I started on the path to the National Senior Games because it was coming to Cleveland at the perfect time. I would turn 50 the year of qualifying through the State games, so could compete. I exercised and practiced at our High School track and felt ready to succeed. Then the nightmare hit….. I strained a hamstring muscle only 1 month before the qualifying. I got to the games and had not run a single step. I found out starting height was low, so all I had to do was make it and be one of the top four in my age – since there were only 4. I got on the runway, took two solid strides forward, jumped off the wrong leg (my good one) because I could not push off from the injured one, and basically flipped myself over the bar. I was in! I finished 3rd in the National games the next year. Four times since then I have won the Ohio games and one other year I went to Nationals in Alabama to take 3rd place again in the Nation.

The path this began was a path to a better level of fitness. I joined CrossFit and lifted weights with a great community who welcomed the old guy, and an even greater coach who always got us to do the lifting in the right way to bring about gradual improvement. I am a former gymnast so once I got strong enough my body remembered how to do certain things. One day we were told to do muscle ups to get above the bar. I jumped up and flipped myself right up there and this 24 year old goes, “What the heck, I haven’t got one yet.” Another day we practiced handstand walks and when I did mine with another guy, he exclaimed that he had been wanted to do those with me for weeks. When I bent down and did a press to a handstand another young and very strong guy scruffed it off stating, “Well he is a gymnast.” I did have a few advantages over these bulky weightlifters.

One of the State games I went to had this gentleman participating in both the high jump and pole vault. He was 84 years old, and said just call me over when you need me. When it was his turn the official called him over from the high jump. He picks up the pole lying next to the runway and get ready to go. One step back and he is jogging towards the bar which was at 5ft 6 inches. On the second step something white drops out of his mouth and lands on the runway. Someone who was startled by it asked, “Is that a tooth?” The vaulter ran a few more steps towards the pit before deciding not to attempt the jump and stopped with the pole not yet reaching the planting box. He turned around and walked back to the white speck on the runway. After looking at it, he reached down saying, “Lost my gum”, then picked it up. Seeing no where to put it while he jumped, he popped it back into his mouth getting several squeals from those watching, then proceeded with the jump. World War II vet, they just don’t make like that any more.

Have a Happy Friday. Remember to subscribe on the Perspectives page.

I would love for you to share this post if you enjoyed it or have good thoughts from reading it. Leave a comment to share with me and thank you for your time here.