She is No. 1 In The World, But That's Not Why She Keeps Running

Wendy Alexis, 70. Photo by shaggysphotos.com

 

By Ray Glier

Wendy Alexis’ track & field career crashed when she was 19 years old. She was a Canadian Olympic hopeful and then overuse injuries—bones chipping in both shins and subsequent operations—made it all end.

Running ended, that is. Not life. Wendy was not held captive by dejection of a failed coup de grace in running track.

Alexis settled into a compassionate and gallant teaching career and had a family with three children. She said she didn’t look back. Wendy stowed her boxes of medals and trophies she won as a young phenom and was living happily ever after…

…until, at 50, running came back.

And with it, her tribe of runners came back.

She is still living happily ever after.

“That was that was the best part of training again,” Alexis said. “I got to find my people.

“I also ran because I loved it, like I was a kid again. I never expected this second chance. I didn’t think I was that good at 50, that I wasn’t going to win anything, and that was ok. I was running because I loved it.”

Wendy, who lives in Ottawa, Quebec, remembered her dutiful training as a teenager and poured herself back into running after almost 30 years.

Now look.

Alexis is No. 1 in the world outdoors in the 100 meters and 200 meters and 60 meters indoors for women 70-74 years old. 

I have had many Masters athletes in all sports tell me of elite athletes they know who are goaded by their ego and will not take on another round of fun later in life because they fear failure. The ones that do go for it again, like Wendy, have a different sense of selfhood on their rebound. Their sentiment for sport is not subdued—Alexis exercises seven days a week—but sport does not have the same tension as when they were younger.

“I don’t want to say (competing) is better, but I think it’s almost more rewarding because I’m older now, and I can appreciate the other things that go with it,” Wendy said. “When you’re younger, you’re kind of chasing those times, or you’re chasing those teams to make.

“Now, I’m chasing times to a certain extent, but it’s more satisfying because of the people I get to do this with. It’s an incredible feeling to belong to that group of people again. They’re fun and they’re like-minded. I feel a lot of gratitude.”

This particular stock of people started gathering around Wendy when she was nine years old. A teacher saw the joy of running of certain children and organized an informal team. She belonged to one running tribe, or another, for 10 years.

Wendy was just 17 when she ran in the national 100-meter sprint finals to see who would represent Canada in the Munich Olympics. She was the youngest sprinter in the race and so much was in front of her.

Then came the injuries and the realization over several years of rehabilitation that her Olympic-speed wasn’t coming back. There were no ‘76 Olympics in Montreal.

“I sat in the basement recliner and watched those Olympics and cried because I knew so many of the people on the team,” Wendy said.

Alexis began teaching school and that was the start of her life reset.

Wendy taught school for 41 years and many of the elementary school age children came from refugee camps in Africa. Alexis also taught white children from low-income neighborhoods around Toronto.

“It’s what they call here ‘high needs’ children… and I couldn’t have loved it more,” Wendy said.

Along the way she had her own children and one of them, 17-year old Jordan, encouraged her to get back into running. Alexis was 50.

“When I decided to do it, it was like a huge commitment in my mind because I knew from when I was younger that running is time consuming, and energy consuming, and it has to be a priority in your life,” Wendy said. “If I was going to do it well, I was going to have to work hard at it.”

Not everyone who starts Masters track has to be 100% committed and re-create a template of their younger selves. But sport has to pulsate in you to some degree, whether you are 50, 60, or 70. There should be a touch of “Just how good can I be?”

At 50, Alexis pushed too hard to see how good she could be. And she got hurt…over and over. That’s the imperative, right? Don’t overuse what you have left.

“I was getting so tired of spending so much time rehabbing,” Wendy said. “If I had some kind of little niggle, I wouldn’t usually say anything to a coach. I would wait until I got pretty bad before I said something. It seemed so crazy to be putting so much time into this and being so dedicated, and yet, half of the time was spent recovering from something that I had done to myself.

“I’m pretty stubborn anyway, but I just started listening to people about taking care of myself better.”

She didn’t fix that flaw immediately. “Oh, I would say the last three or four years it came to me that I needed to get on top of (injuries),” Alexis said. Then she had nice chuckle at herself.

Wendy has a physiotherapist, Theo Calligeris, a veteran medicine man with the South African national team, who she describes as “a lifesaver.”

Alexis leans on Theo, her “people”, and herself to keep running. She is spellbound by this second go at competitive track meets.

“When I was younger and ran, I felt that that was a chapter of my life that I didn’t finish and it’s not because I chose to walk away from it, it’s because it ended. I never thought then that I would have the chance to run again,” Wendy said. “It wasn’t at all about winning. It was about being lucky enough to be able to train and push myself and to find a community of people who do the same thing.”

But…you don’t have to necessarily find a community of people. You can be a community of one. Kick a ball off a wall, track it, and kick it again. Get a baseball glove, bounce a ball off a cement step, catch it, bounce it again. Stretch and run hard again. Get lost on a bike.

Like you did as a kid.

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