Perry Huff of Mississippi, an M80 sprinter, was profiled recently in his local paper. I like his attitude about training: “I always say it’s like going to church,” Perry said. “I always exercise first thing in the morning. It’s like getting up on Sunday and going to church. It’s what I do.” And when it comes to racing, he’s not coy: “I don’t run just to compete. I don’t run to do the best I can. I run to win!” It’s worked so far. He won a couple golds at the National Senior Olympics. And he’s not unaware of the USATF circuit, since he speaks admiringly of fellow Mississippian Emil Pawlik.

Perry says of the NSG: “I don’t know where they’ll hold the games in 2019,
but I plan to be there, and I want to set (an M90) record.”

Here’s the story in case the link goes south:

     Jackson runner, 80, brings home Olympic gold

Rick Cleveland rcleveland@clarionledger.com

Perry Huff, 80 years young and still running like a teenager, puts the Ever Ready Energizer Bunny to shame.

“I don’t feel any different than I did when I was in my teens,” Huff said, taking a break from a workout at the Baptist Healthplex in Jackson, recently. “I tell people I plan to live to be 120.”

And then with a twinkle in his eye Huff added, “that is if I don’t die first.”

Seriously, Huff, who in August won two gold medals and a silver in the National Senior Olympic Games at Palo Alto, Calif., is a living, sprinting testament to the value of exercise and a healthy lifestyle.

“Mr. Huff is an inspiration to all of us,” said Tony James, Baptist Healthplex fitness manager. “He has the body and muscle tone of a much, much younger man.

“I watch him run and just shake my head. He runs like he’s 18 years old.”

You may recognize the name Tony James. He was a splendid kick and punt returner for the Mississippi State football Bulldogs in the early ’90s. Huff calls him “my coach.”

“Tony worked out the training program that helped me prepare for the Senior Olympics,” Huff said. “I’ve always trained hard, but Tony gave me some advice on how to increase my speed.”

James is one-third of Team Huff. Gay Huff, Perry’s wife of 57 years, is the other third.

“She’s my manager and my dietitian,” Perry Huff said, smiling. “She cooks healthy, and she takes care of all the details when I compete. All I have to do is run.”

And you really should see him run: long strides, arms pumping. Take away the gray, thinning hair and the hearing aid, and you’d swear he was in his 20s or 30s.

“It’s just beautiful to watch him run,” Gay Huff said, and you could tell by the look in her eyes she meant it.

Motivation

Huff does not lack for motivation. His father, a Caledonia farmer, died of a heart attack at 66. One older brother died at 58, another in his early 60s. Both had heart problems.

Huff, who has hereditary high cholesterol himself, vowed he would do everything within his power to live a longer, healthier life. He has never smoked, never tasted alcohol, eats a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables and exercises, well, religiously – three times a week for 90 minutes to two hours when he’s not training for competition and five times a week when he’s training for a meet.

“I always say it’s like going to church,” he said. “I always exercise first thing in the morning. It’s like getting up on Sunday and going to church. It’s what I do.”

He not only runs, he works out with weights and stretches to keep his muscles limber.

He may have been kidding about living to be 120, but he does have a goal of setting national age group records when he reaches the age of 90. Do not bet against him. His motto, which he stressed: “I don’t run just to compete. I don’t run to do the best I can. I run to win!”

Inspiration

But he also runs, he said, “because I hope I can be an inspiration to my children and my grandchildren and for all older people to see that you can live to be older and be healthy and fit at the same time. You can enjoy life, no matter how old you are, if you take care of yourself and live the right way.”

Huff had always exercised but had never competed in track and field until he was 63. That’s when Gay Huff read a small article in The Clarion-Ledger about the Mississippi Senior Olympics.

“Perry,” she said, “here’s something you could do.”

Perry Huff took the newspaper and read it.

“Yep, I think I could beat those old folks,” he said.

Naturally, he won a gold medal in his first race. That was in 1992. He went on to compete in the national games in Baton Rouge that same year and finished dead last, which only served to increase his training intensity and desire to excel.

This past August, he won the gold medal in the 200- and 400-meter dashes at 34.79 seconds and 1 minute 22 seconds, respectively. He took the silver in the 100 with 17.19 seconds. He won the 400 by a whopping 2.5 seconds, about 40 yards.

And Huff is quick to point out he is not the only Mississippian competing on the national (or international) level at an advanced age.

“Emil Pawlik (also from Jackson) is unbelievable,” Huff said. “He’s 70 and he won the long jump and the high jump and finished second in the pole vault in Palo Alto and that was one week after he won an international decathlon in Finland.”

Pawlik will turn 71 in January; Huff will turn 81 in April. He already plans to compete in the national games again in 2011 in Houston.

Said Huff, “I don’t know where they’ll hold the games in 2019, but I plan to be there, and I want to set a record,” Huff said.

And then he added with that twinkle in his eye, “Maybe you can cover it.”