In the Time of Her Life
Senior Olympian Eloisa Banes takes on new athletic challenges in her 60s
By Lisa Gregory
When Eloisa Banes was in seventh grade and living in Chewsville, her physical education teacher asked her to represent the school in a county track meet. It would be her first official race.
“I guess she saw that I was pretty good,” says Banes. She was excited to compete but says, “I didn’t’ really have proper running shoes and my parents couldn’t afford to buy me any. My parents were hard-working people, and they were just trying to keep a roof over our heads and keep us fed. New running shoes weren’t part of the budget.”
However, a friend offered to loan her a pair. “They were two sizes too big for me,” says Banes, who was one of four children. No matter. She was grateful and determined. “I stuffed tissues in the toes of them to make them fit,” she says.
Banes ended up placing third in that race. “I was so ecstatic,” she says. Banes would go on to be a successful competitor before graduating from Smithsburg High in 1978. With that first race, “I thought to myself, I can do better than this,” adding, “I have been running ever since.”
Eloisa Banes competes in the long jump and the football throw at the Maryland Senior Olympics.
Today, at 64 years old and retired from the Washington County Public Schools after 30 years as an administrative school secretary, Banes, now a Hagerstown resident, is competing again. And she is delighted to do so.
“Especially after retiring you have so much more time to put into it,” says Banes, who retired in 2020 and currently works part-time at the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars baseball games. “Retirement isn’t the end of your adulthood, it’s the beginning of new adventures.”
In fact, Banes recently went 10 for 10 at the Maryland Senior Olympics, earning medals in all 10 of her events in the women’s 60-64 age group. This included competing in the 50-, 100-, 200-, 400-, and 800-meter runs as well as the running long jump, standing broad jump, and softball, football, and Frisbee throws.
“My two favorites are the 50-meter dash and the running long jump,” she says.
Besides competing in the Maryland Senior Olympics Banes has run in the JFK 50 mile, the Marine Corps Marathon, the Philadelphia Marathon, and “hundreds of 5Ks 10Ks, five-milers, and half-marathons,” she says. “I typically run 15 to 20 races a year in addition to the Senior Olympics.”
In fact, “I have a room in my basement that I call my ‘Girl Grotto,’” she says. “It’s where I have all my sports and running memorabilia.”
Last year, she even competed in the national Senior Olympics. “The games were held in Pittsburgh, so I took advantage of the close proximity and represented my state and hometown,” she says. “I placed in the top 20 for the running long jump and 50-meter dash.”
This year she qualified again for the national games, which will be held in Des Moines, Iowa. Banes is still determining if she will make the trip to Iowa. “I’m not a fan of flying,” she says.
Hagerstown resident Eloisa Banes with some of her medals from the Maryland Senior Olympics. Credit: Rick Gregory
Banes runs five miles a day, six days a week, and swims laps three days a week to keep herself in good competitive shape. As she has gotten older, “I find I really enjoy the 5Ks,” she says. “They give me a chance to pace myself but yet save a little bit for the end.”
She is attentive to her body and its needs. “If I feel like I’m starting to overdo it, I’ll take a day off or I’ll back down on the training that I’m doing,” she says. “I listen to my body.”
Banes lost 55 to 60 pounds, “a couple of years ago when I really wanted to get serious,” she says of competing. “I started really watching what I was eating and trying to have a better diet.”
With the support of her husband, Randy, “My goal is to keep going as long as I can,” she says. “As long as I can stay healthy and active and free from injury, I’m going to keep at it. I just enjoy it so much.”
The events themselves are a bonding experience for her and her like-minded competitors. “I have met so many awesome, amazing people and made friends with them,” she says.
Including a 100-year-old British woman named Wally. Wally, says Banes, was determined to keep competing no matter the obstacles. “Her doctor told her she couldn’t run anymore because she had a hip replacement,” says Banes “But she still competed in the throwing events. She was doing the javelin, and the shot put.”
Sadly, Wally passed away recently. But she remains an inspiration for Banes. She and the others.
“When I see athletes in their 80s and 90s and even 100 competing in athletic events I am in awe and hope to be like them when I grow up,” she says with a grin.