No rust on this Ironwoman

For Harriet Anderson, it’s just another day at the office — if your job is winning your age group in one of the most excruciating endurance competitions known to man year in and year out.

Anderson, 73, is in her 17th year competing in the Hawaiian Ironman competition — well known as the grand daddy of Ironman competitions. As the October competition’s oldest female competitor, she is already thinking of her next round of training and has no plans on slowing down.

With a cool and calm demeanor, Anderson speaks of long training rides and runs and swims as if they were quick jaunts to the grocery store and recognizes that at her age, a slow and deliberate pace keeps her in the running. She regularly spends hours at the track, in the pool and on the road leading up to several competitions of varying lengths and difficulties a year.

"Part of that is outliving the competition (since many older competitors tend to stop participating or can’t make the 17-hour deadline),” she said. "And I’ve been healthy.”

For 36 years, Anderson worked for the Redwood City Elementary School District as a school nurse and found more time to exercise during summers when she was not working. When she retired, she picked up the pace so to speak.

She began with the fitness for life class at Cañada College in 1984 and began with 10 kilometer (6.2 mile) races. She joined the Peninsula Community Center triathlon club and the rest, as they say, is history.

She started with sprint triathlons of shorter distances and enjoyed some success with her age group. "What fun, I’d get prizes,” she said. "It was really fun. But the big talk was the Ironman.”

For those who don’t know, the Ironman distance is 2.4-mile swim and a 112-mile bike, capped by a 26.2-mile marathon. Easy right?

Her first year competing in the Ironman World Championship was in 1989, when at 53, she placed fourth in her 50-54-year-old age group with a time of 13 hours, 23 minutes and 29 seconds. From then on, she was hooked.

Aside from a quick break in the late ’90s when her husband Gary was hurt, Anderson has been a solid presence at the marquee Ironman event in Kona, Hawaii. With its scorching heat and driving winds, the event is known for its champions who finish first and for its champions who just simply finish. While the elite competitors finish in just over eight hours, all competitors are given a 17-hour window in which to finish. Anderson is edging closer to that deadline with her most recent total time of 16 hours, 17 minutes and 51 seconds.

Mike Lynch, masters swimming coach at the Peninsula Community Center, has worked with Anderson for more than 20 years and said her quiet confidence is an inspiration to others — including PCC member Jeanette Mucha, a 37-year-old mother of two who is now competing in Ironman events.

"She obviously is a gifted person when it comes to her health. But it’s not just physical. She has a nice calm demeanor ... but is very tenacious in a very calm way,” he said. ‘She is a very modest person, you never hear about her accomplishments.”

That is best left to others. In addition to newspaper articles, Anderson was featured on the Ironman World Championship telecast in late November and was also interviewed for a segment on "Good Morning America” about aging athletes. The other athletes featured? Only Lance Armstrong, Dana Torres and Brett Favre.

"She is an inspiration to all of us,” Lynch said. "She is an inspiration to older people at the center hat they can achieve what they’d like to achieve.”

And though she is getting older, there are still some more goals she herself would like to achieve.

"I’d like to do this till I’m 75,” she said. "Just a few more years.”

To which her husband smiled, "But she’s been saying that for years.”

Jon Mays can be reached by e-mail: jon@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 107.