| Joanna Younts |
 Handed the Presidential gavel off to Amie K this year so she could take on a position on the USAT Regional Council for the Mid-Atlantic.
JoAnna is in her fourth year on the team who will once again take on the Master's Open scene in the NCTS and hit the start line of her first Ironman (Lake Placid) in July. She won the 2008 Master's NCTS title but took a break from NCTS point chasing in 2009. Instead she raced strong at Du and Tri Nationals, qualifying for Team USA spots at 2009 Du Worlds in Concord, NC and 2010 Tri Worlds in Budapest. She also made the long trip to Australia for 2009 Tri Short Worlds in September.
She is in her fifth year under coach Dave Williams, who will prepare her well for her first Ironman experience. She'll also hit the 70.3. scene at Mooseman in New Hampshire. She plans to accept her Team USA for Budapest, and may take on the Halfmax USAT Long Course Nationals in Myrtle Beach in October. |
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If you have read any of my race reports in the past few years, you probably know that swimming is not my favorite of the three sports in triathlon. I finally spent some time on it this winter with positive results, so I'm hoping I can stay up closer to the good swimmers and not have to work quite so hard on the bike to catch up.
I come from a horse riding background. I grew up on a farm and horses were my life from age 4 until going off to college. I didn’t participate in any other sports, partly because I had been convinced by a PE teacher that I did not have an athletic bone in my body, and partly because I was too busy riding. I traveled up and down the east coast going to shows all the time. Riding was a great experience but only seems to translate well to the bike – leg strength and balance perhaps??? I rode on the equestrian team at UNC but decided to try something new my junior year and switched to crew. Weird, I know, but that got me running to get in shape.
I introduced my husband to running in about 1992, and he returned the favor, so to speak, by teaching me to swim at age 26. This was so I could do the Make A Wish Triathlon in Bethany Beach, Delaware (in 1994). Yes, an ocean swim – me, who won’t set foot near Kure Beach or Surf and Turf!
These days, I juggle lots of things which means I don't know what "free" time is. Our household joke is that I sit on the couch and eat bon bons during the day. Anyone who took a good look at my schedule would laugh hard at that. This is because we have two daughters (ages 11 and 8), 4 horses, 2 dogs and a cat, and I have a full time job and am trying to train for triathlons while my husband is also trying to train. It’s quite interesting around our house, needless to say. We have a nightly "pow wow" just to figure out who is doing what workout when and what kid needs to be where, when, etc. Our kids mock us during these evening conversations. And often we hear, "can we talk about something BESIDES triathlon???"
This year is my Ironman year. I could not have picked a worse year for this due to big work commitments and stress, but I signed up so I'm determined. So July 25th in Lake Placid will be the day I finally tackle the 2.4 mile swim/112 mile/26.2 mile run insanity. In the meantime, I'll do some tune up races, including White Lake Half and Mooseman 70.3 and spend my non-race weekends banging out lots of bike and run miles. I'm confident my coach Dave Williams will have me ready to go, and I welcome the challenge.
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