One weekend every October, the Charles River comes alive with rowers from around the world in the most famous regatta this side of the Atlantic.

Standing with a short and petite frame, Mary “Liz” Stone doesn’t come off as a distinctive rower in this race, until you notice her snow-white curly hair. Stone is 86 years old, making her the oldest competing rower in this year’s Head of the Charles Regatta.

For the past 18 years, the California native has made it out without fail for this historical race. Her advanced age has put her in rare territory in which she has continuously shocked spectators with her impressive performances.

Stone is a two-time winner of the Head of the Charles, taking the first-place position for the Senior-Veteran Singles Women Division each time. Her back-to-back victories in 1997 and 1998 were the first two years in which the division existed. Last year, she came in second place behind 81-year-old Eve Green.

“I came up before hardly any women were in my category,” Stone said. “Then all groups of women started going out more and rowing.”

Stone’s rowing career extends past this one weekend in October, and her success follows close behind.

“I have a lot of medals in my basket,” she chuckled. “Some are more important to me than others, especially my two from the Head of the Charles.”

For many people, it’s not just Stone’s age that is surprising, but also her experience—or lack thereof. She started rowing at the ripe age of 65, when she retired from the Cardiac Blood Lab at Stanford Hospital.

Stone got interested in rowing almost by happenstance one day over 20 years ago, when she read an article in The San Francisco Chronicle about the Open Water Rowing Center (OWRC) in Sausalito, Calif. It might have been the sunny and warm weather of January or the first two lessons she took on the San Francisco Bay, but soon she saw her visits become far more regular.

“I found that if I wanted to be a good rower, I really had to put in the time,” Stone said. “I now had time to do that, and I would go three times a week.”

For the most part, Stone enjoys rowing leisurely, but she admits that she became pretty competitive once she picked it up. In her past, she was a member of an international group of women rowers. She also won herself a trip to Boston for the famous C.R.A.S.H.-B World Indoor Rowing Competition by qualifying “by accident” at a similar event at her boat club in San Francisco.

Stone’s involvement with the rowing community of her home in northern California has only grown, as she now works part-time as an equipment manager at OWRC. She is all-hands-on-deck, putting skates back in when they get knocked out by rocks, fixing oarlocks, and even offering unsolicited yet valuable rowing advice to younger members.

“Her experience running the lab has led her to have great skill looking after the equipment,” said long-time friend and fellow rower, Ellen Braithwaite.

“It’s all sort of problem solving, and that’s a fun thing to do,” Stone said.

Braithwaite and Stone met in the mid-1990s at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, where groups of adults were united through programs and camps directed toward outdoor sports. Their camaraderie on and off the water grew from there, and they will both be on the Charles this weekend.