As with many runners, Joyce Adams needed a little urging to get started. Losing a little weight was the final carrot that got her started. At first she ran only with her boyfriend. Soon she was running low key races with her hometown Richmond Road Runners. As with many women who did not participate in sports in school, now that she had the chance she was gung ho. She met many new friends in the club who shared her enthusiasm. She was anxious to see how good she could be. Before moving from Richmond she ran the marathon in 3:15.

She told me that she once finished first overall in a 20K race though she grimaced and said that the time was not that fast. Still, she was used to finishing near the front. When I first met her, it was in Kensington for the MCRRC Women's Distance Festival in the early '90s She had just moved into the area, to Sterling, VA. While talking with her she candidly told us that she would do well. When she finished sixth we were impressed, she was disappointed.

Some runners say they run just for fun, and winning is not important. Some runners are driven to win and run because it makes them faster. Joyce is one runner who runs because she likes to and because she wants to win. Fundamentally, she enjoys the sense of freedom she got from running. She makes plans and develops thoughts much more clearly when she is running.

She had some bad luck with illness. She even got hit by a car, breaking some ribs. These traumas stopped her from running but not from being part of running. She just volunteered at races. Now she works as a coach for a high school cross country team. She is a member of the Reston Runners and the Loudoun Runners. She also works as a massage therapist for some elite athletes in the area such as Alisa Harvey-Hill.

Soon after she was blazing new trails. When she goes on her daily runs, she runs for time not distance. This gives her freedom to explore many different places to run. She loves to run cross country. Over the last year or so she has been writing the Muddy Shoe Review for the Washington Running Report. She visits parks in the metro area and "test drives" them. She explains how to get to out-of-the-way running trails, their advantages and disadvantages, and then recommends and rates them.

At five feet and just over 100 pounds, Joyce does not have to worry much about weight. Still, as a card-carrying member of the running community, she does have to play up some to diet. She tells me that she can maintain her ideal weight on 1500 calories. The first part of the year she was recovering from injuries. Yet, in the last ranking period she finished in the top ten.

Joyce Adams has just entered a new age group, which usually means another burst of enthusiasm. In September she broke the Maryland single state record (44) with a 34:28 at the Back to School 8K. This is not a fast course. The previous record was 35:45 set in 1994. She also finished 4th master's woman at the Army 10 Miler in 69:21. Then, to celebrate her birthday, she finished second overall at the Riverbank 12K in 51:33. That race was on the last day of the ranking period for the fall. That time would have ranked her 2nd in the new division. But come this winter, look out; she is headed for the top.