Amazing at 76

I got a magazine that came out with our USA cycling membership. Maybe you got it too? Its is called Her Sports. I was flipping thru it and there is a story on page 46 about a Nun, Madonna Buder. In 2006, with seconds to spare to qualify as 'finishing'. .... with a time of 16:59:03.....17 hours being the cut off.....She DID IT.


She did the Hawaii Ironman at age 76.


I thought I would never again let myself get goosebumps from watching Ironman finishers crossing the line. NO! I am not going to get emotional again.
But I still do. I always get teared up when I see someone struggling and pushing themselves beyond their limits to GET to the line. I cried outwardly when I watched Julie Moss crawl across the line to finish, in 1982, showing that finishing is victory. http://www.angelfire.com/pro/mattwick/ironman_history.htm
But this, I was only reading and I got goosebumps.

Bruder is quite amazing. They discuss her past, her first race was at age 48! She did her first marathon at age 51. Her first Ironman was in 1986. What inspired her? Back then women like her were pioneers, showing everyone that women could do these events!. She is still a pioneer today. Even now we still see pioneering types that show us to break the mold. History is always in the making, we have fields of over 100 women now in some races. (prestige series)
Now this is back in the early 80's when she was doing this. Back then there was a running craze. Three's Company. Women were sporting addidas striped hot shorts, long socks and Nike running shoes. But women did not have an event in the Olympics for marathon untill the mid 80's. ((1984))http://www.marathonguide.com/history/olympicmarathons/chapter25.cfm
In 1979 the Ironman only had 50 athletes compete. The first Ironwoman, Lyn Lemaire, a championship cyclist from Boston, places sixth overall.

She started traning in her 50's to compete in an event that many thought impossible for a man, and certainly for a woman. Yet she did the Ironman. Even during those early 'craze' years when no one knew what they were doing, no one knew how to train or what to eat . Everyone was in awe at anyone that would even attempt to do the Hawaii Ironman! Not that many women would even attempt it. But here she was, a FIFTY year old woman. crazy! hahaha. :)
She did Boston at age 52 in a time of 3:39:12. in 1982!! Her first Ironman at 56. that is in 1986. She then went on to set record after record.
just WOW.

Hank keeps telling me , in regards to getting older, KEEP working at it and you can keep the power.
If you are interested in learning about aging. There are many articles on the subject and probably some better than these somewhere on the net. :)

http://home.hia.no/~stephens/maxpower.htm
http://ajpheart.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/286/4/H1565.pdf