Wendy Joyce: Friend and excellent power walker

Here is Wendy’s walking story. And, what a story it is – one filled with a thousand miles of laughter, hugs, and friendship.

Four years ago I was lucky enough to have Wendy sign up for the Marathon Power Walking course I was teaching through the Town of Oakville. The course was 10 weeks long and at the end everyone went home with a training schedule for the marathon event they wanted to walk. I hoped people would stick with their goals but, of course, as you can imagine, a lot of people didn’t. Wendy was different. She made arrangements to train with Anne Whitney, RoseAnne Herel, and Jane Shortt through the winter. The next spring I was to find out just how determined Wendy was. In all of my many coaching memories, few stand out as much as that spring day heading off to the track behind Loyola High School a few kilometers from the Rec Centre. We warmed up on our walk to the high school and once we got there I gave everyone instructions about our interval speed training for that day. I set them off around the track shouting “Go” to start their interval. Well, as any of Wendy’s walking friends here today can attest, there was nothing quite like the sight of Wendy walking a training interval: Everyone around takes notice. People would often ask me how she can go so fast because, you know, Wendy didn’t have the longest legs. I made the official proclamation that Wendy must have a lot of fast twitch fibres – the muscle fibres that provide people with the ability for sudden spurts of strength or speed. I’d also like to point out Wendy is famous for elbowing her way through those intervals! As we were to discover Wendy not only had the ability for fast bursts of speed she also displayed lots of endurance in the many 5k, half marathon, and marathon events she entered.

Let’s take a visit to Wendy’s incredible power walking adventures of 2002 and 2003. Take a deep breath because you are going to need oxygen for this trip. The first event is the National Capital Half Marathon in Ottawa - spring of 2002…just a few short months after the inspired moment of interval training on the Loyola track. Wendy heads off with RoseAnne and Jane – the Ya-ya walkers - to their first half marathon. According to RoseAnne the walking is easy compared with witnessing Wendy’s parking skills in the hotel parkade. Wendy walks to the finish of this 21km event with Jane in 3:08:53. Now, for many, completing a half marathon or marathon is a milestone they are pleased to accomplish once in their life. For Wendy, it’s the journey that makes it worthwhile and the journey must always lead to another event. She enters the Casino Niagara Half Marathon in October of 2002 where she improves on her Ottawa time by an astounding 22 minutes to finish in 2:47:01. 2003 finds Wendy walking the Chilly Half Marathon in Burlington in March achieving another personal best time on her way to training for her first full marathon in Ottawa - again at the National Capital. On Mother’s Day in Ottawa, she walks the 42 km in 5:52:30. Two weeks later she is walking 21 km in the Burlington Rock’n Roll half marathon in – guess what? - another personal best time. 2003 isn’t even half over! Wendy is considering the next challenge. She, Lyne, Linda, RoseAnne, Jane, Laurie, Faith and Norma decide to prepare to walk the two-day, sleep-overnight 60km Weekend to End Breast Cancer in September. Despite Hurricane Isabel blasting through Toronto the night before the Weekend is to begin, the two days end up being picture perfect and everyone has a great time using their power walking skills to advantage – the first to come in after that first day of walking are the first to the showers! Of course, there must be a plan in place for when that weekend is over so talk is well underway to train for the Great Bermuda Walking marathon in November. Just a little over a month after the Weekend to End Breast Cancer, Wendy is walking the Casino Niagara half marathon and achieving another personal best time of 2:37:19. She is now more than half an hour faster in her half marathons than she had been a year and a half earlier. And, don’t forget that this is just a training walk for the Great Bermuda Walking Marathon that is happening in less than a month – her second FULL marathon in one year. She slips in the 10 km November Kneeknocker race in Bronte Creek Provincial Park one week after Casino Niagara and two weeks before Bermuda. If you’re feeling a little tired at this point you should know that Wendy capped the year with one of her speed demon intervals at the Jingle Bell 5k race in Burlington on November 30. On December 22 when lesser mortals might be exhausted and basking in glory, Wendy is sending out emails suggesting everyone consider a triathalon for 2004!

What this list and these numbers do not reveal is the style with which Wendy approached her power walking. No event was too small or too big for her. She went out to the Sharkey’s 5km event – oh I think I forgot to mention that one. (Yes, they were promising medals for age category winners!). Wendy’s training friends talk with admiration, awe and love about her meticulous preparation for every walk and her infinite curiosity for all things walking and otherwise. Her fanny pack was more a utility belt, a veritable Mary Poppin’s bag of necessities…safety pins, pharmaceutical supplies for any possibility whether it be inflammation or indigestion, band-aids, snacks, maps with routes that accommodated the speeds and endurance of everyone showing up for training, and even a fold-up rain-poncho – never bad weather….just bad clothes...we always say! One time when the Wendy Walkers were out on a snowy day training Wendy decided to measure her stride against Darrell’s. Darrell is 6 foot, 7 inches. She determined 3 Wendy strides are equal to one Darrell stride.

With all these stories, what will really stay in our hearts when we think of Wendy are her smile and laughter, her zest for life, and her encouragement of anyone and everyone joining the walking family. Wendy was a coach by example and deed. Nina will never forget her first half marathon. She was coming in to the finish when a bearded stranger thunderously called out "Go, Nina, Go!" For weeks, Nina says she wracked her brain going through the faces of friends and acquaintances to figure out who that man was. It wasn't until she was telling the story to Wendy that the puzzle was solved. Wendy burst out laughing and informed Nina that it was she, Wendy, who had coerced a perfect stranger to yell out Nina’s name because her own voice wouldn't carry far enough. Sonja also experienced Wendy’s spontaneous exuberance. When Sonja was crossing her first marathon finish line, although she did not recognize Wendy, Wendy recognized her from the pasta dinner the night before the race. She greeted Sonja with a huge congratulatory hug. For Lyne and Stuart, Wendy was the indispensable third member of their walking triad of kindred spirits. They could always be found with smiles wide and elbows out setting a blistering pace in pursuit of personal best times.

Her personality was steadfast and encouraging, her quiet determination to be the best she could be was endless and set an example for all. Her joy in walking and in our walking community was boundless. Wendy faced a relentless cancer with courage, optimism, and dignity. While going through chemo and radiation she walked the OTMH Classic 5km race in June, the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon in September, and the ultimate amazing act – she got Dave, her husband, to walk beside her through the Jingle Bell 5k race last December, 2004.

Wendy’s power walking friends will cherish every minute spent with her. She will always be walking with us and in our minds she will always be walking on sunshine.

Written by Lee Scott in memory of Wendy, who died on February 22, 2005