Every year, hundreds of the fittest athletes in the world gather in Kona, Hawaii, for the Ford Ironman World Championship triathlon.

Ultimately, all of them are trying to accomplish the same goal: push their bodies to their maximum capabilities across 140.6 miles of Pacific Ocean surf and hot, desolate lava fields.

But this year, only one of them is trying to do that at 80 — that’s right, 80 — years of age.

That athlete is Lew Hollander, a Long Island native who has called Bend home for the past four decades. The physicist (he doesn’t like the notion of retirement) is the oldest entry in the 2010 Ford Ironman World Championship, which takes place this Saturday.

“I’m 80 years old, so any time I can line up in a race, there’s several things I can say to myself,” Hollander said last week before departing for Hawaii. “One: ‘Lew, you’re still alive. This is good.’ And two: ‘I’m out here with all these other guys, and this is exciting, and I’m still in life. Life’s exciting.’ And actually, the older I get, the more exciting it’s getting.”

Hollander, whose wrinkles substantiate his age and muscles belie it, will become one of the oldest athletes ever to complete the Ironman World Championship if he is successful in covering the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run before the 17-hour cutoff. The oldest finisher on record is Robert McKeague, of Villa Park, Ill., who was 80 years and 240 days old when he completed the 2005 race in 16 hours, 21 minutes and 55 seconds. Hollander will be 80 years and 125 days old on race day.

“I’d be happy to welcome him into the over-80 club,” McKeague said last week from Illinois.

This is not exactly Hollander’s first trip around the Ironman block, nor is he a stranger to endurance racing in general. In 1984, he completed the Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile trail race, and in 1985 he raced his first Ironman, in Hawaii. He estimates he has completed approximately 50 Ironman races all over the world since then. Saturday’s race will be his 21st in Kona.

He is also an accomplished horseman. With his wife, Hanne, Hollander is a member of the American Endurance Ride Conference Hall of Fame. And in June, he became the oldest person ever to complete the long course at the ride and tie world championship. Ride and tie is a relay competition involving two humans and one horse in which one of the contestants rides the horse while the other runs. The two-legged competitors switch places continually throughout races of predetermined distances.

“I say it’s the most fun you can have with your pants on,” Hollander said.

Horseback riding has also assisted him in cycling, a sport in which he had no experience before taking up triathlon.

“I found I could step off that horse and ride that bike, and I didn’t miss a stroke,” he said. “I was in really good shape to ride the bike. Now, I can step off the bike and I could ride 50 miles tomorrow and not even be stiff or sore.”

This year in Hawaii, Hollander, who has taken second in his age group at the Ironman World Championship “probably 10 times,” is assured of a first-place finish for the first time — because he is the only entry in the 80-and-over division. But that is not his focus.

“The point now is to beat the clock,” Hollander said. “When I was younger, of course, it was to beat the other guys. Now, it’s to survive and beat the clock.”

That task might be one of his most difficult to date. Last year, Hollander finished in 16:52:29, just a scant 7:31 before the cutoff. Competitors also must hit intermediate cutoffs for the swim and bike stages to continue racing.

He is prepared.

“I’m not a ‘whatever’ person,” Hollander said. “I try to figure it all out, and try to get out of the swim in time so I have enough time on the bike, and get off the bike in time so I have enough time to have a few errors on the run.”

The infamous trade winds that commonly plague the Ironman World Championship bike course at this time of year may play a significant role in Hollander’s success or failure. If the winds blow strongly into the athletes’ faces or sideways, it makes for a long day on the bike. But if calm or at the riders’ backs, those winds could provide an assist.

“The wind is the big factor,” Hollander said. “That’s the whole deal, is the wind.”

One thing Hollander can count on is the presence of television cameras tagging along on his journey. An NBC crew spent three days with Hollander in Bend recently, filming and interviewing for the network’s broadcast of the Ironman World Championship that airs annually each November or December. Hollander will be wearing a beeper so the crew can find him out on the course.

He said he doesn’t know if he will make the cut for the broadcast, suggesting that how he fares in the race might determine whether his story makes the broadcast.

But he is at peace with whatever happens as long as he does his best.

“I live in the ‘mirror theory,’ ” Hollander said. “I look at myself in the mirror and I say, ‘That’s the best I could do today, Lew.’ If I can do that, I don’t give a damn about everybody else. I can’t control their lives. If they can run faster, they can run faster. If they have more money, they have more money. If they’re sick, they’re sick, but Lew did what he could do today. As long as I’m honest with myself, the rest of the world has to do whatever they’re going to do, and I’ll see where I can come out.

“So far,” he added, “I’ve come out pretty well.”

2010 Ford Ironman World Championship

Who: More than 1,900 professional and age group triathletes, most of whom qualified at other Ironman and Ironman 70.3 races all over the world

What: 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run

Where: Kona, Hawaii

When: Saturday

On the Web: Participants in Saturday’s race can be tracked at ironman.com. Lew Hollander will be wearing bib No. 180.

On TV: Look for NBC’s broadcast of the event later on this fall