Sarah and I competed for the first time in the South Dakota State Senior games. Anybody over the age of 50 can participate. We were not sure what to really expect. It was a lot of fun, and we left with a lot of new medals. Sarah competed in 3 events, and came away with 2 gold medals, and a silver. I competed in 7 events and came away with 5 gold medals, and two silvers. It was fun to win the medals, but it was more fun to compete!
I was most nervous about competing in the bench press. I do some of this in my Reiflex center, but not usually the weight required for this. Anyone in the category of 50-59 men had to bench 125# and do as many repetitions as possible. I managed to do 19 reps! I had no idea what I was capable of. The guy in charge of the competition even told me afterwards for someone my size, he was surprised at my strength! That made me surprised then too. I guess it goes to show that we don’t know what we are capable of until we try. So, what are you waiting for?
Sarah won for women in the plank! 6 minutes and 2 seconds! Wow! She had never gone this long before. I guess our workouts in the Reiflex center are paying off!
We both medaled in the wall sit, which was tough, as it was the last event of the day, and we were pretty tired by then.
All of our weight workouts were to help with our running. Saturday morning was our last event–the 5k Run. We both won for our age groups. I was a little nervous at the beginning because some of these guys are animals when it comes to running!
We had a lot of fun competing, and I think we are hooked for future competitions. There was a 91-year-old male competing. No one else was in his age group, so he was winning all of the gold medals. But the fact he was the only one in his age group did not matter. He was putting many of the other younger people to shame with what he was to do with competing. He was an athlete! We could all learn from him. He was smiling with everything, and loved to compete, and it showed. Have fun. Be healthy. Surprise yourself with what you may be able to do. I challenge all of the members of Watertown Area Run Club who are over 50 to compete next year. It was a lot of fun, and everybody is cheering everybody else on. The true spirit of competition! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day of New Streak: # 1260
