64-year-old rookie

John Stone is built like a high school fullback – a stocky 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds.■At 64, he’s been through four surgeries on each knee and a torn Achilles tendon. He has arthritis in his lower back and a calf muscle that frequently knots up.■ His aging body – “older equipment” is Stone’s wry self-description – isn’t keeping him from competing in today’s Ford Ironman Coeur d’Alene.

At 7 a.m., the Spokane developer will plunge into Lake Coeur d’Alene for the 2.4-mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run. He expects to cross the finish line about 14 hours later, exhausted and exhilarated.

“When I first thought about this, I thought I could never do it,” Stone said. “But it’s amazing what people’s bodies can adapt to, what my body has adapted to.”

Stone is one of 49 competitors in the race’s 60 and older category. A healthy senior population, coupled with sophisticated training methods, is prompting people to test the limits of their endurance into their golden years.

“We have people in their 60s, 70s and even 80s performing triathlons,” said Ben Greenfield, owner of Pacific Elite Fitness in Spokane. “Thanks to modern medicine, it’s completely achievable.”

Senior athletes are a small but steadily growing part of Ironman, according to Helen Manning, spokeswoman for the event. This year, the oldest person entered in the race is a 75-year-old California man.

Training senior athletes requires a different strategy than working with 20- and 30-year olds, Greenfield said. Often, the athletes are dealing with past injuries. Joints and muscles are stiffer. Since people lose muscle mass as they age, intense workouts require longer recovery times to reduce the risk of injury, he said.

“You have to be more deliberate about what you do,” Stone said. “You just don’t jump on the bike and ride 112 miles, which is what I might have done at 30.”

For the past nine months, he’s worked with Marla Emde of Emde Sports in Spokane, who specializes in training athletes for triathlons and other endurance events. At any given time, one or two of her clients are 60 or older.

“Our job is to get people to the starting line without injury, and they’ve all finished,” she said. “Every single person of ours has finished.”

Stone’s Ironman journey started at Thanksgiving dinner in 2004, when his sister pulled a 32-pound turkey out of the oven. Stone’s doctor recently had told him he needed to lose about 30 pounds. Suddenly, he could picture that extra weight.

“I had this image of a turkey wrapped around me,” he said.

It was a mortifying thought for Stone, a principal in SRM Development, the company behind Riverstone in Coeur d’Alene. Focused and driven, he’d built a West Coast development firm while still playing a mean game of handball. But 35 years of pounding the court hammered away at his knees, resulting in torn ligaments and surgeries. About five years ago, he had to give up the sport. Without an aerobic replacement, his weight crept up.

After the Thanksgiving dinner, Stone set weight loss goals. But it took an ultimatum from his doctor to solidify his commitment. Stone’s cholesterol count was over 300. It had to come down. “I was headed for a crash,” he said.

Stone’s nephew, Kelly Foster, competed in triathlons. Stone had watched him participate in the annual Coeur d’Alene Triathlon, held in August. He decided to try the 1-mile swim, 25-mile bike ride and 6.2 mile-run himself. Sixty-two days before the 2005 event, Stone hired a trainer at 24-Hour Fitness.

“I hadn’t swam since Boy Scouts and I didn’t own a bike, so it was kind of a blind leap of faith,” he said. “It wasn’t very pretty, but I got the job done.”

Other swimming and cycling events followed. Stone signed up to volunteer at Ironman. The extreme physical and mental challenges of the race appealed to his competitive nature. Last year, he stood on the sidelines as a military veteran who’d lost a foot in Afghanistan crossed the finish line.

“It removed my last excuses,” Stone said. “All of a sudden, the bug got me.”

“I think John’s pretty typical of the type of person who does Ironman,” said Emde, his trainer. “He watched a couple of times and was lured into the event. He saw a mix of people out there, and he thought, ‘I can do that, too.’ “

Stone took the same analytical approach that he uses in development work. “You have to learn the business of whatever you’re doing,” he said. Instead of researching non-slip carpets, lighting and colors for senior retirement homes, he delved into nutritional supplements, sweat-loss ratios and cycling cadences.

Stone is a bit of an obsessive-compulsive personality, not uncommon for triathletes, Emde said.

“He’s a very hard worker and it shows,” she said. “Sometimes, I’ll have to hold him back because he’ll want to do more than I want to give him.”

Stone spent up to 25 hours per week training. Being an owner of an 80-person business gave him the flexibility to train during the workday – a luxury that 8-to-5 workers don’t have, he said. His Chevy Avalanche functioned as a portable locker room, carrying changes of clothes, energy bars, water bottles and gear.

With Emde’s help, Stone developed a fluid swimming stroke. He can’t run because of his knees, but shuffles along at an efficient 12 minutes per mile. On long bike rides, he monitors his heart rate, staying within his target 145 to 150 beats per minute.

Initially, Stone thought the swim would be the hardest part of Ironman. Now, he’s comfortable in the water and anticipates his biggest test on the 22 hills during the bike ride.

Stone envies athletes with long, lean physiques and powerful legs. “I’m built like a D-9 Cat with an undercarriage,” he says with self-deprecating humor.

He feels ready for today’s race. In March, he finished a half-Ironman in California. Three weeks ago, he crashed his bike in Mead after encountering an aggressive dog. The bike was done for the day, but not Stone. He grabbed another one and finished his 100 miles in 97-degree heat.

“It’s been an amazing accomplishment, whatever happens with this race,” said Stone’s son, Bryan.

Stone said he’s already met many of his goals. He’s lost 40 pounds and no longer needs medication for high cholesterol. He’s developed his cycling and swimming skills – lifelong sports he sees himself continuing.

Stone also has recruited 10 family members, friends and employees to do the Coeur d’Alene Triathlon with him later this summer. “He’s infectious,” Emde said.

“I’ve learned that you don’t become an Ironman during the race; it happens during all the work you put in,” Stone said. “I’ve truly enjoyed the journey.”