Make Your Own Decisions, Then Go For It

After Roger won a silver in the 100 meters (M75), he went to the practice area at the WMA and tried to find his rhythm in the hurdles, but he had undertrained because of the knee injury and couldn't find his groove. Photo by Kris Parnell.  

By Ray Glier

Roger Parnell, 75, decided his 2024 Masters track & field season would not be made, or broken, in the doctor’s office. The big decisions were his, so he made them, and then went to Sweden and helped with the finest haul of medals for the U.S—ever—in a World Masters Athletics Championships held in Europe (247 medals won, 110 gold).

Please pay attention to this comment from Roger, a runner and jumper, and tuck it away.

It’s important because you can’t dabble in serious rehab if you don't do surgery to fix something. You have to rely on your own counsel for those tough decisions.

My injury was a badly torn hip labrum complicated with advancing arthritis. The orthopedic surgeon said it was inoperable. He said pain would continue to worsen and I would be given some pills that would help. When those stopped being effective, I was to receive a series of Cortisone shots. When those no longer worked, I would have to have a hip replacement.

No odds were given. Just a rather rigid path. I found a very good physical therapist who showed me an alternative to that path. I think this one has a little better scenery.”

The scenery, it turns out, was spectacular. Just in from the beach in Sweden, a splendid place.

On August 15, Parnell won a silver medal in the 100 meters for Men 75-79, which had three heats and a final. It was competitive with 24 runners entered from the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Roger ran 14.53 and lost to Japan’s Yoshio Aiba who went 14.21.

On August 24, Roger was on a bronze medal 4x100 relay team for Men 75-79, which included two runners who were 80+-years old and “played up”, Hal Lieberman and Avital Schurr. Philip Felton was the anchor for the 1:08.02 run.

Physical therapy, not surgery, made it a mostly successful trip.

In between the 100 and relay, well, that’s where being in a nice country with scenery helped. Parnell “bombed out” in the 80m hurdles where he was fourth in his heat and didn’t get a sniff of the finals.

"I didn't have the repetitions built up because of the knee," Roger said. "I didn't have the muscle memory for the entire race."

He decided not to race the 200 meter dash and conserve energy. In the long jump, where he was once No.1 in the whole wide world (M70), Roger was fifth.

“It came down to trying to run so many events, and that I knew that my conditioning was very poor,” Roger said. “In the 100 I tried to just slide into the finals and I darn near didn't make them.

“I had Plica knee so in the long jump I didn’t have full steam practice, a full length runway training. Foolish me. I've been doing it most of my life and that is my best event that I relate to the most.

But he still went to Sweden and, in the end, got his silver and was part of an unconventional bronze relay team put together by the USATF Masters administrative selection team of Jerry Bookin-Weiner, Robert Thomas, Phil Greenwald, and Colleen Barney.

It all came down this: You GOTTA listen to yourself.

“We can make plans all we want, some of those times it can work out just fine, others times no,” Parnell said.

It worked out for Roger because, remember at the start of this story, he relied on his decision for physical therapy. The PT meant Parnell had just five outdoor events in 2023 and skipped the 2024 indoor season. 

“I had really worked in the PT exercises, and that was working well. I was really feeling good about my speed, and I had all of that really coming together,” Parnell said. “The hip issue...I will always have a hip issue, but the physical therapist gave me some great stuff.

“It was a lot of band work, 45 minutes to an hour to get through the exercise. And also some kettle ball type of workouts where you're working on balance and strength.”

You know the moral of this story. Trust yourself.

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