Community Living Campaign

Cultivating connections to help seniors and people with disabilities age and thrive at home.

Cultivating connections to help seniors and people with disabilities age and thrive at home.

Bay Area Senior Games

At the Bay Area Senior Games, San Francisco Athletes Are Impressive

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Photo of Bob Callori and Chris Goodwin

Chris Goodwin and Bob Callori  at the 2018 Bay Area Senior Games.

SENIOR BEAT – Partners in life Bob Callori, 75, and Chris Goodwin, 66, also share a passion for Track and Field. Both competed in the 2018 Bay Area Senior Games in May – and both were front-runners.

Both ran in the 400-meter and the 800-meter sprints, but in their different age groups. “I won Gold in both and Bob won Silver in both,” Goodwin said. “My times place me in third place in the U.S. for my age group, 65 to 69.”

“We both race in in the 400-meter sprint (one lap around a standard outdoor track), the 800-meter sprint (two laps), and the 4 X 100 relay (four runners who each complete one lap),” said Goodwin.

Running is their life and their athleticism shows, not just in their physiques, but in their home. Goodwin has about 65 medals and Callori between 80 and 100 for coming in first, second and third.

“My first event competing I came in fifth, but was only 2/100ths of a second behind to be tied for third in the 400-meter,” Goodwin said. He was one of 530 athletes representing California at the 2013 Summer National Senior Games in Cleveland. A special plaque in their family room, framed with a letter signed by Gov. Brown, marks the achievement.

Today, Goodwin ranks third in the U.S. in his age group, 65 to 69, and 12th in the world in the 400-meter sprint. In the 800-meter, he’s third in the U.S. and 18th in the world. “My goal is to get in the top 10 in the world,” Goodwin said.

Filling a gap
Photo of Bob Callori and Chris Goodwin

Bob Callori and Chris Goodwin in front of some of their many running medals. (Photo by Jan Robbins)

The couple trains and competes in the same clubs and organization all year long. Both men took up running after a major life transition – Callori after being laid off as an architectural programmer at 58, Goodwin after he came out and left a marriage to a woman at 54.

Callori took his layoff as an opportunity to retire. A friend introduced him to San Francisco Frontrunners, a club that celebrates both running and walking and welcomes people of all abilities.

“I started by walking around Stow Lake, twice, which is two miles,” Callori said.  “After a while, people in Frontrunners encouraged me to start running.” He began at Stow Lake on Saturday mornings with his club, which also offers a three-mile Carousel Run, a four-mile Bison Run, the five-mile Ocean Run, and a “Coyote Challenge” Cross Fit style workout.

“When I got up to running three miles without stopping, I decided to compete in the 2002 Sydney, Australia Gay Games,” Callori said. He went to the San Francisco Track and Field Club to help him prepare.

The SFTFC seeks to promote gay and lesbian athletes of all ages, helping participants set and achieve goals with training and support. It meets every Sunday from late January to early October. The teams also meet in the evenings during the week.

There are a number of track meets available to athletes, from local all-comer meets to national championships. The USA Track and Field (USATF), the national governing body for track and field, holds sanctioned meets, a prestigious series of nationally televised competitions.

Callori and Goodwin participate in the annual Bay Area Senior Games, Pacific Association Masters Track and Field, Sonoma Wine Country Senior Games, Sierra Gold Track and Field Meet, the Gay Games (every four years), and the annual Pride Meet.

Goodwin started running at 54. He also joined Frontrunners and when he was able to run three miles without stopping, he went on to train with SFTFC on Sundays.

Developing special workouts

He continues to train hard, including mid-week, even though he is still working as vice-president of global operations for Shaklee, a manufacturer and distributor of nutritional supplements, weight management, beauty and household products.

Over the years, Goodwin did a lot of research on workouts for track and field runners.  He coaches the SFTFC team he and Callori are on, incorporating workouts he designed especially for sprinters, and mid- and long-distance runners.

“We’ve both had some minor injuries along the way, but nothing we couldn’t overcome,” said Callori. “Our workouts and training keep us in shape.”

One of the grand perks of running track and field is the chance to travel to different U.S. cities and other countries to compete. Both Goodwin and Callori have competed in Chicago, Cleveland, Copenhagen and Cologne. “In the fall, 2018, we’re going to Paris,” said Goodwin.

Another perk is meeting people who are passionate about the sport. “It’s wonderfully social getting to know all my competitors. After each SFTFC meet, we go out to dinner and celebrate the sport of track and field with our fellow runners,” said Callori.

Other San Francisco Senior Game athletes

Photo of Janice Wood

Janice Wood

Janice Wood, 72 – Swimming
“I’m a retired ESL teacher at San Francisco City College. I grew up in New Jersey across the street from a lake, but never belonged to a swim team. I joined the Dolphin Club in 2007 and started swimming in the Bay, which required joining U.S. Masters. I first attended the Senior Games with a friend in 2015 and returned as a competitor in 2016. I returned again this year in four freestyle events. It was a fun day among supportive folks … and I medaled in all four events.”

Gary Mizono

 

 

Gary Mizono, 65 – Golf
“I enjoyed participating in the senior games. I just retired from a long career in medicine and look forward to more golf and travel.”

 

Photo of John Suarez

John Suarez at NCNCA Masters State Track District Championships in San Jose last year. (Photo by Craig Huffman)

John Suarez, 62 – Cycling
“I have been involved in competitive cycling since high school.Laid off during college and grad school to focus on academics. Came back to the sport after moving back to SF to work (as an architect). I raced competitively in UCSF events, ATT Corporate 4-Man Team Time Trial events, and World Corporate Games in the late 80’s early 90’s. Took a big break starting my own firm, gained 50 pounds, lost 50 pounds, and started racing again around 2010. Last year I was ranked (for 2K Track Individual Pursuit) at second in California, 10th in U.S., and 13th in the World Championships (which was in LA in 2017). I ride usually around 80 to 100 miles a week. I am married with a 16-year-old son (whose passion is fencing…?)”

 

Photo of Mark Valra

Marcus Valera brings home Gold and Bronze in the 2012 Senior Games.

 

Mark Valera, almost 61 – Track & Field
“I have competed for 50 years. I have been blessed with good health and the ability to stay in good shape as a result. I’m very grateful to attend events with fellow athletes who inspire me to continue to do my personal best.”

photo of Philip Aguilar

Phillip Aguilar

 

 

 

Phillip Aquilar, 50 – Road Race
“I can’t believe I’m competing at my first Senior Games, but looking forward to sharing this new phase of my running life with my fellow competitors!”

At Age 80, Tanako Hagiwara is Still Teaching Fitness Classes

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picture of Tanako Hagiwara

From tomboy to physical education teacher, competitive swimmer and exercise instructor, Tanako Hagiwara is still going strong at 80.

SENIOR BEAT – After age 80, more people  are attending classes than teaching them. Yet, Tanako Hagiwara, who joined City College as a sports coach in 1967, is still at it – 51 years later.

“I have no plans to stop teaching as long as my health allows and students want my classes,” said Hagiwara, 80. She wanted to be a teacher – to help people since third grade. “The reason I still love teaching is because it’s a learning process.”

Hagiwara, who has a Ph.D. in kinesiology, exercise physiology and higher education from the University of California-Berkeley, was a tomboy as a child. “My Japanese parents didn’t know what to make of me. But they allowed me to be who I was even though they worried I wouldn’t acquire the necessary homemaking skills to get married.”

Perhaps her parents didn’t have time to worry as they were living in a 17-room house, built by her great-grandfather, in Golden Gate Park’s Japanese Tea Garden, helping to maintain and oversee its function.

From Tea Garden to internment camp

Hagiwara’s great-grandfather, Makoto Hagiwara, was the official caretaker of the garden from 1895 to 1925. A Japanese immigrant and landscape architect trained in Japan, he personally oversaw the modification of the temporary Japanese Village exhibit at the 1894 World’s Fair to the permanent Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco.

When he died in 1925, his daughter Takano Hagiwara and her children became the proprietors and maintainers of the garden. All was well until the beginning of World War II, when Hagiwara’s family was abruptly shipped off to an internment camp in Topaz, Utah. She was four years old.

“My parents never talked about the move and where we were living. I just accepted the reality of barbed wire and the sentries at each corner of the camp,” she said.

When Hagiwara turned eight, her family was released from the camp. They spent the next five years in Portland Ore. where her father worked as a food buyer for a hotel and she and her mother worked in the family business, a bean cake factory.

Coming home to San Francisco

Always wanting to return to San Francisco, Hagiwara’s grandmother was able to put a down payment on a house in the city’s Richmond district. It was paid for with the proceeds of the sale of artifacts from their Japanese Tea Garden house that a family friend had saved for them. Hagiwara and her son and his wife and children now live in that same house.

When Hagiwara started teaching at City College, she coached all women’s team sports:  field hockey, basketball, soccer and softball. Gradually, she began coaching individuals in golf, badminton, modern dance, and rhythmic gymnastics.  Soon she was also teaching both women and men in physical fitness, calisthenics and water aerobics. “Some classes held 60 to 70 people. That was fine. Nothing intimidated me.”

During her early years teaching, Hagiwara had married, was raising a family (two children 13 months apart) and was attending San Francisco State at night to get her master’s degree. “I chose to marry a non-Japanese man, Douglas Dawkins, and my parents freaked out.”

Marrying the mirror of her passion

Hagiwara had met her husband on Waikiki Beach on holiday and had fallen for this man who shared her passion for physical fitness. “Douglas had been a wrestler and football player and was teaching physical fitness on army bases on the islands.”

After Hagiwara got her doctorate degree, she was offered a professorship at New York University. “I decided not to take the position because I didn’t want to move my family across the country. In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t because I love the activity of teaching exercise.” she said.

Hagiwara retired from full-time teaching in 2001, and continued on as a part-timer. But, after a few years, City College wanted to eliminate positions for retired part-timers. As luck would have it, a job opened up in the Older Adults Program. “I love teaching at On Lok’s 30th Street Senior Center. The energy here is so positive and uplifting.”

Hagiwara adds to that energy with her smiles, kind words and educable moments. “I really think smiling and having a positive attitude changes your endocrine and hormone system, so the good hormones overtake the bad. Having a positive attitude allows you to do more things.”

‘Good old American stretching’

On a sunny Monday morning, Hagiwara holds the first part of her one-and-a-half hour class on the senior center’s large back patio, with a gurgling fountain, surrounded by beautiful plants, flowers and partially shaded by large olive trees.

Hagiwara puts almost 40 dedicated students through their paces: meditative breathing; a standing stretch combination of yoga, Feldenkrais, Pilates and “good old American stretching;” 20 minutes of low-impact aerobics to music like Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B Goode;” weight training; and bands that add resistance through the entire range of motion.

About half the class then goes inside to the exercise room to stretch on the floor; the students also do the plank, a core-building exercise, for two minutes, and an increasing number of push-ups.  “If there’s only one exercise you can do, do push-ups,” she said, “It’s the best for strengthening and stretching.”

Besides teaching three classes a week, Hagiwara swims every day in the pool in the Koret Center at University of San Francisco, getting up at 5 a.m. to swim on the days when she teaches. Even though her shoulders are not in the best of shape, Hagiwara continues to pursue the sport she loves, competing in swimming at the Pacific Masters Tournaments and in the Bay Area Senior Games.

On aging, Hagiwara says, “Don’t focus on your chronological age, just live each day to the fullest.”