Senior triathlete won’t slow down anytime soon

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Senior triathlete won’t slow down anytime soon

County News

Saturday, 25 December 2010 00:00

By Ken Jackson

Sports Writer

St. Cloud’s Ken Junkins may have his AARP card, but that doesn’t mean he’s showing his age.
If he does, you have to go up the road to see it. He’s that far ahead of you on a bike, running up the road or slogging through water.
Get in your car and you can meet up with him at the end of the line. You might have to stop and get gas first.
Junkins, 56, is one of the world’s best in his age group (currently 55-59) in the Ironman 70.3 Triathalon. The number represents the race distance — a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run. Those represent exactly half the distances run in the Ironman World Championship held annually in Hawaii since 1978.
Junkins, in his third Ironman World Championships 70.3, held in Clearwater on Nov. 13, finished fifth in his age group with a time of four hours, 41 minutes, 14 seconds. He finished in the top 10 each year, but this was his first podium finish.
“When I got off the bike, my wife (Cindi) was waving that I was in fifth (the final podium place), and I was shocked,” he said. “It changed the dynamic of my run, but it was exciting to have something like that at stake. That’s one of the reasons you go through the pain and torture to compete.”
Junkins admits that the swimming portion is his weakest event, “but when I get out on pavement, I hit my stride,” he said, noting he was 25th in his age group climbing out of the water but fifth climbing off the bicycle.
Racers for the World Championship 70.3, like the longer event in Hawaii, must qualify at one of 39 sites worldwide months before. Junkins completed his qualifier in May at Disney in warm, muggy conditions. The weather was better in Clearwater last month.
“The water was a little rough, we went into a headwind, but the temperature was perfect,” he said.
The Hueytown, Ala., native started this ultra-endurance passion 25 years ago, when he was nearing the end of a competitive water skiing career.
“I had a roommate who did triathlons, and I was totally into fitness, so I thought, ‘Hey, I can do that,’” he said.
He thought wrong. He was ill-prepared.
“My bike still had the little book bag on the back,” he said, adding that the event went “awful.”
“I looked back on it and thought I had to get my respect back,” he said. “I had women in their 50s passing me.”
Since then, he’s trained himself into a world-class caliber racer. In 1999, he raced in the Holy Grail event for triathletes, the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii.
“That was like reaching Mount Everest,” Junkins said. “That event was truly a gift from God. That came after I had taken a six-month layoff, and I qualified on a brutal layout in Lake Placid (N.Y.).”
Running that race made him realize that the 70.3 mile courses were a better fit for him – not because the distances seemed to get longer with age, but because of the commitment he would need to train for the longer races.
“When you’re doing Ironmans, you go to work, you go to train, you go to sleep and do it all over again the next day,” he said. “The half-triathlons help me keep a balance and do my family justice. I’m having the best time of my life.”
Yes, he considers a regimen that includes doing a morning workout starting at 6 a.m. before heading off to drive a route for the United Parcel Service, where he’s been a driver for more than 25 years.
But, he’s gotten his delivery route through areas like Holopaw and Kenansville down pat to the point that he can train with a run through the Deseret Ranch or stow a bike and ride down rural roads during a mid-day break.
And, of late, his wife has been in on the act, sort of. After spending their 28-year marriage cheering Junkins on from the sidelines, she’s taken up working out with him in the mornings.
The motivation? To look good in her dress at their daughters’ weddings. One got hitched in October, the other will tie the knot in January.
“It’s rough being married to someone prettier than you,” she said. “But I’m blessed and very proud of him.”
Junkins is probably easier on his wife than the rest of the group he trains with, some who go back five and six years with him. His intense regimen has led some members of the group to call themselves “J-HOP”, for Junkins’ House of Pain, and commission T-shirts.
“I’ve been in this since 1985. I’ve accomplished most of what I want to,” he said. “To motivate me now, I give back and coach and mentor those who share the goals I had. I get to watch them progress.
“I tell them the training is so brutal that the reward is the race. If the race is a beat-down, you weren’t properly prepared.”
Mike Moore, 52, is one of the group’s charter members and competes in races in the age group below Junkins’. Moore, a runner by trade, met Junkins at Cornerstone Church and their paths crossed more as they learned of each other’s competitions.
“I used to look online at results and see that this guy always beat me,” Moore said. “He invited me to come train with him, and he’s improved my ability to the point that I can beat him on occasion.
“No guy puts more heart and soul into training. He goes amazingly hard; I can’t keep up with him. He just has that intensity every time out.”
With the group, Junkins will compete in eight or nine triathlons along with other events like the recent OUC Half Marathon in Orlando. He said that the J-HOP group makes the incessant training something he still enjoys getting out of bed in the dark for.
“The people in this sport are unbelievable, they’re like a fraternity,” he said.
They’re also the only ones who can keep up for so long.