Amy Yanni: Marathon Phenomenon
Amy was born and raised in Detroit (she grew up on Seven Mile Road,
just a mile away from famous White rapper Eminem’s Eight Mile Road). She
loves the creative arts, including acting, music, and dancing, and as
a kid from Detroit, she knows how to do something more than the “White
Man’s Shuffle.” When your editor tried to pin her down
as to when she started running, she was evasive. She retorted, “I’ve
run my entire life. I was co-captain of my Maynard, Massachusetts
high school softball team and was an active tennis player. You
have to run to be successful in either of these sports.” Her
mother loves to read and walk, and Amy picked up both of these attributes
from her.
Finally, she admitted the beginning of her running, as opposed to running within another sport, occurred approximately fifteen years ago. Her first competitive race was the Northampton, Massachusetts Five Miler on September 24th, 2000. She ran a brisk 45:54 for a 9:11 minutes per mile (mpm) average. She continued her running while a resident of Massachusetts and was awarded ten pounds of potatoes for her win in the Monatague, Massachusetts Run. She later moved to northwestern Minnesota (see below) and competed in Dick Beardsley’s One-Half Marathon at Detroit Lakes, completing it in 1:53 for the fast paced 8.37 mpm average. In her first three months in South Dakota in 2003, she blitzed with a first in her division with a 1:42:11 time at the Deadwood Mickelson Trail Run, a blazing 7.48 mpm average. Amy is a recent cancer survivor (as are some of the rest of us) and ran in the Relay for Life Cancer Survivors Run/Walk. As Mary Snortland (a/k/a Amy), she placed second in her division in the very tough Bighorns Trail Run in 3:09:49 for a very respectable 10.12 mpm average. That was by far her most challenging run (as is true for many of the rest of us).
Following her childhood in Detroit where she picked up a love for Frank Sinatra’s music (Motown he is not, Amy), her family moved to Maynard, Massachusetts. She later attended Framingham State College in Framingham, Massachusetts, home of the original toll house cookie, where she received a B.A. in history. She went on to B.U. (Boston University), where she received a doctorate in education with emphasis on special needs children. Her advisor encouraged her to continue on to law school, where she received a J.D. from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, and worked for Western Massachusetts Legal Services Program and Hampden County Probate and Family Court. While a practicing lawyer, Amy was named a 2000 YMCA Woman of Achievement, receiving official citations from both the House of Representatives and the Senate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She was coordinator of the AmeriCorps National Service Legal Corporation, and had four AmeriCorps lawyers working under her direction. While living in Massachusetts and the Boston area, she became an avid Red Sox fan and attended many games at Fenway Park.
In 2001, she moved to Legal Services of Northwestern Minnesota, based in Alexandria, with outreach offices in Paul Bunyan’s Brainerd and Moorhead, Fargo’s twin city. There she met Dan Jongeling, a Parker, South Dakota native and USD Law School graduate. Dan, who is a bicyclist, frequently joins the crew for the post Wednesday night festivities, always loved the Hills, as did Amy once she was introduced to them. In the spring of 2003, Dan took a position with Dakota Plains Legal Service. As the South Dakota Bar does not have reciprocity with Massachusetts and Minnesota, Amy initially joined the law firm of Barker, Wilson, Reynolds, and Burke in Rapid City as a paralegal. She subsequently took her bar exam and joined the Pennington County Public Defender’s office as an Assistant Public Defender.
Amy brought her dog, “Izzy,” a greyhound from Massachusetts who was twelve years old, and Dan and her cats, from the Alexandria, Minnesota Humane Society, Kate and Spencer. Izzy became a favorite of many BHRC members as he hung out with Amy and Dan, wearing a neckerchief. Unfortunately, Izzy died last year. Amy and Dan immediately adopted another greyhound, “Frank”—named for her favorite crooner.
She started running marathons in 2003, Bismarck and Black Hills. In 2004, she ran five, including Boston for the first time. Amy has really blossomed as a marathoner in 2005. Leading Ladies will be her tenth marathon this year. She ran Boston in 3:46, placing her 29 of 1,484 female competitors (top 2%). This was 43 minutes faster than her first attempt at Boston in 2004. She has placed first in her division in six of the ten marathons. Her best time was 3:23:27 at the Foot Traffic Marathon in Portland, Oregon on July 4th.
She is clearly the top female regional marathoner in her division and one of the top in the nation. Go, girl, go!