Competition Adds a Boost to Your Fitness Routine

Leslie Hagan, 78, of Ocala, Florida, says competition has allowed her to stay active and cross winning a tennis championship off her bucket list.

In April, the physician and her teammates won the United States Tennis Association women's league sectionals championship in the 65 and over, 6.0 category. Her Marion County, Florida, team survived tiebreakers and tight matches to go 4-0 in the tournament. The group will travel to Arizona to compete in the national championships this year.

"This team played their hearts out,” says Hagan. “It was a dream for sure.… I can't wait to play at nationals."

Leslie Hagan, fifth from left, with her Marion County, Florida teammates after winning U.S. Tennis Association Sectionals 6.0 category.

Courtesy Leslie Hagan

The camaraderie is as important as the competition when it comes to athletics, says Donald Webster, 64, of Atlanta, who is a runner and cyclist. Webster is a member of the South Fulton Race club, the Metro Atlanta Cycling Club and Black Men Run. He says teammates hold him accountable.

"If I miss a couple of runs, it's 'Hey, where is Don?'” he says. “No question that's what has kept me consistent over all these years — the people."

Webster competes in 5Ks, 10Ks duathlons and an occasional half marathon. He even completed a couple of marathons. Last year, with races sidelined by COVID-19, Webster decided to enter a “virtual road race,” in which people ran and entered their times online.

"It's just not the same," says Webster. "People run on different terrains, different courses... I'm looking forward to post-COVID to get out there with crowds."

He already signed up for the 52nd Annual Peachtree Road Race, which takes place July 3 and 4, through Atlanta. He considers himself an “age-grouper,” meaning he competes against people his own age. This December, Webster will turn 65, which puts him in the 65-69 group. “I'll be among the youngest in that age group, something to look forward to,” he says.

Taking up a sport later in life

You don't have to have had a long athletic career to benefit from a bit of competition. Bill Cordes, 75, of St. Cloud, Florida, is a late bloomer who recently placed third in the U.S. Tennis Association 50-and-over 3.0 division in the National Singles Championship. Cordes didn't start competing in tennis until 2018. Up until then, he had been an avid spectator, attending tournaments and following his favorites, like Roger Federer.

Then he heard that the USTA planned to build a world-class national tennis facility in Orlando. The 64-acre facility includes a player development area for professional athletes, including those who compete in Grand Slams.

Unfazed by his age and inexperience — he occasionally played on the weekends, but had never competed — Cordes persuaded his wife to move nearly four hours north to be near the campus “so I could play every day,” he says.

A U.S. Army veteran, Cordes signed up for a USTA military program that offers free instruction for military members, took some lessons and started competing. His tennis career blossomed.

For lifelong athlete Kathleen Fitzgerald, 78, of Norman, Oklahoma, competition keeps her accountable and focused in a way that's different from taking a daily jog or a yoga class.

"You have a purpose. You have a goal you're working toward,” says Fitzgerald, the executive director of the Oklahoma Senior Games, in which she competes in table tennis and track and field. “You sign up for the competition and you know it's coming and if you aren't prepared it's your own fault.”

Until seven years ago, Fitzgerald was an ice skater, winning a silver medal in the senior games’ 55 and older competition. When she came off the ice, she says she realized that for her, it wasn't all about winning. “It was an appreciation for the people that had helped me, like my coach, the other skaters... Just the whole process of setting the goal and then working toward it,” Fitzgerald says.

For Hennessy, the softball player, nothing beats the feeling he gets when he steps up to bat or catches a ball in the field. “All of a sudden everything else melts away,” he says. “You don't worry about any other problems. You're just playing with your friends."

Merlisa Lawrence Corbett is a contributing writer who covers sports, interior design, business and human-interest stories. A former reporter for Sports Illustrated and tennis columnist for Bleacher Report, her work has also appeared in Essence and Black Enterprise. She is the author of the biography Serena Williams: Tennis Champion, Sports Legend and Cultural Heroine.