Oldest woman to finish Ironman World Championship in Kona

https://bigislandnow.com/2025/10/19/80-year-old-grandmother-becomes-oldest-woman-to-finish-ironman-world-championship-in-kona/

by austinallegro • 9 months ago

135 52 9 months ago

bigislandnow.com

artur_makly• 9 months ago

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

2muchcoffeeman• 9 months ago

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.

Synaesthesia• 9 months ago

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.

tock• 9 months ago

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

gcanyon• 9 months ago

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).

brailsafe• 9 months ago

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.

srameshc• 9 months ago

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.

nake892• 9 months ago

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.

almost_usual6• 9 months ago

That’s impressive, how much vert?

notesinthefield• 9 months ago

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!

bwv848• 9 months ago

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.

almost_usual6• 9 months ago

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).

worldsayshi• 9 months ago

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.

almost_usual6• 9 months ago

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.

Qem3• 9 months ago

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.

basisword• 9 months ago

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.

exasperaited5• 9 months ago

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.

f311a• 9 months ago

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.

almost_usual6• 9 months ago

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

This makes you much more resilient not less.

voidmain0001• 9 months ago

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.

wongarsu• 9 months ago

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).

ZpJuUuNaQ5• 9 months ago

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/

MontgomeryPy• 9 months ago

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

maxglute• 9 months ago

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.

arethuza• 9 months ago

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!

stronglikedan• 9 months ago

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.

tbassetto• 9 months ago

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.

nmdeadhead4• 9 months ago

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

FeistySkink2• 9 months ago

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

lr4444lr• 9 months ago

Grabow worked as a software engineer.

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

Hnrobert42• 9 months ago

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.

TheAlchemist• 9 months ago

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

amelius• 9 months ago

From the title I assumed this was about using exoskeletons.

game_the0ry• 9 months ago

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

almost_usual6• 9 months ago

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...

ck2• 9 months ago

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

squigz• 9 months ago

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

Oldest woman to finish Ironman World Championship in Kona

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