Oldest woman to finish Ironman World Championship in Kona | Hacker News Reader

Oldest woman to finish Ironman World Championship in Kona

bigislandnow.com

135 pointsaustinallegro68 comments

> It was her 11th Ironman race despite not learning to swim until she was 59 and not starting triathlons until she was 60.

This gives me some hope about learning some new sports late in my life.

I started programming professionally at 16. I ran my first mile at 46. I'm 62 now and have run quite a bit. There's a very good (IMO) podcast that is mostly interviews of runners over 60[0]. At least one of his early interviews was with a woman who also finishes Ironmans. Disclosure, I'll be interviewed a week from today, although I don't know when it'll be published.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/@RUNLONGAFTER60/podcasts

What kind of exercise do you do or have done besides running? And if not too personal, what injuries do you have? Cheers.

Funny you should ask. I do my core exercises on Tuesdays and Thursdays and read Hacker News while I'm doing my unweighted squats. "Normally", I run Monday through Saturday and ride my bike on Sundays, with the aforementioned core work done in addition to my Tuesday and Thursday runs.

I'm about to start my "Bataan Memorial Death Run" training block and I've put that training plan on GitHub[0]. I also started an mdbook about some of the stuff I've done, but my (then 92 year old) mom had a stroke and it's less than half-baked[1].

[0] https://github.com/ctm/Bataan-Memorial-Death-March/blob/mast... [1] https://ctm.github.io/docs/yld/life/too-public.html

D'oh! I didn't think to mention that I do serious rucking, because I tend to think of that as running, because I actually run when I ruck. Most ruckers don't.

As for injuries, I have some trouble in my right foot that was due to competing in a 12-hour ruck race on a hilly trail, where we did loops in the same direction. That was May 3rd and it's still giving me a little trouble. I had a different injury in my right foot that was giving me trouble for about two years that I think was due to an aged (about ten years old) orthotic causing hard to diagnose problems that were easy to misdiagnose. I think that trouble is behind me.

One day on little sleep, when I was new to bicycling, I went over my handlebars at over twenty miles an hour, landing on my face. That flat out broke a few teeth and chipped / damaged some others. Last month I had to have six of my front teeth removed, probably due in part to the damage they took on that bike accident, although to be fair, when I was in grad school I drank a lot of sugared coke right out of the bottle and ate away much of the enamel on my upper front teeth, so some of my teeth problems are due to simple negligence.

Oh, and I had an inguinal hernia that was probably due to my rucking. I had mesh put in on one side in 2012. I have continued to ruck competively since. I came in third overall at the Bataan Memorial Death March this year in the male civilian heavy (meaning carrying a 35 pound pack or more) division[0].

[0] https://bataanmemorialdeathmarch.itsyourrace.com/Results/657...

Thanks for the extended answer (including the other comment). I'm always curious to hear what active people past certain age do to do stay fit. And sorry for digging deeper, but do you do anything special to work around or manage your injuries? E.g. additional exercises/stretching.

Grabow worked as a software engineer.

Just when I thought she couldn't be even more awesome.

I know right? And given her age, she was a developer in the 1980s. When she finally passes, they're going to cut her open and just find a big sack of grit.

If you're 80 years old and still able to finish ironman, I wonder how many additional years of expected lifespan this gives you, statistically.

Or is it too much and more likely to take from you? I wonder if the fitness benefits or offset by so much stress on joints.

For a woman of 80 in 2025 you can already say it is making no real difference in terms of statistical outcome so it's at least not obviously taking from her.

She is a little older than her cohort life expectancy at birth (which was 78 in the USA in 1945):

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/TR/2011/lr5a4.html

Assessed in 2010 at the age of 65 she might be expected to live to 85. That seems quite likely.

If anything you would have to say it leans towards extending her life because she will not be eating less like elderly people do, she is likely to have excellent venous health, her reaction times must be good, and prosaically she's so physically fit that just that much more likely not to be derailed by a fall. Living at her age starts to be a question of intent but there are loads of really small things that can trigger decline; she is robust against many of them.

What a remarkable woman.

Life expectancy at birth is different from life expectancy at given age. Each year you manage to survive after birth increases your current life expectancy, because you already managed to avoid all causes of death up to that point.

Yes, I amended my comment but it's still pretty solid. Her average life expectancy assessed at age 65 would have been 85.

(And assessing the average woman of her age now is not likely to change it that much; AFAIK life expectancy in the USA is actually falling slightly across all age groups)

> And assessing the average woman of her age now is not likely to change it that much

The issue is, she's not an average woman, at least in terms of physical fitness.

She's a hell of an anecdatum but she's still an anecdatum.

Assuming no lying or cheating, the plural of anecdote is existence proofs.

Yes but she is singular.

Obviously there is some training here and kudos to the lady, but no doubt her genetical baggage is giving her some advantage here. She's got older not because she's training, she's able to train and perform at this level in spite of being older.

It's entirely possible training has extended her life already.

Boring example but an obese woman with type II diabetes her age might already have had one life-threatening fall, may already have other severe health challenges.

Whereas a woman her age with such good vascular health could be delaying the onset of significant vascular dementia by up to a decade, let alone all the other things.

Still, the point I was making is that it is not shortening her life; it's either having no statistical difference or extending it.

no difference for the young

yet all the difference for people her age

Leonid Boguslavsky started triathlon at 62 and had two femoral neck fractures because of it. He's now 74. I think he also has a knee prosthesis now.

Full triathlon distance has nothing to do with health.

As long as you’re training responsibly your body adapts and builds a ‘base’ over time.

This makes you much more resilient not less.

The Oct-2025 National Geographic has an an article entitled How to age like an athlete. It has stories like that of Nora Langdon, 82 YO woman, that started powerlifting in her 60s. She set personal records in her 70s of 203lbs bench press, 381lbs dead lift, and 413lbs squat. Heavy exercise doesn’t appear to have negatively impacted lifespan in her or others in the article.

I'd expect your lungs, cardiovascular system and bones to contribute much more to your life expectancy than your joints. And all of those benefit from stress (if given sufficient recovery periods, especially for the bones).

“In fact, if you rupture your ACL, you're 50% more likely to have a heart attack than somebody who hasn't.”

https://biology.ucdavis.edu/news/how-our-muscles-tendons-and...

It obviously depends on intensity, and is sometimes described as reverse J-curve[1] relationship. Moderate exercise helps, while intense exercise diminishes these benefits and might also increase mortality risk.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32848273/

Along these lines I wonder how many people have been able to do triathlons for multiple decades (started in their 20s and still doing in 60s). This impressive woman started late and wondering if that gave her an advantage relative to joint stress...i.e. if you only get so many years

Just program for joint health and reasonable level of functionality, many serious lifters do get hurt and deals with sysemtatic pains for pushing too hard. There's a reason ISS strength training program to prevent musclular atrophy and bone loss are stupid light, something like bodyweight deadlift for 20 reps.

I think in later years a lot has to do with mental state as much as physical state - I've known people who died in their 70s from what appeared to be a lack of will to stay alive but I also know people in their 90s who seemed determined to live as long as possible.

Of course, mental state is only factor but I do think it is very important - particularly as I've just turned 60!

It's all stress, and all stress shortens your lifespan, but some stress also strengthens parts of your system that contribute to a longer lifespan (cardio, muscles and bones for when you inevitably fall while elderly), etc., so it's probably more of a distinct calculation for each individual. I personally have decided to do just enough to remain fit, without going for "gains". I figure that's the sweet spot, but I doubt anyone really knows.

imho her half-ironman times are exponentially more impressive

she has a SUB 7 HOUR half-ironman, that's bonkers

very healthy well-trained 40yo would have a hard time matching that

some people just have excellent genetics and then pair that with excellent training

https://www.athlinks.com/athletes/94494810/results

An 80 year old also completed Badwater ultra (135 mile run in Death Valley in the summer).

https://www.npr.org/2025/07/16/nx-s1-5467389/meet-the-oldest...

I wokeup to read this and I am inspired. I am a late starter, could barely run for 5 minutes, but now I can do 5 miles. I was thinking to myself few days back, "how can people run a marathon and 100K run". After learning about this lady, I think if I try , I can as well.

I've run an 83k with surprisingly little training or background. I obviously worked up slowly to get there. But it is very doable for anybody.

That’s impressive, how much vert?

Ascent: 1,304 m Descent: 1,167 m

More info: https://nutskarhunkierros.fi/en/races/83km/

I do want to mention when I said: "surprisingly little training "

I realize now what this sounds like. I want to mention that I did other races to build up my condition to be able to this one (the longest one I ever did).

I also want to mention that it was probably the physically hardest (but most rewarding) thing I've ever done.

Nice work!

It takes time and I encourage runners of any level to start thinking about running, if they like it, in yearlong blocks with annual goals. My longest race to day is a 30 mile trail ultra. Ive done a variety of sports all my life so the fitness base was there. Then I committed to specifically training for that distance. Truth be told - as long as your training is consistent, intentional and you want it, eating is the hardest part. By far. 100k is a different beast altogether. It takes a community to tackle 24-30 hours of ruunning!

Marathon and ultra are different paradigms, for ultra all you need to do is get a heart rate monitor and try running at zone 2 as long as you can, the most difficult part is probably refueling, eating enough calories while preventing stomach cramps. Marathoners chase speed cos 42km/26miles is not that much if you are acclimated, which leads to a lot more interval/tempo/threshold training.

Ultra typically has much more vert, if you don’t strength train or train downhills your quads get destroyed. It gets to the point where you want uphills because the downhills are all pain.

It’s also not unusual for ultramarathoners to include speed work early in a training block (see Jason Koop).

I almost thought I couldn't run more than 6km without getting knee problems. But now I run +10km without issues. I just needed to run often enough, have patience and not run when the body clearly told me to stop.

I ran my first ultra in the past month (55k, 7000ft vert). A year ago I didn’t run at all but I’ve always done strength training.

The hardest part is finding time for training. For 100k it’s recommended to put in at least 60 miles per week during peak weeks to finish without injury or a lot of suffering.

That's incredible. Especially the swim ...

PS. If you're inspired by this story, this video might be a great watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J07O6dViHo

Curious why the title got changed from the article's original to the more-clickbaity version that it is now?

From the title I assumed this was about using exoskeletons.

Makes me feel pretty pathetic that I probably can't even run a mile un under 12 mins, if that.

The mind can be so powerful.. age is just a #

If you trained when you were younger, you’ll know this is complete BS. My performance as I age is on a steady downward slope. Recovery is noticeably worse, diet is becoming more important to maintaining a stable weight.

Don’t leave getting fit to your thirties or later. Start now.

Yeah, I only started taking fitness seriously at 39. I'm now 41, and I'm glad I did, I might be in the best shape of my life.

The point of saying that is to inspire people to just start trying now. People cannot choose to become younger.

I've had a concept 2 rowing machine for almost 20 years, so I (automatically) have a detailed record of every workout for two decades. N=1, but for me at least, I have clear evidence that the same level of effort does not produce the same result as you get older. onsistent effort does produce results at any age (that I've reached at least).

Technically you're probably right, but I think this feeling affects people who trained to be competitive at something when they were very young, then stopped and stagnated, and then tried to pick it back up after their divorce or letting themselves get a beer gut or something. The feeling of not being the same as they were in high school or whatever.

I was reasonably athletic, but never tried to "train" or got even close to what peak might have meant, and then continued skateboarding and doing other athletic things throughout my twenties, always being in pretty good shape. Now in my thirties, I'm in my best shape and continuing, it doesn't really matter what my peak hypothetically could have been or where I was at earlier, past is the past, let the good memories stick around, let the bad ones disappear, be present and keep pushing into the future.

Maybe I consider it a blessing that I never tried that hard in my early years, because now I'm not concerned about any ceiling. I let the enjoyment and ambition guide me, not the numbers, who cares.

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