Julie Dunkle was swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112 miles and running 20 miles when she heard barking.
“It was time to make it harder,” she said.
Dunkle’s foursome told Dunkle’s leg that they had had enough.
But with some 5 miles left in the final race of the Ironman World Championships, Dunkle took a bite out of it.
“I told myself I could do everything in one mile so I did it five times,” said Dunkle, a resident of Encinitas. “By the way, thinking about all distances is irresistible.”
Few can claim Dunkle’s world champion status. That’s exactly after she won the women’s 55-59 title in 11 hours, 46 minutes and 26 seconds at last week’s Ironman World Championships.
When Dunkle finally raised her hands, it was hard to understand.
“It was surreal,” Dunkle said. “This has been a dream for a long time in the making and I can’t really describe what it feels like. Then I was overwhelmed by emotions. “
The faucet opened as tears flowed. Dunkle thought of the injuries she was battling and the time when her hard work didn’t match her results.
But she lowered her head to St. George, Utah, and continued, chasing the target and stiffly arming his disgusting foursome. It was Dunkle’s first time to qualify for the most prestigious sporting event.
As Dunkle assures her legs to keep spinning, Lord knows she played head games to fight three races.
“I think I was afraid to believe it was going to happen,” Dunkle said. “What if I fall, what if something happens …”
What if Dunkle, 55, returns to North County as world champion?
When her battered feet hit the carpet beside the tape, Dunkle felt like heaven.
“It opened up a flood of emotions,” she said.
Dunkle closed the door, she thought, since he was a competitive athlete.
She started swimming at age 4 and tapped on her last pool wall at Louisiana State University. Dunkle switched from “Go Tigers” to “Slow Tiger” and was happy with the chill until she got nervous in her mid-30s.
“I improved my running game and ran several marathons,” she said. “It was up and down because I had to deal with a lot of injuries.”
She also handled driving jobs in moving her children to youth sports. The parents of one of her children’s football friends rode bicycles, so Dunkle, then 38, joined.
After the running and cycling components got to know each other, Dunkle was asked a question that elicited a smile.
“Say, can you swim too?”
A triathlete was born, and Dunkle dipped her toe in the water at the Encinitas Triathlon. It was a life-changing day.
“It was the most fun I’ve ever had,” Dunkle added. I said, ‘Where has this been my whole life? I jumped into it pretty hard. ”
Like someone making a cannonball, Dunkle was all-in. She participated in the Oceanside Triathlon and then did her first event on the Ironman tracks at the age of 41.
About 14 years later she is at the top of the world in her age group. Her impressive resume includes 17 Ironman competitions and four-time World Cup qualifiers in Kona, Hawaii.
If there was one flaw to Dunkle’s victory it was that it came in Utah, not Hawaii. The famous Kona course has been dormant in recent years due to a pandemic, but Ironman returns there in October.
And Dunkle, who fits her demanding training schedule in line with the job of coaching athletes.
He is a coach who is not good, which she proved in Utah. She wanted to defend her title in Hawaii.
Few doubt her, no matter what her reluctant fours might think.
Contact Jaya Parisa at [email protected] and follow him @jparis_sports
