What a great day we had at the Stanford Invitational Kids Half Lapper race!! Everyone did a fabulous job using your good running form..and smiling, too! Congratulations!

Go Jackrabbits! Good job- you’re awesome! 🙂

Breaking News!

Coach Joy broke the W55 World Record in the 60m Indoor Hurdles at the USA Masters National Indoor Track & Field Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico! Her time of 9.71 broke the previous record of 9.84.

She not only broke the World Record in the 60m hurdles, but she broke two American records as well in the 60m and the 200m!!

She was headlined on  USATF.org  with a terrific hurdle photo!

Our Jackrabbits training of good running form, positive attitude & good sportsmanship were key to her success!

World records fall at ABQ, but relay fiascos sour Day 2 at nationals

Altitude helps ABQ elevate 13 world indoor masters records

http://www.usatf.org/Home.aspx

Coach Joy racing the 80m Hurdle trials!

Coach Joy competed in the 2015 World Masters Championships in Lyon, France this summer!

Coming back from an injury she made sure to think positive and use her good running form to help her compete in the Championships! She earned 4 medals:  80 meter hurdles, 300 meter hurdles, the 4x100m and 4x400m relays! Most importantly she met many nice people from around the world who like track & field, too.

Interested in reading more? Click HERE

Coach Sunny & Coach Windy excited about Windy’s school record!

Coach Sunny and Coach Windy celebrate Windy’s fast time in the 100mh! Second time ever racing the 100meter hurdles Windy ran a 15.46. (First time she ran that race she timed a 17.43)…so, terrific improvement and School Record too! Congrats Windy! Acalanes High School Freshman!

UPDATE: SHE NOW HAS ECLIPSED HER RECORD TO A TIME OF 14.97 AT THE 2016 NCS CHAMPIONSHIPS AS A JUNIOR!!   Congrats Coach Windy!!

She learned hurdles in Jackrabbits when she was little 🙂 Yay!!!

Coach Joy likes to support Track & Field on all levels-whether it is getting our Jackrabbits racing the Stanford Kids Half Lapper, to racing Exhibition Masters races ..everything is about promoting our great sport of Track & Field!  Jackrabbit Parents… YOU can do it too! 🙂

Joy Upshaw, Debbie Hoffman celebrate masters at Mt.

SAC Relays

W50 sprinters and Bay Area buddies Joy Upshaw and Debbie Hoffman went 1-2 in the Mt. SAC 100 Saturday and put on a show in the postrace interview as well. We learn that Debbie, moving down from her usual 400, last raced at Mt. SAC at a TAC nationals in 1980, when she ran the 100-meter hurdles for Rutgers (competing as Debbie Deutsch). And Joy was Joy, praising Ron Kamaka for accommodating masters events in the elite meet. “We want to get more masters people involved [at Mt. SAC]. I highly recommend everyone come here, and let’s make more of a showing,” Joy said. W70 superstar Kathy Bergenwas set to run as well, but arrived late after a schedule mix-up.

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April 22, 2014

SPORTS

Sprinters with local ties win gold at World Masters

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Courtesy of Debbie Hoffman 
Debbie Hoffman of Los Altos, left, and former Los Altos resident Joy Upshaw were on the winning 4×200 relay team (women’s 50-54 division) at the World Masters Indoor Championships.

Debbie Hoffman wasn’t sure about traveling to Hungary for the World Masters Indoor Championships, a track and field competition she had never participated in before. Nudged by her friend and training partner, the Los Altos resident chose to go – and is so glad she did.

“Joy convinced me to run in the World competition in Budapest,” said Hoffman, referring to former Los Altos Hills resident Joy Upshaw. “What a great experience.”

The experience resulted in two medals for Hoffman, who competed in the women’s 50-54 age division at last month’s meet.

She and Upshaw joined forces with Shemayne Williams (New York) and Lorraine Jasper (Pennsylvania) to win the 4×200-meter relay race. They grabbed gold with a time of 1 minute, 53.81 seconds – just good enough to edge Germany (1:54.08).

“The Germans were our toughest competition,” Hoffman said. “They decided to run their fastest runners first. When I received the baton on the third leg, we were around 40 meters behind. I gained some ground and then I passed off to Joy. Her run was epic. She made up all that distance and passed the German anchor with 5 meters to go.”

Hoffman won’t soon forget how the spectators reacted to Team USA’s come-from-behind victory.

“The crowd went crazy,” she said. “Several people told us that our relay was the most exciting race of the whole meet.”

Hoffman and Upshaw additionally earned medals in individual events at the international meet, held March 25-30.

Hoffman bagged a bronze in the 400 dash (1:05.17). A collegiate sprinter at Rutgers University, Hoffman has won the 400 at several National Masters Championships since returning to racing five years ago.

Upshaw claimed the 60 hurdles (9.48 seconds) and 200 dash (26.73 seconds) in Budapest. A member of the Masters Track Hall of Fame, the Lafayette resident holds indoor world records in the 200 and long jump.

“It is fun to challenge yourself and have goals for racing,” said Upshaw, an assistant track coach at Gunn High who also runs her own track club.

Upshaw and Hoffman aren’t done racing this spring. They are slated to compete in the Women’s Masters 100 this weekend at Mount San Antonio College.

“To be able to compete in Masters Track is very rewarding – no matter what level,” Upshaw said.

For more information on the Masters program, visit usatf.org/groups/Masters.

Joy Upshaw returns to coach at Acalanes HS, her alma mater

In 1979, Joy (far right) was in her usual position — leading a race.

In 2013, Acalanes track and field coach, Joy Upshaw, won three gold medals – 100, 200, and 80-meter hurdles – and a silver in the long jump at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Brazil, the latest accomplishments in a decorated career.

In 2011, just a week after her 50th birthday, Upshaw set world records for W50 in the long jump – 17 feet, 11 inches – and the indoor 200-meter – 26.24 – at a Masters Championship in Albuquerque, N.M.

But breaking records is nothing new for the Upshaw family, as Joy put it, “We’re a track family.”

Her father, Monte, broke Jesse Owens’ high school long jump record in 1954 (24 feet, 4.25 inches). “We never heard the stories from him,” Upshaw recalled. “But other people would tell us about how good he was.”

That’s where Upshaw says her love of the sport began, and it wasn’t long before she was competing for herself. “They used to have the Merriewood Relays out here near Fairview,” she said. “I went to Springhill, and we competed against Merriewood, and Happy Valley … a fun little relay meet in Burton Valley.”

In 1968, Upshaw and her family moved from Berkeley to Lafayette where she and her three siblings competed for Acalanes. “The experience at Acalanes was great,” she said. “We had great coaches like Kris Brown and Scott Brady-Smith … we had a really good team … broke a lot of records.”

Her siblings, Chip, who was on Acalanes’ last championship football team in 1981, Merry and Grace all ran track for the Dons.

“I remember after Grace’s grad night at Acalanes she got home at four in the morning,” said Upshaw. “I woke her up the next day and said, ‘Let’s go to a track meet,’ and we did … and she jumped a 19 feet, 3 inches and set a school record.”

Upshaw said the memory gives her a ‘no excuse’ policy with her kids. “When they say, ‘I was up all night studying,’ I tell them, ‘So? You can still go break a school record,’” she said. Though, her sister did go on to long jump for team USA at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

After high school, Upshaw ran track for Cal State Hayward where she trained with Olympic coaches and received a degree in kinesiology with a dance minor. “My mom was really musically inclined,” she said. “So she always kept us in music, dance and art.”

While Upshaw isn’t dancing anymore, she did teach aerobics for a number of years after graduating from college. “I was teaching at the Walnut Creek Racquet Club in 1983, and the football coach at Acalanes had me come in and teach aerobics to the team during their summer workouts,” she said with a smile.

But sharing her love of track is her real passion, and she’s been doing it at every level – from coaching the Dons, to helping her sister, Grace, train for the Olympics, from coaching on several U.S. National teams, to founding the Jack Rabbits Track Club in 1998.

“The purpose of Jack Rabbits is to teach kids the joy of track and field … to learn the sport and understand it,” she said. “We work on posture and running mechanics and drills and introduce them to the long jump and hurdles, relays, shotput and discus.”

Upshaw is a mother of two, and unsurprisingly her daughters are runners. Her oldest, Sunny, was a standout at Gunn High School and is now a senior at Cal on a track scholarship; while her youngest, Windy, is a freshman on the track team at Acalanes.

So why has a world class athlete and coach returned to Lamorinda? The answer lies in her fondest memory.

“The best feeling was having the baton on the relay leg in the FAL Championship and winning as a team for Acalanes,” she said. “(Lamorinda) is a just a great setting … a nice community … I want to give back and see Acalanes do well again.”

Read the full article HERE.

Kathy Martin, Joy Upshaw tell pride in joining Masters Hall of Fame

Joy soars indoors

Read full article HERE

Watch interview of Coach Joy after World Masters Meet 2011

W60 distance legend Kathy Martin said: “What an honor and such heady company.” Joy Upshaw’s reaction to being named alongside Kathy and nine others to the USATF Masters Hall of Fame: “Wow! Really? That’s cool!” Kathy spoke for all when she said her induction “is a thrill and very humbling when I see the list of those before me and current inductees. … I was aware that I was being nominated because Mary Trotto had asked Chuck for the stats. But I also know others have nominated and not selected so uncertain as to the outcome. Sue Nesbihal (Cordero) called my cell to congratulate and that was the first I heard. Was in NYC with family for Christmas weekend-Christmas spectacular, etc., so the timing was all the more special. My husband is also my coach and he was in the car with me and heard it simultaneously. He said: “Wow, that is awesome,” and to be nominated with the two most gracious competitors is incredible (Rita and Joy). We are both flying without a plane. And my son was high-fiving us all over the place. Fantastic celebratory dinner in NYC followed by seeing the tree lit.”

More from Kathy’s gracious reply to my email interrogation:

I am giddy with excitement. It gives validation for all the hard work over the years and to be recognized by your peers for the efforts is tremendous. I feel so humbled to be in the company and had the privilege and joy of calling Bill Benson and telling him that bothJohn McManus and I made it in the same year. Bill was so excited and happy—his dream come true. (And Bill was the reason I started running track. He would hand-write me little communiques about how I could run the times and just encouraged me to get to the track and try!) Oh, the talent that lies dormant unless someone is there to advocate and encourage.

Congratulations to all and many thanks to Mary Trotto for her endless hours of work on this and all that she does. And many thanks to Sue Nesbihal for her advocacy and support. She and Mary took me under their wing at my first international competition and led the way. I so appreciate the camaraderie and friendships that have developed and look forward to being back in the competitive field.

From Joy, the W50 multi-eventer and long jump specialist and record-holder:

Masterstrack.com: When did you learn, and how?

Joy Upshaw: From You!  You emailed me to tell me.

Were you aware you had been nominated?

I knew I had been nominated, because Mary notified me in an email… She asked for stats and AOY award dates, American and world records. So I had to do some research .(Luckily, I have saved/knew some results … Also a great resource was our Masterstrack.com archives and mastershistory.org!

Racing as a master since 1992, I had to find some things.. Actually spent a lot of time looking through the results and seeing fellow masters times of Cindy Steenbergen, Marty Krulee, Pat Peterson, Christel Donley, Robert Thomas, Phil Raschker, Becky Sisley, Ed Burke, Don Drummond, etc. Good stuff there!

How did you share the news with your family, and what was their reactions?

Let them know I was notified about it. They were excited—since they have been to so many meets and seen results, etc.

What does this honor mean to you?

It IS quite an honor to be in the Hall with so many other fellow Masters Track Athletes! We have all trained many hours, competed many a day, gone through the same experiences. Having a track & field vision—balancing life, work, family, friends for excellence in our sport.