitor, coach, teacher, funmeister. She is a loyalist to Masters track with many of her club mates at Joy’s Jackrabbits in volunteer positions at USATF Masters Track & Field.
So don’t root for her at the world championships in Korea simply because she has the blue USA jersey. Root for Upshaw because she gives so much of her self to the sport…all of her selves.
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