Born: 24 July 1930, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Marie Dorothy Buder
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
Sister Madonna Buder, also known as the “Iron Nun,” competed in her first triathlon in 1982 at age 52—and then did around 400 more over the next four decades. Dozens of those were Ironmans—2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run (in other words, a marathon)a—and in 2012, she broke the record for oldest person ever to complete an Ironman. “Since that day, I have opened up about five age groups in my life (so that older folks can run too) that never existed,” she said years later.
Buder knew she wanted to be a nun from age 14, and joined a convent at 23. She was 48 when a priest, Father John, “mentioned that running had many benefits, including a way to ‘harmonize mind, body, and soul.’ That concept was really appealing to me,” she later recounted. But she was hesitant to move from running for fun to competition, concerned about potential backlash about the appearances of a nun doing so. “When I first took up running, my newfound joy was not supported by the sisters I lived with, who considered this undertaking inappropriate for a nun,” she said many years later. Buder ran her first competitive race in 1980, with her first triathlon two years later in Banbridge, Ireland. “I felt an immense amount of accomplishment after I finished that race; I was content,” she later recalled.
Buder also published a book, The Grace to Run, in 2010. In 2014, she observed, “nothing gets easier as you get older, especially if you’re a runner. But the hardest part of running a race is getting started and then finishing—especially when it comes to triathlons. In between the start and finish you go through ups and downs, and it’s a whole lifetime encapsulated.”