December 2025 Athlete of the Month
By Del Moon, NSGA Storyteller
Glenn Govertsen, 81
Missoula, Montana
Glenn Govertsen has an alter ego. He’s made physics cool to thousands of students across the country as “Mr. G,” host of a high-energy science show. The same infectious curiosity that fuels his passion for science has led Glenn to find new ways to stay active throughout his life.
“The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” – Albert Einstein
Image courtesy Glenn Govertsen.
Glenn Govertsen, a retired math and physics teacher and lifelong runner from Missoula, Montana, displays this Einstein quote on his Facebook page and says it represents his approach to life. True to form, when we asked why he decided to qualify and participate in the 2025 National Senior Games presented by Humana, he replied, “Curiosity.”
He then adds, “I realized, as all of us older people do, that time is shortening, and we just don’t know how long we’ll have the ability to take part in something. It was a desire to get to Senior Games at the national level because I hadn’t done it before.”
The Connecticut native set track records in the 440 and 880 events while earning his physics degree at Middlebury College in Vermont, followed by grad school in Bozeman, Montana. There, he fell in love with the West and pursued a 31-year career in high school teaching in Missoula. Being a golfer in the summer and a skier in the winter, Glenn chuckled, “Once you ski in powder, you don’t go back to Vermont.”
Running has been his staple for exercise and competition, and Glenn had to adapt to find events available in a rural state. While there were annual masters track meets in Montana, he needed more opportunities. “I never thought I’d be a distance runner, but road races were what was available back in the ‘70s and ‘80s,” he explains. “Then, I ran a half-marathon and thought, geez, maybe I could run a full marathon. I ran my first marathon in Seattle at age 42.”
Glenn completed 31 marathons by age 65, including multiple races in Portland, Chicago and Boston, where he knew people to host him. “I was a teacher and didn’t have money to just go so it usually depended on where I had a place to stay.”
Curiosity led him to investigate the Montana Senior Olympics, where he has been competing and consistently medaling in track and golf since 2019. Then, at the 2025 National Senior Games presented by Humana in Des Moines, Glenn earned a Bronze Medal in the Men’s 80-84 400-meter race for his efforts. “At this age, just running nonstop for any distance is a success,” he humbly quips.
The “Mr. G Science Show” Takes the Stage
Glenn has had the same curiosity and enthusiasm for teaching science as he’s had for his athletic pursuits. The passion to explain the importance of math and physics in his students’ lives inspired him to stage entertaining, understandable science demonstrations in class using everyday items to help his students “power their inner lightbulb.” No one was absent on the days he had a demonstration.
The passion continued after Glenn retired in 2004, so he assembled his most popular experiments, and the “Mr. G Science Show” was born. “After I retired, I was involved in a program in Montana helping unprepared teachers get some more science in the summer,” he recalls. “Then, I went to school assemblies and that evolved into the show.”
Image courtesy Glenn Govertsen.
He eventually found audiences around the country and beyond. “I was involved with physics teachers at the national level, and some professors at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton had math camps in the summer, and I would go and do my demonstration for the kids.”
One professor invited Glenn to bring his show to her hometown in Warsaw, Poland. “I got to go to Poland five times,” he says with some wonder still in his voice. “Some of it was my own cost, but it was well worth it.” You can watch a highlight reel of one of his 2014 visits here.
A Body in Motion…
Image courtesy Glenn Govertsen.
Having an inquisitive mind has served him as an athlete. With limited coaching as a youth, Glenn had to read up and train himself. Through experience overcoming injuries and medical setbacks, he has made discoveries along the way.
“The most fascinating thing is that the body gets better as you use it,” he says. “When I started doing 50 to 60 miles a week, I found that I got better instead of just breaking down. That was a very important scientific thing to me.”
He also keeps a chart listing results and times for all his races, broken down by five-year intervals. “I see it as a science experiment. Of one. With no control group,” he says humorously.
While Mr. G has applied his mind to learning the mechanics of his sports, he doesn’t overthink it and takes a holistic view of the physical, mental and social benefits. “When we read about aging, we realize that those are pieces of a healthy life, especially to have social interactions,” he observes. “I’ve met some very interesting people, and we all have our own stories. I appreciate the camaraderie more than anything.”
