In 2014 SpokaneFāVS profiled Sister Madonna Buder, of Spokane. Now she’s 86 and featured in Nike’s “Unlimited” campaign.
Read the 2014 article on Sr. Buder:
Every time Sister Madonna Buder recalls a personal story, she repeats the conversation she had with God in the moment.
Most recently, on March 15, she was sneaking in some early season training and got in a bike crash, which resulted in a fractured pelvis.
“When this happened I was able to sit up in the middle of the road and I said, ‘Lord, what are you doing this for?’ and I got this little answer, ‘Well, did you think that maybe I’m preserving you from something worse, even if it be yourself?’ says Buder while sitting outside the Spokane YMCA recently before her workout.
Buder, known as “the Iron Nun,” is a member of the non-canonical Sisters for Christian Community, a resident of Spokane and a frequent competitor at marathons and triathlons, including the grueling Ironman. She’ll be heading to Chicago to be inducted into the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame on June 26 and at almost 84 years old, she holds the current world record for the oldest woman to ever finish an Ironman Triathlon.
She first broke the record for the oldest person to finish an Ironman at Ironman Canada in 2012. For two years Buder tried to open the 80-plus group for women. She had already opened several age groups for women in the Ironman distance and held other records prior, she says, but she wanted to take another shot at 80-plus.
“On the way up — I drove to Penticton from Spokane — I said, ‘Lord, either three times is the charm or three strikes and I’m out, no more of this Ironman business,’’ she says. “So he made the most perfect weather I think we had ever had. No excuse not to finish. Nothing went wrong with the bike or in the water.”
With total nonchalance and some giggles, she recounts when she broke the record.
“I finished and that’s all I was concentrating on, getting the job done,” Buder says. “But the announcer went crazy and the next day people were coming up to me, congratulating me on my world record. I said, ‘What? Oh, well yes if no one [at 82] had ever done it before, I guess it is a world record.”
The First Mile
At the encouragement of her bishop, Buder’s running career started at age 47 and just five weeks later she ran her first race at Bloomsday.
She moved to Spokane when her former order sent her in the early ‘70s right before Expo ’74. It was a time many sisters were leaving their traditional orders, Buder says, and she left hers to join a non-traditional order, Sisters for Christian Community, after reading a book about them.
“You don’t have to live in community for one thing and you choose your own lifestyle where you feel the spirit calls you to put your energies and talents,” she says. “It gives you more responsibility for yourself.”
For Buder, that means volunteering with C.O.P.S. Northwest, visiting the jail regularly and, of course, doing triathlons. She estimates that to date she’s done about 360 triathlons and her current count for Ironman-distance races is about 45.
This season she had big plans to do three races in April, including the Boston Marathon, but after her pelvic injury, she had to sit those out. But she recovered in time to make it to Eagleman in Maryland at the beginning of June.
“I had a mini miracle,” Buder says. “There’s no reason I should have been able to finish.”
It was a little “tumble rumble” out in the water, she says, and the run was laboring because of the injury, but the bike went smoothly and she crossed the finish line and was awarded a slot at the world championship Ironman in Kona, Hawaii in October. And before Kona, she’s decided to go to Challenge Roth in Germany in July.
“All these decisions I’m having to take is a step out in faith,” she says. “I have to say, ‘Lord, please protect me.’ Then it’s ready or not here I go.”
Never Too Old
When Buder opened the female 80-plus group at Ironman Canada in 2012, it was actually only half of her goal. The other part is to do the same at Ironman Hawaii. And if anyone dares question if she’s too old, she’d say you’re only as old as you think you are.
“If you don’t think age and you just get up and do and you think you’re a teenager, well, you’ll start to act like one,” she says. “And you also find out that you never get too old to learn new tricks.”
When she thinks about all of her accomplishments up until now, she says she doesn’t understand how it all happened.
“I couldn’t believe it when I realized I was the oldest participant, older than the men, in some of the races I’m doing. I said, ‘Lord, how did I ever get here?’” she says, chuckling.
She at least knows why she’s still competing and why she plans to continue competing: the public. While she can get around Spokane fairly well without being recognized, every few steps at big races, people stop Buder to chat, get pictures and autographs and tell her what an inspiration she is.
“I don’t see what they see, but I guess I don’t have to,” she says. “I just have to be there. And it’s just that my public won’t let loose of me. And as long as I don’t have an excuse — like a fractured pelvis — not to, I will keep on going.”
Wonderful story, Jo — thanks to you and Tracy for sharing it.
[…] and half-iron distance. In between training she STILL finds time for volunteer service, and community outreach in the pacific northwest. Sister Buder’s attitude to training and living life is exuberant and reverent. She always […]