Lake Cowichan track and field athlete Marg Radcliffe brushed off her recent six-gold-medal performance at the 2025 B.C. 55-Plus Summer Games in Nanaimo.
"Put it this way," she said on Thursday. "There wasn't much competition."
That's not to say that her competitors were no match. There just simply weren't that many competitors in the women's 80-84 age grouping she insisted modestly.
"I think I only had competition in my 100m and my 50m races and in the relay," she explained, noting she and her teammates James Dyer (Quesnel), Jim Johnson (Cranbrook), and Maree Kennell (Victoria) raced in the mixed 75-79 age group.
"It was kind of a disappointing meet because there were not a lot of people there," Radcliffe admitted. "We'd go for an hour with nothing happening and then you'd be trying to do the javelin and warm up for the 50m at the same time."
Even so, the long-time track and field athlete had the best of times. "I had a good time because I saw people I haven't seen for a while," she said. "An we ran into [local tv personality] Ed Bain in the hotel!"
She even ran into eight of her former fastball teammates that she hasn't seen in around 20 years.
"Some of them were playing, some were just there watching, but that's part of the reason I like to go to the Games; just getting together and seeing people that you haven't seen, sometimes for years."
Radcliffe has competed in many track and field meets over the years and has been a stalwart at the 55-Plus Games since turning 55. She's made a lot of friends in that time.
Last year, however, she was unable to compete in Salmon Arm because the multi-sport Games didn't have track and field events.
"They don't have a track in Salmon Arm," she explained.
Ever the competitor, she was "a bit annoyed."
"That was supposed to be one of the original sports and be in every year," she said.
Despite the one-year 55-Plus Games break, Radcliffe came away from the Nanaimo Games not just with a relay gold medal but victories in the 50m, 100m, discus, javelin, and shot put.
After all was said and done, she felt pretty good, too.
"I think I felt a lot better than some people," she said. "It was surprising. Tired, yes, but sore no, because I do a lot of training."
Training is one of the best parts of being an athlete she said.
"We travelled all over the world doing it," she explained. "It's been a lot of fun. We've seen a lot of places but even just going and working out at the track — 99 per cent of the time you're there meeting people and seeing people you haven't seen in a while and sometimes I chat so much I don't get my workout done."
Radcliffe grew up in a time where the only sports really offered to girls in high school were basketball and track and field. Even then, when she was 16, her school stopped offering track and field.
She married right out of high school and started a family.
About five years later, she picked up basketball again "and then it morphed into a whole lot more" she said of her athletic endeavours.
She returned to track and field when she was 55.
It's been full speed ahead ever since.
