T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — Retired dentist Bob Peterson of Marshalltown continues to ride his bicycle regularly and recently won a silver medal in the 95-99 age group at the National Senior Games in Des Moines last month.

Bob Peterson, a retired dentist who practiced for over 30 years in Marshalltown and still lives in the community to this day, will turn 95 in October, but you sure wouldn’t know it by talking to him.

Over the last several decades, Peterson has developed an intense passion for cycling and competing at both the Iowa Senior Games and the National Senior Games, recently placing second in the 10k race for the 95-99 age group at the National Games in Des Moines on July 31 with a time of 23.30.4 — less than four minutes a mile at an average speed of 15.8 MPH.

At his home on Elmcrest Drive, Peterson keeps an exercise bike, a rowing machine and a stable of road bicycles in the basement along with medals he’s accumulated over the years and a jersey from the United States Cycling Federation on the wall. He got it the year he won two gold medals at the age of 70.

Peterson, who moved around southwest Iowa as a kid and eventually graduated from Carroll High School in 1948 and later the University of Iowa dental school, spent three years traveling around the country with the public health service, one year at an internship in New York City and another two years in northeast Arizona with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). When his parents moved to Cedar Rapids and Bob and his wife, who hailed from Osceola, were ready to return to Iowa in 1958, they settled on Marshalltown because of its ideal location halfway between the two.

As it happened, the community needed a dentist.

“The balance then between agriculture and industry was really good, and at that time, Marshalltown was really a total community. The school system was excellent, the hospital care, the medical care was excellent. The business district was excellent, and it was just an entirely different community than it is now,” Peterson said. “And since the school was a good place, we thought ‘This is where we wanted to raise our kids.’ And they needed a dentist.”

He initially practiced in the Masonic Temple building and then, in 1976, built the clinic on North 1st Street where Dr. Kent Downing now practices. In 1993, he sold his private practice and retired, and when his wife passed away a few years later, Peterson turned his attention to traveling and cycling as his two main hobbies.

In his 40s, Peterson took up running with his friend Phil Zink and completed 15 to 20 marathons, but as he got older, it took a toll on his legs and got him worried about sustaining a serious injury. Even when he competed in triathlons, he found that cycling was his best option, and he struck up a friendship with fellow rider Mike Bergman — Peterson projects that they ended up biking over 15,000 miles together all over the area.

When he was 60, Peterson went to San Diego with his wife and Zink and finished a national senior games race, and he finally won a jersey 10 years later. Even as he gets older and friends and loved ones have passed away, he just keeps riding — up until he was 90, he would partake in at least one ride in miles for his age, but during the COVID year in 2020, he switched to kilometers.

This year, Peterson won his race at the Iowa Senior Games and got second at the national level in his age group. As for his advice to other older individuals seeking to stay active, he lives by a simple mantra.

“Keep moving,” he said.