Versatile In The Circus. Versatile On The Track. Lessons From A Geezer Jock.

Rodney on the pole vault runway at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Gainesville, Fla., in March. Photo by Guy Dirkin. 

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By Ray Glier

HUNTSVILLE, Ala._____In the next four minutes, you, as a person who wants to move, exercise, and have fun, will take away at least one recommendation, or piece of counsel, from the spirited Rodney Atherton, who is 69 years old.

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Rodney was in the Florida State University circus, a campus-approved extracurricular activity for students, one of two circuses in U.S. colleges in 1977. He juggled. He rode a unicycle. He walked the slackwire and tightrope. Atherton and another male would perform a two-man adagio where they would swing and then fling a female student into the air and she would pull off an acrobatic move before the guys would catch her. There was a Big Top on the FSU campus, right next to the football stadium. 

Atherton became interested in the circus because his father, Fred, as a boy, wrote a letter to Ringling Brothers and said he wanted to be a lion tamer. Fred, who made a career in college education, was enthralled by the circus and Rodney became likewise enthralled. Atherton was a show by himself in the FSU Circus.

Fast forward many years, 48, and you get to the USA Track & Field Masters Outdoor Championships here last weekend. Remember all those acts Atherton did under the Big Top? He does more acts in track & field. Rodney did six events here in the four-day swelter (M65-69) and won a silver medal in the pole vault and bronze medals in the triple jump and weight throw. 

“My whole life I’ve pretty much been a jack of all trades, the Master of None type of thing,” Atherton said. “It's like, I'm pretty good at a lot of stuff, but I'm not the best at any one thing, right? That's why the decathlon is good for me because you get to do a lot of different events.”

In 2022, he was plenty best at things when you wrapped them into one medal event. Rodney set American records in the heptathlon (seven events indoors), the pentathlon (five events indoors), and the decathlon (10 events outdoors). In 2018, Atherton set the American record in the heptathlon.

That is the essence of Rodney’s story. Be adventurous in your activity, whatever it is. Find what you do well and go for it. If you think you don’t do anything well enough, mix and match. Rodney is not gold medal-competitive in the pentathlon outdoors these days because he is at the top of his age group and because of injuries, but he is STILL OUT THERE.

That’s the first recommendation. Make yourself versatile. Play pickleball and run the 800, for instance.

That leads to the second piece of counsel/takeaway.

“I do so many different events,” Rodney said, “that no matter what's hurting in my body, there's some other event I can do. Last year I did no running or jumping events because of Achilles problems and plantar fasciitis. So I added about 15 pounds, I bulked up a little bit, and I did only throws last year, and the extra weight helped me throw a little better.”

I think that’s kind of remarkable, but there is more.

This year, Rodney is back to looking like a scarecrow at 6-foot-3, 151 pounds. Just like that he modified his body so he could have more fun, this time running and jumping. 

There you go. Another tip. It's never too late to modify your skills, whatever they are.

“I took those 15 pounds back off again so I can get to my high jump weight, and I'm easing back into the running and jumping,” Atherton said. “I'm not fully back yet. That's why I've still got problems.”

Those “problems” can be pain problems. Rodney is remarkable, not invincible.

Here comes another crumb for your takeaway.

You, Geezer Jocks, need to know right now what your pain threshold is. Reach for the OFF switch. It's ok.

Atherton’s pain tolerance is high, he said. Your 8 on the ubiquitous triage 1-10 scale is his 4. He has to be careful. All of us do.

“First thing I have to figure out is the pain because I'm hurting myself, and is it going to make it worse,” Rodney said. “Then there's the pain that tells you ‘It's okay to do this. I'm not injuring myself, but it's going to hurt’.

“If it turns out it's not going to do me damage it’s ok to go ahead and jump through the pain. My wife (Linda) keeps reminding me that I don't feel things as much as other people do. That's good and bad at the same time.”

But if the pain is aggravating an injury, shut it down.

Here is the last piece of counsel and it has nothing to do with track & field.

Atherton has long hair. It is not left over from his spirited days in the circus. His career was as a computer programmer for the Florida Legislature where he lives in Tallahassee.

Rodney's personal Big Top___the hair___is left over from Covid. He won’t go to the barber and risk germs. Atherton and Linda won’t get on a plane either. They drive to every meet.

Rodney’s parents are in their 90s and in a retirement community. Linda’s dad is in a care facility.

“They are vulnerable, we don’t want to take them anything,” Atherton said.

I don’t care what your politics are. That’s empathy. That’s putting others first. That’s the last crumb from Rodney’s story.

Geezer Jock does not intend to idolize others and declare them superior. GJ simply respects the effort to play and to consider others. Atherton deserves our respect.

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