ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tony Handler’s motto in life is “Never give up.” This is how the 83-year-old man became an Ironman racer and beat six different kinds of cancer.
“When they told me I had two years to live, I made up my mind,” Handler said. “I said, ‘Well, if I can ever get out of this hospital, I’ll do what I can to try to get stronger and maybe even fight it that way.'”
Tony set a goal to compete in an Ironman Triathlon while he was in the hospital for a rare form of pancreatic cancer. He did this after watching one on TV in his hospital room. Tony reached that goal when he was 60 years old. Since then, he hasn’t stopped doing triathlons, and he doesn’t plan to stop any time soon.
Tony said, “I always say I’ll keep going until my body tells me to stop.” “I’ve been lucky so far that it hasn’t come to that, so I’ll keep going until I can’t anymore.”
Tony said that running is getting harder as he gets older, but his favorite part of a race is still biking.
Tony ran his 326th race at the St. Anthony’s Triathlon on Sunday. Some triathletes do it for the race, but Tony doesn’t do it for that. All that matters to him is crossing the finish line.
“No matter how old you are, it feels good to cross the finish line,” Tony said. “That’s great.”
“I’ve had six different types of cancer, so I have a little thing in my head that says if I can get to that finish line, I beat Mr. Cancer again,” he said. “Right now, that’s the only one who can beat me.”
Tony has another goal: every birthday, he wants to bike the same number of miles as his age. So, he’s planning to ride 84 miles next week.
This year marked the 40th year of the St. Anthony’s Triathlon. The swim part of the event had to be canceled on Sunday because of bad weather, but that didn’t stop many people from taking part.
St. Anthony’s Hospital’s activities and services are helped by the money raised by the race.
