Cover Story
A Million Mile Journey
One Step at a Time
By Gary Bouchard, Photography by Jeff Dachowski
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
So too, apparently, does the journey of a million miles. And if the first step in that journey is taken when one is already thirty years old and the mother of two children, and if it is alongside some of the best athletes in the world, it will require more than just good legs, lungs and feet to reach the end. For Joanne Dow, the journey has been guided by strong hands. “God’s hands have been in this all along the way,” says the championship race-walker, “in the ups and the downs, in the victories, and especially in the defeats.”
Consider where Joanne Dow’s improbable journey has taken her. By placing one foot swiftly in front of the other for thousands of miles a year, this New Hampshire native and product of four Manchester Catholic Schools (St. George’s, St. Catherine’s, St Joseph’s and Trinity, ’82), has become, at 44 years old, one of the most formidable and prominent track and field athletes in the world. Currently posting the fastest times in race-walking events among American women, she is a favorite to represent the U.S. in the Olympic Games this summer.
Joanne first burst upon the race-walking scene in 1995 when, as a novice racer, she brought her family to the Epcot Center in Florida to see how well she might compete in a national race. Stunning herself and everyone around her, Joanne finished 7th among a field of opponents who had made race-walking their collegiate sport and their full-time professional enterprise. People stood around wondering: Who is this woman from New Hampshire?
By 1997 this woman from New Hampshire was getting the professional training she needed and was ranked 4th among all female race-walkers in the United States. Now, over a decade later, she is a three-time USA Outdoor champion (’98, ’02, ’06) and five-time Indoor champion (’99, ’02, ’03, ’04, ’06). On July 6, 2008, she will compete in Eugene, Oregon, with hopes of finally becoming an American Olympian.
And what if she doesn’t? “Whether God intends for me to make the Olympic team, I don’t know. It’s really all about the journey.” And that journey for Joanne Dow is about a lot more than medals. Her journey is one of faith, and her goals are ones that most of us share: living in a good marriage, being a committed and involved parent, growing in her faith. Along the way has been the devotion of her husband, the enthusiasm of her children, the loss of her father, the steadfast love of her mother, the support of her many siblings and the instruction of insightful coaches. In short, the journey has been, and remains, about life itself. “If not making it to the Olympics is the worst thing that ever happens to me,” Joanne reflects, “well then, I’ve lived a charmed life!”
That charmed life includes being born into a family of athletes. Joanne’s father was the first man in New Hampshire to be drafted into the NBA, though a bout of Rheumatic fever ended his career with the Philadelphia Warriors before it started. Two of her brothers played college basketball; four are still coaching, and all of them remain involved in athletics in some way. And while Joanne certainly inherited more than her share of athletic talent, her journey has not been an uninterrupted road to success. She began swimming competitively at nine years-old, and also played many years of soccer and ran track. By the time she was a junior at Trinity, however, she was working at a bookstore to help pay her tuition. Consequently, she did not participate in any sports during her final two years of high school. But that doesn’t mean that she wasn’t active. Joanne walked. She walked to school. She walked to work. She walked from work. “I was always exercising,” she recalls.
During her sophomore year at the University of New Hampshire, Joanne decided to once more commit herself to swimming, though she hadn’t swum competitively since her sophomore year in high school. She made the UNH team and made it to the nationals in the medley relay. During her senior year, she met Tim Dow. They soon married and had two children. The new mom was enrolled in a fitness-walking class at the Executive Health Club in Manchester when one day the instructor told her: “You should be teaching this class.” She became certified to teach fitness-walking and was soon teaching a walking class. Before long she was meeting people who made race-walking their sport, and the thought of competing began to intrigue her. In 1994, while working out with a friend and fellow race-walker at the Memorial High School Track in Manchester, Joanne’s competitive fire was kindled in earnest when her friend told her: “If you had started this earlier, you might have been an Olympian. You might have had a chance.” That was all she needed to hear. “My next step was a clinic in Niagara where I came in 13th. The head of the clinic told me that if I really started to train and focus, I could compete among the top women in this country. We were driving back to New Hampshire, and I remember thinking that most of the women competing in the country weren’t married with two kids. I told Tim, ‘I really think I can do this.’ And I’ll never forget him saying, ‘Whatever it takes, if you really want to do this, we can make it happen together.’ No matter what sacrifice has been required since, Tim has never said no.”
Joanne and Tim’s marriage has itself been at the center of their faith. “Getting married meant a return to a more faithful practice in the church. We did marriage encounter, and that really helped us grow in our faith. That really needed to happen for us. Family has remained the center of everything we do. My training schedule has allowed me to be a very present parent, as well as ‘homeroom mom’ and coach.”
“Everything that’s happened,” says Joanne “has happened because of the sacrifice of my family and friends.” After the debut race at Epcot in 1995, Joanne continued to improve, but then came an injury in 1995, followed by a year of seeking perspective. “I needed to figure out where walking was going to fit into my life. It was becoming all-consuming. I was never taking a day off, thinking I would get better by chronic practice, and that pain was okay. Of course, I was wrong.” With professional coaching, by 1997 Joanne had become one of the top walkers in the country, and in 1998 she placed first at nationals and won a bronze medal at the Goodwill Games, becoming the first American walker to earn a medal at that event. She then became the first American woman to win the Pan Am cup. Adidas came on as her sponsor, and she became the first race-walker ever to be nominated for the Jesse Owens award.
In 1999 her career continued to soar; the 2000 Olympics seemed the next likely stop for this unlikely champion and mom from Manchester. Then her knee began to hurt. Ultimately, surgery was required, followed by therapy which meant, among other things, six weeks without walking. At the Olympic trials in July, she finished 4th, one spot away from qualifying for the team. Joanne was 36 and resigned to the fact that her Olympic dream was not meant to be.
She continued to train half-heartedly through 2001 and recalls wondering, “What am I doing?” That year her father died. For Joanne, it was yet another turning point in the journey. She recalls the conversation she had with God at that time: “You have those moments when you feel like God is talking to you. ‘I have given you these gifts,’ He was saying, ‘Why would you stop now?’
“‘Okay,’ I remember responding, ‘but I’m going to need your help.’”
Joanne rededicated herself to walking and in 2002 won both the USA Outdoor and Indoor titles, a feat that she would repeat in 2006. In 2004 she raced the fastest time in her life, winning the Indoor title. Once more the Olympic goal seemed within reach. Then came some abdominal pain; doctors discovered a fibroid requiring surgery on Joanne’s uterus. She put off the surgery until after trials, but the combination of her less-than-optimal health and complicated Track and Field scoring procedures meant that, though she was the fastest woman walker in the country that year, Joanne would once again miss out on the Olympic team.
Following this disappointment, Joanne recalls, she took part in a healing liturgy at her parish, Ste. Marie. “I remember sitting there in the church thinking, ‘I have been putting one foot in front of the other for a million miles — for what?’ Then I had this vision that was so vivid I can see it now. I am crossing the finish line, and Jesus is waiting for me with outstretched arms. As I cross the line, he takes me into his arms and then brings me to my husband and kids, my mom and my sister, and he says, ‘This is your prize.’” As the tears begin to flow down this tough athlete’s face, one understands where her million-mile journey has brought her, and how little ribbons and rankings have to do with it. “I never think, ‘poor me, this is so unfair.’ It’s all about the journey.”
Today Joanne is still at the top of her sport, having posted in 2007 the fastest time for an American woman race-walker. As she prepares for the Olympic trials, she is also an assistant high school track coach at Central High School, coaching student athletes like her 18 year-old daughter Hannah who was in preschool when her mom first stood on a track in Manchester fourteen years ago and heard those fateful words: “You might have been an Olympian.”
In a few weeks, Joanne will know whether she will finally fulfill that backwards prediction. Whether or not the journey leads to a triumphant trip to Beijing this summer, Joanne’s journey seems far from over, and it is fulfilled in every step she takes — or misses. “If there is one thing I have learned in my journey, it is surrender to the Lord. I’ve always had to ask myself whether what I am doing is glorifying God or just being selfish. The purpose of all that has happened to me came together when I began coaching. Being a teacher to young people, a coach, a mentor, and kind of a mother is something I never could have done if I hadn’t gone through all I have. I can coach kids to win, but also be a light and help them understand how much more there is to life than winning a race.” A valuable lesson — and who better to teach it than Joanne Dow, a champion and probable Olympian, who understands after millions of steps that, long after the race is won or lost, there is still the journey — the lasting, mysterious, and eternal journey.