By Kevin McKay
Posted: Saturday, December 31st, 2011
The year was 1978 and 43-year-old Phil Horton came to the realization that something had to change in his life. The married father of two girls was busy working for BC Hydro, golfing every Saturday and Sunday morning, and enjoying life with his family the rest of the time. Yet, something was missing. Phil was getting larger – and not in a good way. He needed to get back in shape and he needed to do it right away.
So, what prompted the change in attitude? Part of it was passing the milepost that said 40; part of it was realizing that golf alone was not cutting it; and part of it was getting tired of dragging all that extra weight up and down mountains all over the province.
His job gave Phil the opportunity to travel the province inspecting the installation of overhead lines. It meant hiking over some very rugged terrain, which became more difficult as he aged. He made the decision to change his lifestyle. “The running and jogging boom was very big at that time and, as much as I hated running, I saw it as possibly a way to get fitter,” he says. “It was a case of being in the right place at the right time.”
For his first run, Phil decided to run around Stanley Park. It was not easy, but he did it, and started on a training regimen of running in and around the park with the help of some mentors who provided encouragement and showed him the trails. He says, “I ran both around the Seawall and through all the various trails and paths. It is a beautiful setting and is one of my favourite places to run and to train. I know that park like the back of my hand.”
Then Phil decided he would like to try running a marathon.
“I bought all the books on running and one said on the cover, ‘So you want to run a marathon.’ I followed that religiously seven days a week for three months. My first one was in Richmond around 1982, and I was hooked. I have run many half marathons and a handful of full marathons.”
One item on Phil’s bucket list was the New York marathon, something he crossed off his list in November 2010 at the age of 75. “I always wanted to run that marathon and I finally did,” he says. “You don’t just treat it as a normal race. Running in New York is like 26 miles (42 kilometres) of sightseeing. It was most exciting not only to finish but to experience the whole week - it is unique.”
Phil, who never paid any attention to the Senior Games when he was working, discovered them shortly after he retired at the age of 57 in 1992. Without work to occupy him, Phil and his wife, Mary, looked around to see what they could get involved in. They saw an advertisement for badminton at the Bonsor Recreation Centre in Burnaby. They decided to give it a try and started to play twice a week – something Phil still does to this day.
“One of the things I like the most about badminton is the camaraderie,” he says. “There were some nice people at Bonsor who helped Mary and me when we were still learning the game. It is a lot of fun. Some days, you make a few really good shots, and it feels great. People tell me I have a good serve. What I like is that I can run around, play a few games and still go out later for a run and not feel stiff the next day. I have sort of conditioned myself to different activities without the downside.”
Eventually, Phil and Mary started to compete in badminton at the Senior Games; they won several medals.
“Mary was a very good player and won several gold medals with her partner over the years until her hip went,” says Phil. “Having good health is very important for staying active and, fortunately for me, I have very good knees and joints.”
Although Phil was a successful badminton competitor and enjoyed the game, he was still restless. What he didn’t like was waiting around the gym for three days of competition, watching other matches and waiting for his next competition without any opportunity to meet other people or see any of the other activities and sports.
In the Senior Games, athletes are only allowed to compete in one activity or sport per year, so when Phil started looking around for an alternative to badminton, he quickly zeroed in on golf, a sport he’s played since age nine.
“I started playing during the time I had a little stint living with my aunt out in Haney,” he says. “The local golf course quickly became my favourite spot, and I snuck onto the course where the staff that worked there would keep kicking me off. The owner must have seen something in me because he told them to just let me play, as I might become a real player someday. At that point, I could still be a little bit of a jerk but golf, sports and the good people I met helped keep me on the straight and narrow.”
Even after he married and started a family, Phil feels he was fortunate to be able to continue playing golf every Saturday and Sunday morning that weather permitted. It was natural for him to represent Zone 4 in golf at the Games, something he did in 1999 in Kelowna and 2004 in Penticton. Aside from his time on the course, Phil enjoyed watching some of the other athletes compete.
Phil also tried out road race cycling in 2002 in Prince George and mountain biking in Nanaimo in 2007. Though he relished the challenge of cycling, he did not bring home any medals in those games, though he did have time to check out plenty of other activities at his leisure.
“The race in Prince George was just in terrible weather and a lot of my competitors take it so seriously. They had leg muscles that were huge and state of the art equipment. One guy even had a truck following him while he raced with a back-up bike in the back.”
Unfortunately, for Phil, marathon isn’t an event at the Senior Games but he did have the chance to compete in the long-distance track and field events on many occasions. The longer the race, the better he did, winning one gold and one silver in the 10 km run the three times he entered it, as well as one silver medal in the 5,000-metre race one year.
“I am not the fastest guy in the world, and I could never compete against the sprinters,” says Phil. “I just go steadily along and keep on going until the end of the race.”
http://www.seniorlivingmag.com/articles/keep-on-going
