(STORY IMAGE:KHQ.COM)
HAYDEN, Idaho -In an old pasture, there’s a track that Dexter Yeats' husband mowed out to create her own field of dreams.
It’s where she spends a majority of her time training.
At 72-years old, she’ll be the oldest female competitor at Coeur d’Alene's Ironman 70.3, but it’s still safe to say she's in better shape than most people half her age.
“It's pretty cool, I don’t know why I'm the oldest there should be other elderly women out there," Yeats said.
She took on the half Ironman in her younger years and took a break in the 90’s but got the itch to compete again in the early 2000’s.
“Madonna Buder, who most of us know as the ‘Iron Nun’ was racing and people were shocked that a 62 year old woman was doing Ironman and they couldn’t believe that somebody in their 60’s a woman and I looked at her and I thought 'I want to be like her’,” Yeats said.
Since then, she’s competed in half’s and full Ironman's around the globe.
But it’s the Lake City and running down Sherman Avenue that makes her feel at home.
"It’s special to get up out of your own bed and go down and see people that you know and compete in an area that you know,” she said.
Yeats trains for hours every day, but her secret and advice to beginners?
“It's kind of silly and I’ve said it so many times that it almost sounds canned, but my advice is to smile,” Yeats said.