Soon after posting the introduction, I was looking through my TiVo suggestions and found a television story that captures the spirit of this blog. The program was Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, and one of the segments was about a nun that competes in triathlons. She is 77 years old and has raced in over 300 triathlons. Here name is Sister Madonna Buder of Spokane, WA. By the time she was 14 she knew that she wanted to be a nun. Against the wishes of her family, she left a life filled with privilege to become a nun at age 24.
Although Sister Madonna did not even start running until she was 49 years old, she has participated in 20 Ironman races, winning her age group 14 times and making organizers create age groups just of her. She was not aware of exercise as a form of meditation and prayer until a priest, while on retreat in 1981, mentioned the great spiritual gifts that one could get while running. Madonna then tried running as a spiritual exercise, and has never stopped. She sees this as a true ministry, and dedicates each competition to a person in need. In addition to training and racing in competitions, she is very involved in her local parish and ministers to inmates at a local jail.
The television segment went on to detail Madonna’s qualifying trials for the 2007 Ironman, during which she crashed her bicycle and suffered a fractured arm. But two months later, she was back in Hawaii again to compete. During her years in competing, she has had a broken scapular and broken her hip twice, still she keeps on going.
As the race started, she was passing people half her age. But stomach problems that she has recently acquired, after 8 hours and 112 miles, left her missing the cutoff time for the marathon by 30 seconds.
Madonna’s fellow sisters, back in St. Louis, wishes she would give up the competitions before she seriously hurts herself. Madonna says that she will stop when she gets permission from God to do so.
For more program information see: http://www.hbo.com/realsports/stories/2008/episode.131.s2.html
Other resources about Sister Madonna Buder:
King5 News:
http://www.king5.com/sharedcontent/northwest/nwbackroads/stories/NW_BR188extremenuns_ironnun.30136335.html
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_Buder
Ironman Article: http://www.ironman.com/events/ironman/worldchampionship/barry-siff-profiles-the-incredible-sister-madonna-buder