Senior Spotlight: Masters of track

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

"At our age, what we're really competing against is Death."

With that joke, senior athlete Sharon Raham burst out laughing. When one is in any sort of "senior" competition, it's good to have a sense of humor.

Bob Fulton, also a senior athlete, is something of a jokester as well. He noted that senior athletics is "the only thing in the world where it's better to get older." Senior competition is based on five-year age groups such as 60 to 64 or 65 to 69. So, those decade birthdays make a person the youngest competitor in the new age group--a definite advantage.

However, Raham and Fulton have a lot more going for them than the ability to laugh at themselves. Both are accomplished in track and field events. They've competed in countless meets hosted by the National Senior Games and USA Track & Field, and Raham has entered international competitions as well. Fulton will compete in his first international meet, the World Masters Indoor Championships, this March.

In the past year, each of these athletes earned impressive awards in track and field. Raham is 63, while Fulton turns 70 this month.

Raham, a Wellington resident, won a silver medal in the javelin throw last October at the World Masters Games. She and her husband, Gary, traveled to Sydney, Australia, for the elite competition. Raham also competed in Edmonton, Alberta, at the last World Games in 2005, when she took home the gold in the javelin throw shortly after undergoing knee surgery. She has also competed in nine national meets.

Fulton, a former high school and college coach who lives in north Fort Collins, won the national championship trophy in his age group at the National Decathlon Championships in Seattle in August.

"You gotta be lucky," he stated modestly, noting that there are lots of variables to contend with at any meet. He has won three other national championships and has come in second numerous times.

Raham has been a competitor her entire life, but she didn't compete in high school sports for a simple reason: in those days there were no girls' sports in schools. She played on softball and tennis teams in college and taught physical education for a few years. Throughout her adult life she has kept fit by playing softball, basketball, volleyball and tennis on recreational teams.

In 2000, Raham began competing in Senior Olympics, and for the first few years the competition was the most satisfying part of this new venture. That changed, however, to an appreciation for everyone who takes up the gauntlet despite the challenges of aging.

"Everybody who goes has some physical difficulty," said Raham, "but they show up anyway and keep coming. I tell myself, 'If they can do it, I can.'"

The athletes also become friends, glad to see each other again when they go to meets. They root for their fellow athletes even when they're vying for the same medal.

Raham competes in numerous events. She does all the throwing events, including weight throw, hammer throw, discus, javelin and shot put, in addition to the weight pentathlon. She also competes in high jump, long jump, triple jump, hurdles and the 60- or 100-meter dash. Her best event is the javelin throw.

During his own high school years, Fulton participated in football and track as well as pole vault. He then went on to play fullback at Pittsburg State University in Kansas. He coached high school football and track for 22 years and coached track for three years at Colorado State University. In his late 50s, he began competing in running events, and he started serious decathlon training at age 63.

Fulton decided to focus on decathlon because he wanted to compete for a national championship and he thought his chances were best in the 10-skill event.

"I can do a lot of things pretty well," he noted.

The decathlon includes three running events, hurdles, pole vault, javelin throw, shot put, discus throw, high jump and long jump. Like Raham, he has had to learn many new skills to compete in the multi-skill events. His best events to date have been pole vault and high jump.

For Fulton, the most satisfying part of senior competition is "winning, obviously." But, he added, to win a person has to continue to get better, and that becomes a satisfying goal in itself. He also enjoys making friends with some of the best athletes in the world.

At the national level, Fulton said, people in their 70s and 80s are still hurdling and pole vaulting. He met one 95-year-old gentleman at a Wisconsin meet who ran the 100-, 200-, 400- and 800-meter races. "It's pretty amazing," he observed.

On occasional Saturdays during track and field season, Fulton's wife, Sharon, and their children and grandchildren share the bleachers with Raham's extended family, all cheering grandpa and grandma on to their next gold medals. It's a bit of a turnaround from the usual scene of grandparents watching the grandkids play soccer.

And, with all the training and competition involved in senior athletics, there's another kind of turnaround as well; it involves pulling a fast one on Father Time.

"When you get older," Fulton stated, "it's important to set a goal and work toward it. It keeps you younger.