Tim and Nola Hendrie are always game for anything.
The husband and wife duo is busy again on the track and field circuit, leading up to the B.C. 55+ Games in Kelowna Sept. 10-14.
Their most recent event was the B.C. Masters Championships in Langley. Watch for results in the Courier.
Prior to that, they’ve been doing some of the Island meets, including the Dogwood event in Victoria, Port Alberni, Nanaimo and Duncan.
Nola has been hampered by a muscle pull that lasted a month, but has been back on track since the first week of June.
“I was still training, but no fast running,” she pointed out.
The Hendries are looking forward to Kelowna to continue their constant slate of performances in the B.C. 55+ Games. They were among a small group of local athletes at last year’s event, co-hosted by Kimberley and Cranbrook.
“We had a lot of fun, but the weather was wet and cold for much of the time,” noted Nola Hendrie. “It was nice to see our track friends from other years.”
Nola won a half dozen bronze medals in the 60-64 women’s age division. She placed third in discus (14.14 metres), shot put, 200 metres (41.77 seconds), long jump (2.55 metres), triple jump and throws pentathlon.
Tim Hendrie claimed a gold medal in men’s 65-69-year-old high jump (0.95 metres) and got silver in the 400 metres (1:35.97).
He just missed the medals in the pentathlon with a fourth place. Despite that disappointment of coming so close, “he was very happy with his 1,500 metre run,” Nola indicated.
Tim also collected fourths for the shot put (4.55 metres) and 800 metres (3:48.23), with a fifth in the discus (12.1 metres).
The Hendries were frequent medal winners the previous year as well in Vernon.
Tim Hendrie is an inspiration since he continues to compete at his best every year despite being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease eight years ago and probably dealing with the effects of the disease at the initial stages before that.
“I wouldn’t just do exercises without a goal in mind,” said Tim.
He’s just happy to still be competing and feeling great.
Nola claimed silver medals in the 60-64-year-old category while competing in two events for the first time in 2017 – the pentathlon and triple jump. The pentathlon for the women consists of the 80-metre hurdles, 800-metre run, shot put, long jump and high jump.
“I hadn’t done the 800 before,” she pointed out at the time. “I was agonizing over how am I going to do the 800?”
The second-place finish was a great accomplishment and she also broke into new territory by doing the triple jump after a test run before those Games at the Duncan track.
“I did it and I wasn’t amazing,” Nola grinned. “It felt so good. That’s what I feel about long jump, too. Triple jump and long jump, I should really work hard on these. I love the feeling of flying through the air.”
She also won a trio of bronze medals at the 2017 Games in the individual long jump, high jump and discus plus a gold with the Zone 1 relay team that included Karen Shook of Chemainus.
Tim was the recipient of the bronze medal in the high jump. His heavy competition schedule also included the 800 metres, high jump and shot plus the pentathlon events – long jump, javelin, 200 metres, 1,500 metres and discus.
“It goes on for four days,” explained Tim. “If you don’t do a lot of events, you’re sitting around all day.”
The Hendries never remain idle for long. They keep moving and that’s the key to their success.
Tim doesn’t even mind being last if the effects of his Parkinson’s disease are a little worse one day than another.
“It makes it hard to follow a schedule,” Tim noted. “You have to go with the flow of how I’m feeling. I do it because I like it. If I didn’t like it, I probably wouldn’t have the inspiration to do it.”
The Hendries train virtually all year from mid-October to Sept. 1 with the Nanaimo Track Club, attending three sessions a week.
“Nobody wants to miss it,” said Nola. ” We have a wonderful time. We get great coaching and it’s so much fun.”
