Len Ferman on the Jacksonville Senior Games
Our Ambassador Len Ferman recently competed in the Jacksonville Senior Games in order to continue on to the Florida Senior Games (the state championship!). His day had not gone as planned, and below he describes his morning leading up to his race, and his mindset during the race. Read on to see how Len pushed through his day with Ultima! "Yesterday I struggled to get out of bed in the morning, and could barely move. I hurt my back last Sunday grabbing luggage off the baggage carousel in the St. Louis airport and have been recovering all week. However, as this was the day of the Jacksonville Senior Games I needed to somehow get myself over to the track on the west side of Jacksonville and at least hobble around for 2 laps so that I could qualify for the Florida Senior Games in December. There would not be much in the way of competition, so if I simply could finish the race I would pretty much be assured of going to the state championship for seniors (age 50+) for the 3rd year in a row since I turned 50 in 2013. I started the day with a glass of my new favorite sports drink, Ultima Replenisher, for which I have been invited to be a sports ambassador. More on that in another post.
When I got to the track I warmed up by simply walking a few laps. The more I walked the better I started to feel. I thought perhaps I could do better than a simple jog. After I stretched out and warmed up a little more I began to feel even better. When I got to the starting line the nervous jitters I normally feel before an important race seemed to kick in, even though I knew I had no real competition to be concerned about. When the gun went off I somehow felt perfect. It’s as if the decades of competing have trained me like Pavlov’s dog, or a thoroughbred race horse, to instinctively “GO!” upon hearing the blast of the starter’s pistol. Remarkably I was able to stride out almost normally. I settled into a comfortable pace, ran steady and kicked it to win by over 100 meters in 2:25 for the 800 meter race, never being challenged after the first half lap. That’s a good workout time, not a typical race time for me (I was running 2:13 – 2:15 consistently over the summer), but given the circumstances I thought it was quite good. Today I actually feel about 75% better. A good lesson that simply resting a back ache is not the best cure. Carefully warming up for a long time and then a short burst of exertion is much better for loosening things up and getting your range of motion back. So now my running focus will be to get back to 100% and train for the Florida Senior Games in mid-December in Clearwater, FL. And the bigger goal beyond that will be the inaugural USA Masters Games next summer in Greensboro, NC, where I hope to win the 800 meters in the 50 – 54 age group." 
Len Ferman recently ran a sub-5 minute mile at the Florida Senior Games and is a World Champion Joggler. He founded his business, called Ferman Innovation, a marketing consultant firm.
