Nationwide — Johnnie Reid, a 62-year-old African American athlete who works on the State Lawyer’s workplace in Naples, Florida, simply broke a nationwide report on the Nationwide Senior Video games in Ames, Iowa. She ran 100 meters in 13.6 seconds within the 60-64 age group.
This, nevertheless, will not be the primary time that she has damaged a report. In 2023, she additionally broke a report when she ran 50 meters in 7.36 seconds in the identical age group. Final week, although, whereas in Iowa, she broke her personal report working 50 meters in 7.23 seconds.
Reid, as soon as a highschool monitor runner, rediscovered her ardour for the game at age 50—and he or she says she’s now sooner at 60 than she was a decade in the past. Her return to competitors started when a buddy inspired her to enter the Senior Video games in Fort Myers. One race was all it took to reignite her love for the game, and he or she’s been chasing velocity ever since.
Again when her son left for school, Reid was trying to find a mission to fill her “empty nest” years. The reply got here from her personal previous. “Working had introduced me a lot pleasure as an adolescent,” she recalled. “Once I began coaching for the Senior Video games, it clicked immediately. I jumped proper in and by no means turned again.”
Over time, Reid has drawn inspiration from the exceptional athletes she’s met on the Senior Video games. “The seniors I’ve met there are wonderful,” she stated. “They’ve grow to be my heroes and ‘she-roes,’ pushing me to maintain going and provides my greatest.”
Her development as a competitor hasn’t simply come from years on the monitor—it’s additionally been fueled by a willingness to be taught and modify. Simply weeks earlier than competing in Kentucky this 12 months, a buddy identified that she was leaving the beginning blocks incorrectly. Reid went dwelling, turned to YouTube for steering, and found the way to enhance her drive: explode out of the blocks, keep low, pump her arms at most velocity. “When a race is over in seconds,” she stated, “each single motion issues.”
Along with sprinting, Reid competes in shot put and javelin, following a rigorous weekly schedule that balances monitor work, power coaching, and talent observe. Monday nights are for dash drills at Naples Excessive Faculty, working distances from 100 to 300 meters and refining her block begins. Tuesdays are reserved for shot put observe, whereas Wednesdays discover her on the NCH Wellness Middle lifting weights, squatting, and doing plyometric workout routines like field jumps and lunges.
When requested what recommendation she would give to others aiming to coach at a excessive degree or pursue targets like competing within the Senior Video games, Reid stated her message is easy: if she will do it, anybody can. “You need to see it in your thoughts and put it in writing, virtually like making a imaginative and prescient board,” she defined. “My private mantra was, ‘I’m the quickest girl in my age group,’ and I saved working till that turned my actuality.”
Remember to observe her on Instagram @NubianTF60