69-Year-Old Triathlete Qualifies for World Championships

Kathleen Broder finished first at the half-Ironman competition in Santa Cruz.

Kathleen Broder, 69, is a retired Camarillo schoolteacher and a grandmother of five. She is also a nationally ranked triathlete.

Broder is ranked fourth in the nation in her age group in the half-Ironman, also known as the Ironman 70.3. In an Ironman 70.3, athletes swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles and end with a 13.1-mile run, equivalent to a half-marathon.

This month, Broder finished first at the half-Ironman competition in Santa Cruz. With that, she landed a spot in the 2017 Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

She will be 70 when she competes next September in the world championships in the 70 to 74 age group.

Broder entered her first Ironman 70.3 at 62. Running had always been part of her life, and she took up cycling seven years ago when her fellow runners “started getting really bad knees and legs.” Soon, she discovered the triathlon.

“One day, I was camping up in Carpinteria with my son and saw this weird thing called a triathlon, and I thought, ‘I want to do that,’” Broder said.

Now, she competes in seven different triathlons and at least one marathon a year.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than 20 percent of women Broder’s age do any weekly aerobic or muscle strengthening exercises.

Broder’s weekly workout combines pool laps three times a week, a swim in the ocean, biking two days a week and at least four days of running. Talk about her age does not faze her.

“People tell me, ‘I hope I can do that at your age,’” she says. Laughing, she adds, “That’s fine, whatever.”

Before the world championships next September, Broder is training to compete in a full Ironman competition, a total of 140.6 miles. The competition is next July in Northern California.

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