How the Georgia Golden Games Started a Friendship

The next National Senior Games will be held in Des Moines, Iowa in 2025. The announcement got me reminiscing about how I met my competitor and friend, Michael Devaney, a few years ago.

Let’s Start at the Beginning

I first met Michael when they called race walkers to the starting line at the Georgia Golden Games. He said he was from Arizona and planned to go to all the state senior games. His ultimate goal? The National Senior Games. He already knew my name because he’d made a note that we were in the same age bracket and had similar times.

At that time, Michael had attended 36 state senior games. He’d won medals for race walking in every state he visited!

We added each other on Facebook to keep in touch. I posted that I was going to be race walking in the Singleton 5K by The Atlanta Track Club in nearby Norcross, GA. To my surprise, he posted back that he was making plane reservations and would be joining me. We both liked the idea of a race on a road course, a little preparation for the same event at the National Senior Games. Not only would it be timed, but it’d also be a little friendly competition.

Let the games begin.

The Big Day

So, on the morning of the event, I woke up at 5:15 a.m. At the Atlanta Track Club check-in table, they told me 2,100 people had registered for the race. It was a Chronotrack chip-timed event. For non-race walkers and runners, this means that a chip is embedded in your race bib. When you cross the starting line, an electronic mat reads your chip and starts your time. When you cross again, it records your race time.

I met Michael at the registration area, and we warmed up. It was amazingly great weather for a race. No wonder the people were buzzing around!

Most were younger runners, so we found ourselves in the D heat, which was the last to start. Big mistake! We were in the back of this D heat when it started. The slowest runners/walkers were in front of us. We crossed the starting line, and our time was activated. As we turned onto the race course, we couldn’t pass the much slower people! I let out a curse. Micheal suggested we hit the sidewalks that went around to the right. I tried to follow and was blocked.

Foiled again.

The Big Day, Continued

The blockage went on for almost three minutes until Michael and I converged ahead of the slow pokes. We were off! Micheal took the lead for a while, and then I took the lead for a while. He took it back. The hills are where I truly shine, because of my training on hills here at Village at Deaton Creek.  Going downhill, Michael would catch up again.

About a mile out from the finish line, I took the lead going up a long hill. We topped the hill to take a right on the main road. A race official said it was only one-half mile to the finish—all downhill from there. Good thing he was wrong! Turning onto the main road, it was uphill again. That was A-OK with me.

The hill peaked and started downhill. With 200 yards to go, Micheal pulled up to pass me. He was a sprinter back on his college track team, and that’s still his specialty. I wanted to go faster but couldn’t. 

He crossed the finish line.

I crossed seven seconds later.

Good Friends and Good Food

Micheal looked at his watch and couldn’t believe it. I looked at my Garmin GPS watch and was equally shocked. We both had our best times ever! 33 minutes and 56 seconds was my time. That beat my previous best time last year of 34 minutes and 20 seconds by 24 seconds.

Afterward, we went over to The Flying Biscuit for breakfast. We shared our race walking experiences and tips and discussed life in general. We both agreed that we were grateful we could still do this. So many folks our age have mobility issues. While there’s no guarantee I’ll be able to continue race walking in the future, I plan to keep living fully in the present.

Micheal plans on going to another 3 or 4 states this coming month to compete. I told him about a 1500-meter race walk in Lawrenceville on May 6th, and he made a note. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him there. If not, I’ll see him at the starting line at The National Senior Games in 2025.