Aging with grace at 86: Triathlete nun an expert
“I think circulation is the best healer, and I keep circulating. And I think people try to stop circulating because they run out of energy and they get lazy, and that’s when the problems occur.”
In the last decade, Sister Madonna Buder has become an accidental star of a health care industry racing to keep people active and healthy late in life.
The 86-year-old Catholic nun fits the bill – and then some. She's a motivational speaker, author and a world-class athlete who credits faith and "that man upstairs" for guiding her to push boundaries. In triathlon circles, she's known as The Iron Nun, the oldest woman to finish the Ironman triathlon, a swimming, running and cycling competition that often defeats the most youthful specimen.
Athletic shoe and apparel retailer Nike celebrated her in an ad title "Unlimited Youth" that aired last summer during the Olympic Games.
Buder, of Spokane, Wash., will appear Oct. 11 at the Louisville Innovation Summit, a gathering of health care executives and entrepreneurs that centers on new products and methods of aging care. The three-day conference features a startup pitch competition and presentations on wellness and health innovations.
Buder's topic is "disruptive aging," which the daughter of a prominent philanthropic St. Louis family might describe as embracing life with gusto. Her insights reflect a deep faith. “A lot of people ask me how I can do this at my age. I think the best thing…is simply not to refer to your age," she said in a phone interview.
"What I advise is that you never lose your child. That is the purest, most unadulterated, creative, spontaneous self that you’ll ever have...and if you keep holding on to that vision, to being that precious child of God cradled in his arms, you feel perfectly secure and ready to do what he has in store for you for the day."
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The former Marie Dorothy Buder felt what was in store for her wasn't marriage to one of her wealthy suitors. She entered the Sisters of Good Shepherd and became a nun at 23. She left in 1970 to join the Sisters of Christian Community in Spokane, Wash, a group independent of the Roman Catholic Church's authority where the women choose their own ministry. She now works with jail inmates.
While on the Oregon coast for a retreat in the late '70s, she met a Jesuit priest who mentioned running to harmonize mind, body and soul. Buder ran the beach that night and decided to stick with it. Her training gained pace when she "offered up" her beginner's discomfort to God in hopes he'd strengthen her brother during a stretch of personal turmoil.
She began triathlon competitions at 55, running miles to morning Mass and cycling to a lake for swim workouts. She has completed more than 360 triathlons, 45 of which are Ironmans, the pinnacle of the sport, a 2.4-mile swim, 26.2-mile run and 112-mile bike ride.
Along the way, the small, slender woman has become one of the world's most decorated geriatric athletes, capped two years ago with induction into the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame. Interviewers sometimes ask her stereotypical nun questions, such whether she competes in a habit. "I wouldn't want to make a spectacle of myself," she replied once. "To me, that's not legit. I don't wear a bikini, though I'd probably look good in one."
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Once pedaling down a mountainside in Hawaii, a gust of wind lifted her from the pavement – yep, the flying nun – and she crashed onto a lava bed and broke her clavicle and took 14 stitches to her face.
Her prescription for health: “Circulation is the best healer, and I keep circulating...I think people try to stop circulating because they run out of energy and they get lazy, and that’s when the problems occur.”
More than anything, she believes that her sense of well-being was buoyed by close relationships with her grandparents. Her grandmother told her as a 9-year-old not to fret about the future, to make the most of the present and forget what's past.
"To fall back on their wisdom" is a gift, Buder said. "All the grandparents out there, you are so important. So go for it."
Reporter Grace Schneider can be reached at 502-582-4082 or gschneider@courier-journal.com.
Want to hear Sister Madonna's Talk?
Anyone not attending the conference still will get a chance to hear Sister Madonna's talk at the Louisville Marriott downtown. See https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-louisville-innovation-summit-tickets-22552519192. Breakfast and the one-time admission is $75. Use the code LISSISTER.
Louisville Innovation Summit - Creating the Future of Aging Care