Non-Stop Mary Runs And Dishes Gratitude

Mary Trotto motoring toward the finish line in the masters track world meet in 2024 in Sweden. ShaggysPhotos.com. There is a picture by Rob Jerome of Mary, 77, high-jumping, at the end of this story.

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By Ray Glier

GAINESVILLE, Fla.___Dr. Mary Trotto, 77, finally…

…sat…down. 

But she didn’t sit for long. Mary was in the middle of doing 15 events here at the USA Track & Field Masters Indoor Championships, Feb. 20-23. Lunch was quick. Peanut butter and jelly mixed in a cup and spooned out.

I’m not even sure she sat to eat that modest lunch. She leaned forward on her elbows on a high-top table, half in the chair, half out.

And, then, away she went.

Geezer Jock stalked this 77-year old woman for a little while. She stopped to help a teammate on the TNT track team properly use kinesiology-tape. Mary idled briefly to greet a friend. Then she marched to the high jump area, stretched, and jumped. Then Trotto got her legs and upper body loose for an event on the track.

“I want to get a ranking in every event, except racewalking. I don’t racewalk.” said the doctor, who will come back to Gainesville for the World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships, March 23-30.

Mary is not the best athlete and not the worst on the Masters circuit. But she is among the most competitive and determined.

So, that means no sitting down. Dr. Trotto needs a compass because she is moving in a different direction throughout the day.

What she doesn’t need is purpose. And that’s why her story should resonate with so many Geezer Jocks. Mary is driven to give back, which she does routinely with Hale Kau Kau (holly-cow-cow) in Kihei in Maui County, Hawaii.

Trotto is the vice president of the advisory board of Hale Kau Kau, a combination soup kitchen and Meals on Wheels, which served a whopping 4,471 free meals in February. 

"There are no questions asked of people who come get a meal, no shame, nothing," Mary said.

She lives in paradise, but she is not there just to soak up the good life. When you ask what she lives by when her feet hit the ground in the morning, you get this:

“The key to life is giving back all the goodness and things that you get,” Mary said. “You have to give back. If you get good things in your life, you have to give back. I've had a good life, and things have always come my way.”

She didn’t have time this week for a follow-up phone call. Trotto was too busy managing a fund-raiser for Hale Kau Kau. That 18 minutes I got with her in Gainesville would have to do.

**

Her work with Hale Kau Kau hints at Mary’s stamina to do 15 events. After all, to help serve dinner to hundreds of others each week requires time on your feet.   

That’s not all her fitness training, of course. Twice a week, Trotto does a circuit on weights at the gym. “Heavy weights,” she said. “Legs, arms, back.”

Twice a week she runs sprint intervals. 

Mary practices pole vault with the local high school track team. “It’s your turn auntie,” they call out to her.

“Auntie” can also be called “doctor” because of her knowledge in the science of movement.

“My background is in exercise physiology and kinesiology, and so I know the importance of exercise as you get older,” Dr. Trotto said. “And I see people who basically, as they get older, become very sedentary. And I don't think that's an alternative.”

Mary went to Hunter College where she played field hockey for four years and also did synchronized swimming. She earned a Masters at Columbia University in the Ivy League and then a PhD at West Virginia University in Exercise Physiology and Kinesiology.

Trotto taught the science of movement at Long Island University and C.W. Post, as well as Columbia and WVU while doing her graduate work.

Mary, once upon a time, did marathon running. 

“I just got tired of just training for the marathons because you never know when you get to the race day and have it be a crappy day, and then all your training is out the window,” she says.

So, now, Trotto does multiple events, which includes the pentathlon indoors. She is ranked No. 3 in the U.S. in the pentathlon (W75) and in the top 10 in the U.S. in 13 other events indoors.

Born on an island (Long Island, N.Y.) and living on an island, Mary is fully Hawaiian now with floral colors in her hair, beads around her neck, more color on her hat, and bright shoes and an island disposition of joy.

Dr. Trotto taught the science of movement and she practices what she preached. That goes for her life off the track, too. Get and give, she insists. It's not a complicated transaction for her.

Photo by Rob Jerome.