Villages TLC member profile: Peggy Peck

Tell us which events you compete in.
I’m trying to decide what to cut out, but I’ve competed in the 50m, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500 in track. I even did the 80 meter hurdles in Nevada and a pentathlon in the masters in North Carolina. The field events include high jump, long jump, triple jump, discus, javelin and shot put. I threw the hammer and weight throw in Nevada in the weight pentathlon. Since I developed a foot problem in December 2019, I really don’t have the speed for the 50, 100 and 200, so I’m trying to increase my endurance to compete in the 400 and 800.
 
When and how did you get started?
I’ve been involved in sports from a very early age. I had ten siblings, and seven of them were boys. When we weren’t working the farm, we were playing some kind of sport or we made up some type of game to play in the fields or on the lawn. There was always competition among us, whether it was who could think of the weirdest basketball shot to make in a game of HORSE, or spit a watermelon seed the farthest, or conducting baby chicken races. We would all select a chick and hold them at a starting line; a cherry would be thrown in front of them and then we’d let them race to the cherry. We made up our own games and entertainment. We didn’t have a lot if you talk about possessions, but I think we were rich in love.
 
I was lucky because Title IX had just started as I was going into high school, so we had girls’ soccer, basketball, volleyball and softball. Track was a little later on. I played basketball in college (SUNY at Cortland), but mainly I gathered splinters! I did the high jump, long jump and shot put, and I ran the 110 yard dash on the track team. After college I played in a summer softball league for about 7 years. Other than golf, I hadn’t done anything in about 25 years until I came to The Villages. I fell in love with this place right away.
 
Which events are your favorites?
High jump, triple jump and discus. I have always been pretty good at the high jump, I used to be good at the triple jump, and I am working on being very good at the discus. Basketball has always been way up there with my favorite team sports.
 
What you get out of your events / competitions?
I get a lot out of competition. I know it’s becoming a cliché, but it really does make me feel like a kid again. It brings me back to my happy childhood with all its innocence and feeling free.
 
I enjoy everything about the competitions. I even like to try to work everything in with a crowded schedule. Sometimes it’s hard, but I like the challenge of trying to get it all in. One year at the state games in Clearwater, the field events were scheduled on the same day as basketball. The venues were 20 minutes apart. I finished all the field events except discus. I went over to basketball and played one game. There was about 45 minutes between games, so I went back to the track and did the discus. When I finished that, I went back to basketball and played another game. It usually doesn’t work out that way, but it sure is fun when it does. I love the interaction with fellow athletes as well as the officials. I learn more about life at every competition.
 
My hero has always been my mother. Giving birth to eleven children, she spent her whole adult life taking care of us. She was still taking care of my sister with MS, who died a couple of years before Mom passed away at almost 92. She never once complained, and she had more grace than anyone else I know. In life as well as sports, if I could be half the person my mom was, I’d be happy and call it a success.