22. Staying Competitive and Having Fun: The Senior Games with Mike Weeks

Does the illusion of wasting away in retirement scare you? Do you long to be active, travel, and make new friends? 

Then listen up!

In this episode of Courageous Retirement, Mike Weeks shares his transformative journey into the Senior Olympics. Discover how Mike rejuvenated his life post-retirement by diving into competitive swimming and other sports, leading to better health and new friendships. 

Mike and host, Vona Johnson, discuss: 

• the impact of having goals, 
• the variety of events in the Senior Olympics, and 
• how this vibrant community offers physical, social, and emotional benefits. 

If you're looking for inspiration and practical advice on staying active and engaged during retirement, this conversation is a must-listen.

00:00  Introduction to an Inspiring Journey
01:05   Meet Michael Weeks: A Senior Olympian
01:59   Discovering the Senior Olympics
08:44  The Health Benefits of Staying Active
10:34   Encouragement for Future Senior Olympians
12:43   The Community and Camaraderie of Senior Games
21:52   The Growing Popularity of Pickleball
23:46  Final Thoughts and Encouragement
27:13   Conclusion and Upcoming Episodes

Quotes:
"I saw that 10 lane competition pool and I said, that's going to add five years to my life." Mike Weeks speaking of the new pool in his hometown.

"You don't know what the future holds. You don't know if there's an illness coming up. You don't know if you're going to have enough money to make it to the  line. There's a lot of anxiety involved with that [retirement]." Mike Weeks 

Connect with the Senior Games near you: https://nsga.com/state-games-information/

Thank you for stopping by today! Remember to Engage Your Faith and Live Your More as you reap the benefits of Courageous Retirement!

To watch the video, check out my YouTube Channel!

Learn more about the show, author Vona Johnson, and more at CourageousRetirement.com!

Schedule a free 15 minute Your Path to More call with Vona.

Transcript

Vona Johnson: 0:00

If I tell you about something that could help you bring in something that you used to do as a younger child or adult, would allow you to travel a little bit, meet some new people, set some goals and get excited about life again. Would you try it out? Michael Weeks did all of those things and he is such an inspiration to me because he went all in. He saw a brand new 50 meter pool his new health facility in the community and he realized that that was going to change his life. And boy did it. I hope you'll stick around and hear his story on how he got involved in the Senior Olympics and it was everything and more than he could have imagined. I hope you'll join us.

Speaker 3: 0:46

Do you fear what lies beyond retirement? What if it's a gateway to a life filled with purpose, meaning, and adventure rather than an end? Discover peace and fulfillment as you boldly enter this new chapter in Courageous Retirement, a Christian podcast. I'm your host, author and coach, Vanna Johnson. Let's get started.

Vona Johnson: 1:05

Welcome, Mike, to this conversation. Here on courageous retirement, and I like to think about it as, trying something that we've not tried before. And when I met you, I was like, this is something I want to introduce to folks who may have not ever considered themselves as an Olympian, no less. So today. Today we're going to have a great conversation with Mike Weeks, my new friend who has actually been to Pierre South Dakota to participate in the Senior Olympics. And I was like, what really? So welcome, Mike. I'm so excited to have you here today.

Mike Weeks: 1:43

Thank you. I appreciate it. And I, I really enjoyed my time in PIerre

Vona Johnson: 1:47

yeah, so Pierre South Dakota, that's not someplace that you would think of people driving hours to get here to participate in anything. Much less, much less the Senior Olympics. First of all, I wanna know you're retired first of all. Right?

Speaker: 2:03

I'm pretty sure I am.

Vona Johnson: 2:07

Somebody told you you were once.

Mike Weeks: 2:09

I think I am, but we'll see. If somebody calls, you know, I would entertain the idea. So going back in the workforce. Well,

Vona Johnson: 2:18

But I think that that's, that's a good distinction to make, though, before we jump into the whole Senior Olympic thing, because, I mean, retirement, in some circles, kind of has a bad name, right? You don't want to retire, and I, I feel like those of us who have worked our whole career for our pension, our retirement funds, should be proud and excited. that we have the opportunity to take that resource that we've been working towards our whole career and go do whatever it is that God's calling us to do, right?

Mike Weeks: 2:51

Exactly

Vona Johnson: 2:53

So it might be, it might be another career somewhere. It might be doing something entirely different, but the beauty of it is that he has provided for us and he gives us that opportunity to do what we enjoy, that we can, we can have fun with. Right.

Speaker: 3:13

Absolutely.

Vona Johnson: 3:14

So in this season, in this moment, you are retired, doesn't mean it's forever, but you are out doing something that I think sounds like must be a lot of fun. When I talk to you about it, it sounds like you're having a lot of fun.

Speaker: 3:30

I do have a lot of fun traveling to different senior Olympic events.

Vona Johnson: 3:36

So how did you get started in the senior Olympic movement, that, that activity?

Speaker: 3:41

In 2017, Batesville, Arkansas, where I live, was in the process of building a 21 million community center. Inside that center, they had basketball courts, a walking track, a workout facility, an outdoor pool, um, therapy pool, kiddie pool. But my big thing was the 10 lane competition pool. I had, when I was five years old, six, seven, uh, I would swim and I was really good at it. Um, uh, went and got, got a little heavy, maybe in like third, fourth grade, and I wasn't beating people like I was, so I kind of got out of the swimming thing, so. But when I went in on July the 5th of 2017 and did a tour of this venue, I saw that 10 lane competition pool and I said, that's going to add five years to my life. So I started swimming, you know, three, four times a week, maybe, um, it's getting better, getting better, getting the rust off, you know, I felt like, you know, things were, I'm getting, I'm, I need to find out more about if there's some where I could compete in this. So I looked up Arkansas Senior Olympics and, uh, the, there was a new director, for the state and he was just trying to get it back on track. And he was having a swim meet and a golf tournament in the same weekend. So I went and I played golf, entered the swim meet. got the gold medal in golf, got the eight gold medals in swimming. I was hooked.

Vona Johnson: 5:31

That would do it. That would do it.

Speaker: 5:33

I mean, that was, that was the end of that. So that's what got me into it. And then, being a healthcare sales guy selling business office services, I've been traveling a lot. So had the airline miles, hotel points, rental car points. So I was able to go to a lot of these states that, uh, had, events like Arkansas and participate in senior games. And I probably go to about seven or eight events a year outside of Arkansas.

Vona Johnson: 6:05

So were you retired at that point? Okay, so you were, swimming for fun and then started competing, in your nights, your weekends, whatever, right?

Speaker: 6:14

Yeah. It'd be a weekend thing. Or, you know, a lot of these states will have a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday deal, much like what South Dakota does. Right. Right. And so I might just try to take out on a plane on Wednesday, late, the last flight on Wednesday, compete Thursday, Friday, Saturday, fly home and get back to work again.

Vona Johnson: 6:39

I love that because, when I talk about courageous retirement, you know, you automatically go to the retirement end of that. But part of it is thinking about What am I going to do when I don't get up every Monday morning and go to work? And so I talk about finishing well, and it's finishing well, both in our career and what we're going to do to leave that in a good place, leave our legacy in that place. But it's also using that time when we're starting to dream a little bit about retirement, because that's, that's a reality, right? When you're still working, and you're You know, however far out that is. I mean, there's a lot of fear behind retiring because people don't want to just sit around and twiddle their thumbs all day. So I love how we start in doing things that we enjoy and realize that that can be an extension, then we can step into that further. Once we do take that leap, would you agree with that?

Speaker: 7:41

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Just, uh, You don't, you don't know what the future holds. You don't know, you don't know if there's an illness coming up. You don't know if you're going to have enough money to make it to the line. There's a lot of anxiety involved with that.

Vona Johnson: 7:57

Yeah, there is and part of it is trusting, taking that leap, even when we don't know, knowing that, you know, God's got a plan and it's going to be okay. But what I loved was you mentioned when you were talking about getting into it, when you saw that pool and you're like, that's going to add five years to my life. That's another thing that I think. We don't often think about when we're thinking about retiring and all the great things that we can do and the travel and all of that, we don't realize that that that really opens a door to the opportunity to get more physically fit than we've been when we've been doing all the, you know, you were traveling for work, but even if you're not traveling, it's just hard to fit that in a schedule when you're working 40 or more hours a week. Talk a little bit about like the health benefits. How do you feel differently now that you've been doing this for a few years, gosh, eight years versus when you were still working?

Speaker: 8:54

Well, I'll walk still a whole lot. And, my 93 year old step mom,, was in a assisted living facility. In the villages in Florida and her doctors told her says, I can tell that you have walked a whole lot because she's, you know, she's strong enough to get around. And he said that the walking really helped her. In today's world, and there's just some things that I do that, you know, I pretty much walk up straight, you know, and I think have decent posture and, just think that I'm, you know, fairly fit, you know, when I'm, when I have a goal for another, state Olympic games, and when I'm practicing for that, I definitely feel better when I have an event that I can plan for and practice for that event. I feel better, you know, when I get closer to that event, it may not be pretty when I start this, you know, this little episode because there's, you know, there's seven or eight of these that I do. So after an event's over with, I might be a little bit on the tired side to where it take a maybe a week break and then get ready for the next one. But Overall, I feel pretty good that, um, I'm able to keep the ticker running fine. It seemed like I'm going to the doctor and my blood pressure's 120 over 75. And, you know, so everything, you know, staying in relatively good health.

Vona Johnson: 10:34

If someone's listening today, and they're like, Huh, never thought about Senior Olympics. Not really sure that that's for me or not. What would your advice be for someone to dip their toe in the water, so to speak, and give it a try?

Speaker: 10:48

First off, I would say, what do they like to do physically? What do they, what do they think their capabilities are? Do, are they just a walker? Can they run a little bit? Do they like swimming? Do they like golf? You know, you could walk around and learn how to throw a Frisbee and do disc golf. You know, there's so many different, thing I love badminton. I mean, I've had had so many people that I compete against says, man, I used to do this when I was a kid. You know, I haven't done it since. I haven't done it for 50 years. And, uh, it's, it's great to be able to get that excitement back again to be able to do something like that, something that you can remember, have your childhood memories about. And, um, so, I mean, I remember swimming, you know, I remember running on the track team, playing basketball, playing football, and things like that. So, to get back to that, have a little goal to train for. Uh, that's good for me. But I would, I would ask somebody if they have Some, some talent in a certain area that they might want to try to compete in and just try it, you know, just go do the power walking, learn, get a video, YouTube video. How do I power walk and then just figure that out? If they want to branch out into a 50 meter dash or a 100 meter dash, or there's people that like to run long distances, they may want to do a 1, 500 meter run. In, golf, usually the tee boxes are not as far back. To where it, you can score a little bit easier for me. So I like, I like that part of it. But the biggest thing is, is just the camaraderie. When you were in high school and whatnot, you know, you had all the trash talking. You know, you're not any good, I'm gonna Beat your pants off of you and all this stuff. And, uh, you don't normally get that in Senior Games. We're happy to be there.

Vona Johnson: 13:03

You know,

Speaker: 13:03

we are happy to be there and, and doing something that we enjoy. And we really root for each other. You know, it, that's, that's the unique part about Senior Games to me. Is, it's a community where we're. We're all, uh, cheering for one another and we wanted each other to do good, not get hurt, uh, and hopefully get out of the weekend with no pulled hamstrings or whatever, so.

Vona Johnson: 13:33

Are there senior Olympics pretty much in every state? Are you, do you know?

Speaker: 13:37

Every state that I know of has senior games.

Vona Johnson: 13:41

Okay.

Speaker: 13:42

There's only two that I know that are closed states. And that's Tennessee and North Carolina, every other state. I can be in Arkansas and go to Wyoming. I can be in Arkansas and go to Oregon, wherever those, they're, they are open states and everybody has their, if you can kind of figure out that Florida is really hot in the summer, Texas and San Antonio is really hot during the summer. So Texas is about to start theirs. Florida likes to do theirs in December. I mean, they'll do it in an outdoor pool in December, you know, in south of Orlando somewhere, you know, so, but then other states, other northern states like South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, whatever. They'll have those anywhere from June 1st to Labor Day, Memorial Day to Labor Day. Most that's where most everybody does their Olympics.

Vona Johnson: 14:48

And I assume because of the variety of sports that people can enter into an event on some are indoors, some are outdoors, you get kind of a mix of all of that. That'd be correct.

Speaker: 14:59

Right. And track and field, always outside. Uh, then there's, you got these skills that you do. You have basketball, three point shooting, or free throws. That's going to be in a gym, for the most part. Disc golf golf, swimming. Swimming, for the most part, is indoors. For the most part. Um, and it's kind of amazing that, you know, We go to Kearney, Nebraska, and it's a 50 meter outdoor pool. That's unusual.

Vona Johnson: 15:30

We just built one here in Pierre.

Speaker: 15:33

Okay. That's right. That's right. It was, it was, but the Y was a really good venue. And we played badminton there. Um, can't remember if we did anything else in the, in the Y that weekend,

Vona Johnson: 15:48

earlier you mentioned that a lot of times you get home after a weekend of games and you're really tired and reminds me, when we talked about this a while back, you had mentioned how many different events you can be involved in at one of these. Share that with us. I was just like, what?

Speaker: 16:07

Well, like, South Dakota, what I like to do is participate in events where I can do all these events in four days. But I can compete in all those events, and I can do golf, and disc golf, maybe in the The morning and the afternoon. Go do a couple of track events that evening. Then come back and do track events the next morning. Then go to badminton. Do basketball free throws. Then swimming's the next day and, you know, that's, and I like to swim all 16 events. Some states don't allow you to do that. And that's the, the freestyle breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly. Butterflies are a hard stroke to do because you got to bring those shoulders around all the time and lift yourself out of the water to get to the next stroke. So, a lot of people don't, there's not too many people that do a 200 meter butterfly. I like to do it just to say I did it.

Vona Johnson: 17:11

An easy gold, right?

Speaker: 17:15

I mean, it's just a mentality thing. I just like to make sure just kind of said, I'm going to beat this, you know, so, but then, they, they might be, horseshoes, racquetball, other events that happened maybe on that Sunday. And then that's it, you know, then Hopefully, I've won 25, 30 medals and I go home and I sack out for a day and then, and then get back after it again for another weekend.

Vona Johnson: 17:47

Well, and that's, that's what I was just like, 25, 30 medals. That's, that's a lot.

Speaker: 17:52

I keep busy while I'm at these places for sure.

Vona Johnson: 17:55

Well, I think that's really incredible. I'm not competing in any Olympic games or anything like that, but I find, and I've kind of been this way probably forever. Maybe everybody's this way. And I just have become more aware of it recently. But if I have something on my calendar, That I'm looking forward to life is just a little bit more exciting. You know, it's like we did a trip to Yellowstone last fall and we planned it, months in advance. And we go to a music festival every September and we have a car show in the summer. When you know that you've got that thing that's coming up, it's good to have something to look forward to. Do you find that yourself as far as with your games and your travels and all of that?

Speaker: 18:38

Oh, sure. I mean, some of the states haven't totally gotten their schedules down yet, but you know, I know that, uh, Mississippi's coming up. You know, so I'm getting ready for that. Uh, Alabama's not too far in the distant future, South Carolina. Then you get into Iowa, Missouri. Uh, then, then the crazy week where you've got Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, and North Dakota. They're going to have all their games in 10 days. Oh wow. So that's a lot of events. In a short period of time, and I hope so.

Vona Johnson: 19:20

You literally could go from one state to the next and then compete.

Speaker: 19:23

That's what, that's what I hope. That's what I hope I'm, you know, if they don't, it just matters how they manipulate their schedules and if, where can I get from here to there to the, you know, is it if, are the logistics. It's easy enough to make it happen.

Vona Johnson: 19:40

That's, that's exciting. That's a lot. So does, does your wife do these with you or you kind of, does she like to enjoy the time when you're gone?

Speaker: 19:50

She doesn't like the limelight like I do. I'm the ham, but I did coerce her one time to go to the Arkansas senior games and do power walking with me. And, uh, she did badminton in cornhole. Oh. And so she was the only female that participated. And in that age, in her age group, she got a gold medal. I thought that'd really light her up, but not so much She's

Vona Johnson: 20:20

We all have our thing, right?

Speaker: 20:23

Yeah. Yeah. She's a workout queen now. I mean, she can, she can flat out do it in the gym a lot, a lot. Even more than me. So, she, she can, she's very fit. So it's really, it's really good to watch her. Be able to move around, especially, I mean, the grandkids, I tell you what, you gotta, you gotta be in shape to keep up with the grandkids. So you could be a senior Olympian practicing for that, and then a sideline job would be able to keep up with the grandkids, so.

Vona Johnson: 20:54

Well, and I'm assuming that because you can do all those different things, that makes it fun because you can do those things with the grandkids anytime. I mean, you're, you know, there's a lot of grandparents that are like, Oh no, no, no, I'm not going to do that. But I'm pretty sure that your grandkids can talk you into about anything, huh?

Speaker: 21:12

Well, the other day, uh, the oldest, he's, Almost six. He's, he got hold of the phone. I guess he said, uh, daddy, I need to get the phone and call Pop Pop. And, uh, so we FaceTimed and says, Pop Pop, you need to come to see me. We need to play pickleball. Cause they had bought them a pickleball net and some paddles and a couple of pickleball balls, little plastic balls. And, and so twist our arm. Here we go. An hour and a half later, we're traveling down the road. We're traveling down

Vona Johnson: 21:46

the road. I love it. So I assume that's one of the sports that someone can enter as well.

Speaker: 21:52

It is. And I've never played pickleball. in competition. Yeah, it's, there's, it is the fastest growing sport in the country, and Arkansas had 480 participants. Arkansas is a small state, and to have 480 participants was Pretty amazing. So, and that's the largest sport in every state that I know of, that I've heard of.

Vona Johnson: 22:20

Yeah, we just, in addition to our new pool, we also just put in new pickleball courts in our, in our park here in, in Pierre. And what I was really impressed with is the fact that the pickleball players is like the city gave them the land and helped with really just a nominal investment to help get it going. And all the pickleball players raised all the funds and did all the work. And you know that they love that sport when they'll make that kind of a commitment for it. So when

Speaker: 22:51

I walk around the track around this, there's three basketball courts. They can put three pickleball courts. On each basketball court, see the way it's painted out so they can have nine courts going and they also have it on the outdoor tennis court. They've got another 4 courts that they could do if they wanted to. So they can have a small tournament. I mean, this, this venue that we had in Cabot, Arkansas. They probably had 40 courts, so it was a, it was a humongous arena. So, but I think, I think people enjoyed going there. It was, that's a lot of people to get through and keep them running, you know, so I think they had mostly compliments for, from Nevad.

Vona Johnson: 23:45

That's cool. So, To wrap this up, one of the questions that comes up for me is, what would be, what would you consider to be the, the number one, the most compelling reason that someone would maybe want to get involved in the senior games? If, if they hadn't, you know, I mean, whether they're athletic or not or whatever, is, is there an overriding benefit that you have seen from this that we may be either we have or haven't talked about, but that you would be like, you just got to do it for

Speaker: 24:21

this. Have a goal to for a certain event in your state. Whatever that is, sign up for it, do the event, practice for it, it'll make you feel better, it'll make you get in shape somewhat, but then when you get to the event, for me, my experience is that most everybody is very cordial, they're glad you're there, you know, they want to know a little bit about you. You know, maybe while you're waiting for your event, you've got somebody sitting there and y'all just start this discussion and they might become one of your best friends, you know, or get them on Facebook or whatever. I mean, when I go to North Dakota and these people that, you know, I've seen them now for four or five years. And. Uh, they're Facebook friends, you know, so you can, you can, you know, meet people from other states, you know, if you go to a different state or just people that are in your state. Um, but to me, it's the camaraderie, you know, everybody's for each other for the most part. Uh, it gives you a goal, get in shape, get active. Uh, it'll, you know, it's just, Hey, I've got, I got to go walk, uh, 3000 steps today. I gotta go walk, you know, I gotta go walk again. You know, I feel better when I do that. I just think it, it just gives you a better outlook on life.

Vona Johnson: 25:52

Yeah, I love that. I love that a lot. And I think that, um, Yeah, it's, that's inspiring to have that goal and not just, not just from a physical standpoint, but also that social aspect. So it sounds like you've made some good friends along the way.

Speaker: 26:09

I really have, I'd say I might, I might have 20, 30 Facebook friends that I would not had if I would not have done this.

Vona Johnson: 26:20

Awesome. Well, that is wonderful. And I am so glad I didn't meet you at any senior games, but maybe someday, I don't know. Um, we talked about that. I'm, I'm not really very competitive. I kind of like to kind of do my, my private exercise stuff, but I, it was a pleasure to meet you. I enjoyed, our conversation at conference at C suite and I've enjoyed this conversation very much. I'm excited to share it with. I

Speaker: 26:49

have to drive down to Huron in August, you know, for the South Dakota senior games there.

Vona Johnson: 26:54

Well, we'll keep in touch. We'll see if that we can make that happen.

Speaker: 26:58

I'm trying to inspire you to start walking.

Vona Johnson: 27:00

Oh, I walk in the summertime.

Speaker: 27:02

That makes sense up there. You wouldn't want to be walking out a lot in the year.

Vona Johnson: 27:06

Last week for sure. Thank you so very much, Mike. It's been a joy to have us.

Speaker: 27:10

I enjoyed it.

Speaker 4: 27:11

What do you think? Are you ready to sign up for a Senior Games in your area? I really encourage you to consider doing that. I'm sure Mike would love to talk with you if you have any questions or just go online and check out where the Senior Games are in your state. If nothing else, go watch and cheer on some folks and meet some new friends that way. I to thank you for stopping by today. I really appreciate you listening to us here on Courageous Retirement. Next time, we're going to shift gears a little bit and we're going to have a conversation with a gentleman who's going to talk about writing our story down I'm really excited to have this conversation with Nels next time and that's in two weeks so be sure and stop back even if you don't think you have a story to share. I would really love to for you to come and just learn about writing it down. I appreciate you being here and I pray that this will help you reap all the benefits of courageous retirement. So be sure to engage your faith and live your more every single day. God bless.