After injury and rehab, South Dakotan finds new stride in senior athletics
Former engineer-turned-race walker has earned national medals. Now, he's eyeing his first running event at the National Senior Games
SIOUX FALLS — Age can be an unforgiving reminder of the passage of time. But for Brett Hestdalen, it’s also a lens through which he’s sharpened his resilience.
In the late 2010s, Hestdalen was gearing up for the South Dakota Senior Games when he tore his hamstring while training. He decided to forgo the final two weeks of his training in order to compete at the state games, but following the competition, Hestdalen had pushed the injury well beyond its limit, suffering a complete tear of his hamstring.
In his late 50s at the time, Hestdalen’s road to a full recovery was shaping up to be long and winding. It was going to take years for the Abercrombie, North Dakota, native to get back to normal, but Hestdalen has never been one to shy away from a challenge. He was determined to overcome his setback.
Of course, his background as an analytical problem-solver also helped. For more than three decades, Hestdalen worked as a civil engineer for the Federal Highway Administration in Pierre, and in 2022, he and his wife, Terrie, moved to Sioux Falls.
Around that time, Hestdalen hired longtime strength and speed coach Steve Bliss to help him with his training. Hestdalen listened closely to Bliss’ advice, and now, after roughly seven years of rehabilitation and training, the 63-year-old Hestdalen is running again.
For the past 11 years, Hestdalen has been a mainstay competitor at the South Dakota Senior Games, and in 2022, he began participating in national competitions, including the Huntsman World Senior Games, which are held annually in St. George, Utah.
Just last year, Hestdalen won nine gold medals at the state senior games before claiming a gold medal, two silver medals and a bronze medal at the world games in Utah. He currently holds 12 state records in various race walk and power walk events.
“What a great honor it is to work with him,” said Bliss, who currently serves as senior exercise specialist at Sanford. “We do kind of a unique, holistic approach. We do swimming. We go outside. We do strength training. We work on posture.
“What was neat is I don’t think he was able to run for a while, so we kind of rebuilt his body to take him from a world-class race walker to now entering some events for running, which is exciting to see him run like he does.”
In his younger days, Hestdalen was a multi-sport athlete at Richland High School in Colfax, North Dakota, where he lettered in basketball, football, track and baseball. He then went on to take part in both track and cross country while attending the North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton.
Eventually, Hestdalen earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from North Dakota State before his family settled in Pierre. As years passed, Hestdalen continued competing in basketball, softball and running, but as his daughters got older, his focus shifted toward coaching his daughters’ youth sports teams both on the hardwood and on the pitch. For a decade, Brett and Terrie Hestdalen traveled around the country watching their youngest daughter, Kristi, compete in high school, club, college and amateur soccer.
However, following Kristi’s four-year career as a starting goalkeeper for the University of North Dakota, Brett opted to start competing in senior games with the goal of working his way toward the national level in running events.
Following his hamstring injury, Hestdalen began the rehab process but was unable to push himself beyond light jogging. That’s when some of his fellow competitors floated the idea of giving race and power walking a shot.
“I tried it out and started competing at the city games, regional games, local games, and when I started breaking state records, that’s when I started competing nationally,” Hestdalen said. “I’ve been competing now nationally for the last four years.”
There are several large competitions held annually in the United States for senior athletes, but none are bigger than the Huntsman World Games, which is the largest annual multi-sport senior competition in the world.
A year ago, more than 11,000 registrants from 30-plus countries participated in the 36 events at the World Games. Hestdalen was one of more than a hundred South Dakotans who competed in Utah. In the last two years, he has won a total of nine medals at the World Games.
“It’s really kind of a fun opportunity because you get to go up against former Olympians and other national champions,” Hestdalen said. “They set up a lot of social activities, too, as part of the Senior Games, so I got to know a lot of the top senior athletes out of Barbados and Mexico and Canada. You get to go out to lunch with them and get to actually know them as people, and I got to meet their wives and families. It’s a lot of fun.”
Now, though, Hestdalen is preparing for his first running event at the National Senior Games, which are slated for July 24 - Aug. 4 in Des Moines, Iowa. He trains six to seven days a week, and two months before large competitions, he trains twice a day, whether it’s distance running, elliptical training or swimming.
“I try to do a lot of cross-training because my trainer has convinced me that if I do too much running or too much of one specific thing, I’m more susceptible to overuse injuries,” Hestdalen said. “I’m training a lot in multiple different sports in cross-training.”
Before being hired by Sanford, Bliss gained credibility in his field while working as a strength coach for more than two decades at the college level.
After receiving his master’s degree from the University of Miami in 1977, Bliss was hired by legendary football coach Woody Hayes at Ohio State, where he served as head strength coach for a decade and played a crucial role in the development of the Buckeyes’ first All-American wide receiver, Cris Carter. He then made his way to Fargo in 1989, becoming the first strength coach at NDSU.
In 1998, Bliss was hired by Sanford and paired with Cal Hanson to start a complete training program for athletes in the Sioux Falls area. What started as the Sioux Valley High Performance Program has now evolved into a regional entity that combines strength and conditioning with agility and plyometrics, all of which are scientifically supported by the principles of the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
Today, it is known as Sanford Sports Performance.
“They wanted us to start a program from scratch that we’d build in with a whole team of people that we hired,” Bliss said. “We were the regional leader like we are now, so that was an honor for me.”
Upon meeting Hestdalen several years ago, Bliss began collaborating with him to devise a plan that would avoid potential overuse injuries.
“We were able to change his workout, so then we were able to transition from that to do strength training and then also cross-training,” Bliss said. “All of the track athletes I work with, I always get them in the pool, too, and their performance improves. He listened to me real closely.
“The other day, our workout was just swimming underwater. People say, ‘How does that help?’ Well, it helps because it helps your body regenerate, so he’s ready for running events now.”
In Des Moines, Hestdalen plans to take part in five of the nine events for which he has qualified. He’ll compete in the 1,500- and 5,000-meter power walk, the 1,500-meter race walk, the 5K road race and either the mile road race or the 10K road race.
On top of that, Hestdalen will also carry the South Dakota state flag as part of the Celebration of Athletes opening ceremony at the National Senior Games.
“Because he worked with the Federal Highway Administration, I told him we’re rebuilding this body almost like we’re rebuilding an interstate bridge,” Bliss said. “If we let the concrete seal up right, everything’s going to grow back good. Everything I told him, he did, and if you take time to explain something to not only an engineer but somebody else, they understand it and are more motivated.
“I expect a lot of great things from him in Des Moines, and I think he’s going to deliver. He’s having a lot of fun, too.”
Hestdalen, who serves as secretary on the Board of Directors for the South Dakota Senior Games, will be inducted next month into the state senior games hall of fame. On July 2, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Sioux Falls Canaries’ game versus the Lincoln Saltdogs at The Birdcage.
“It’s really helped me feel a lot better,” said Hestdalen, who has claimed 87 gold medals at various state games during his 11-year career in senior athletics. “I’ve gotten a lot healthier, and it keeps me in good shape. I really enjoy that. I get to meet people from all different walks of life. … I’m getting a lot of opportunities through senior games that I would’ve never gotten.”
Hestdalen says he hopes to continue competing for as long as his body will allow it.
“If I can still be competing in my 90s, I’d love to do that because we do have people competing in their 90s and up to 100 years old,” he said. “They call them century races. They have races with just people over 100 years old.
“My goal, I guess, is I hope to start maybe trying to run half marathons here after I’m done with the Huntsman World Games. I’d like to maybe start competing internationally and go up to Canada and overseas to start competing.”
Hestdalen hopes to encourage others to give senior games a chance, emphasizing that not all of the events are as strenuous as they might seem. There are competitions for athletes of all different abilities, including eight-ball pool, shuffleboard, bean bags, horseshoes and table tennis.
Registration for the South Dakota Senior Games, which will be held Aug. 7-10 in Huron, will remain open until July 27. Meanwhile, city and regional games — Watertown will host its area senior games on Aug. 14-16 — are also ideal options for beginners.
Content courtesy of SiouxFallsLive.com.
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