GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Eighteen age-group triathletes raced their way to national titles on Sunday at the 2015 USA Triathlon Clydesdale and Athena National Championships, competing across three distances as part of the Grand Rapids Triathlon set at Thornapple River.
The 11th Annual Aquatic Capital of America (ACOA) Awards Banquet will be from from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 16, at the Keesal, Young & Logan law offices, 400 Oceangate #1400. Awards will be presented in seven categories.
Olympic reminders surround Jack Nunn, all the way down to his weekly workload. “Every day when I teach a indoor rowing class at Roworx Fitness I’m looking out on the water in Long Beach Marine Stadium,” Nunn says. “That’s where my Alma mater won the gold.” But Nunn isn’t talking about swimming. He jokes that he was cut from the junior high water polo team, a team that didn’t have mandatory roster trimming. Instead, Nunn comes to the multi-sport world from crew, and the waves of Alamitos Bay, near Los Angeles, reflect his family’s past and present.
John Nunn, Jack’s father, moved to southern California in the mid 1960’s to train for the Olympics at a world-class facility, the famed Long Beach Marine Stadium, which was built for the 1932 Games. John earned an Olympic Bronze medal in 1968 in Mexico City, and he subsequently raised his family in the Los Angeles area. Jack picked up the oars in the same bay where his father practiced.
“That changed my whole life,” he says.”That’s my identity. I started rowing in 1996 for the junior national team right there in Marine Stadium. I would go to Long Beach every day in high school and throughout my college career to train.” He won multiple Pac-10 Conference championships at the University of California Berkeley. The Bears represented Team USA on their home water in 1932 and edged Italy by .2 of a second to secure Olympic gold. Nunn, 40, teaches classes at Roworx, the indoor rowing center he owns situated next to the rectangular block of water that constitutes Marine Stadium.
“If you’re a strong rower, you can turn it into being a strong cyclist with the legs and lungs,” he says. Nunn estimates that 70 percent of the multi-sport training comes from his rowing workouts at Roworx Fitness in Long Beach. Part of that philosophy originates from the practical realities of operating a gym. His job, like most age-groupers, requires a significant portion of his time. In his case, the longer hours of a small business owner mean more opportunities for fitness.
“My dad told me growing up, ‘if you want to get better at something, you have to do that thing,’ Nunn said. “The argument is yes, you will improve if you do the actual sport, but with rowing you can get close.” Nunn has raced more than 100 triathlons since diving into his first race, a 2008 Ironman event in Nice, France known for it’s difficult cycling course that features a segment of the Tour de France route. Even as he progressed down the distance ladder to shorter events in recent years, Nunn focuses on rowing as the main component of his training. “I’m a bigger guy. The longer [a race] goes, the worse I get,” he says with a laugh. “My favorite distance is the sprint.” He registered for the inaugural Legacy Triathlon as part of the 2019 schedule. USA Triathlon launched the new event in Long Beach and will continue it each year leading into the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in LA. Nunn earned the bronze medal for his age group in the sprint distance. “It’s cool to race in your hometown at a big USA Triathlon event,” Nunn says. “There was no doubt I was going to do it. I like to compete on that formal level, but it’s an individual sport, which I love. It’s you against you.”
Nunn says he understands skeptics who push for more discipline-specific swim, bike, run workouts, but he also sees plenty of people who dismiss rowing too easily or only use a rowing machine as a warm-up for something else. Five minutes here. Ten minutes there. Nunn points to those early exists as missed opportunities. “Try rowing for an hour,” he says. “Try to get some intervals going for 30 minutes. Everyone
wants the greatest full body low impact workout – rowing will give it to you.”
Jack Nunn has competed in extreme events all over the world including 14 Full Ironman events which include a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and full marathon run.
When Jack Nunn returned home from Orlando, Fla. in February of this year, the Manhattan Beach resident was exhausted.
And understandably so.
He had just competed in the Ultraman Florida triathlon, a grueling, long-distance race where he had to swim, bike and run 321.6 miles. He was looking forward to recuperating.
That was until he got an email inviting him to embark on yet another physical challenge: the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
“I was very excited but I was like this is going to be really tough,” Nunn explained, adding the turnaround time between the races was particularly challenging. “Doing this on top of Ultraman…this has been a big year. The biggest.”
The race, set for Oct. 12, will combine three of the toughest endurance races in Hawaii, bringing together more than 2,000 of the world’s best athletes to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run 26.2 miles.
But, Nunn—son of Olympic bronze medalist sculler John Nunn who was raised in Palos Verdes—isn’t nervous. He said he’s been training for this his whole life.
“I’m trying to hold it, like control it before race day,” Nunn mused. “It’s been a lifelong dream to go and compete…if you ask anybody that’s doing marathons or triathlons, the ultimate is to go to Kona.”
The 6 foot 3 inch tall bronzed adonis, who just turned 40 earlier this summer, has traveled the world, venturing to four continents to compete in 14 Ironman triathlons.
He also raced in the Isklar Norseman Xtreme Triathlon in Norway.
“I’ve swam with sharks in Australia, jellyfish in Mexico like actually stinging you during the race, big jellyfish in Sweden that come like a wall…dealt with alligators in Florida to crocodiles in Australia swimming in the ocean with you. In Norway, I swam in a fjord that was 40 degrees, 17,000 feet of mountain climbs, ridiculously hard train,” Nunn recollected. “You just think hey if I can do that, I can get through this.”
His preparation for all of these extreme endurance races, including his upcoming journey around Kailua-Kona?
A sport Nunn credits with allowing him to create his own path in life: rowing.
“It’s a whole-body workout so it’s really efficient and low-impact,” Nunn explained, adding he attended his alma mater Cal Berkeley on a full-scholarship for the sport. Nunn owns an indoor rowing gym in Long Beach, Roworx. “I feel like I owe it back something.”
But, more importantly than physical preparation, he clarified, is mental strength.
“You have to have the mental to turn on the physical,” Nunn said. “I always say if your body quits before your mind, that’s a good problem to have.”
To prepare for the hours-long endurance challenges, Nunn draws from past experiences, as well as the support of friends and family to help him push through.
He also gets into what he calls ‘the zone,’ where Nunn says he squashes self doubt and tries to enjoy the experience.
“I think just being present and focusing on sort of a meditation almost,” he added. “You’re almost at peace sort of.”
To track Nunn during the Ironman World Championship, download the IRONMAN Tracker app and follow No. 364.
The World Rowing Federation (FISA) in partnership with Concept2, USRowing and the Long Beach Sprints are pleased to announce the location of the second World Rowing Indoor Championships.
Feb. 24 is the Academy Awards. I think about the children of famous people and major award winners around this time. How is it as the offspring of an Academy Award winner? What about an Olympic medal winner? Read More Here
Ironman Los Cabos had been on my radar ever since they announced the move from March to late October and I had decided this was my moment to go for the Legacy Ironman Kona Slot.
It’s easy to get down when you’re tired, busy and stressed. If you’re training for a marathon or another event, and have other commitments like a job and family, you’ve probably experienced some version of a ‘burnout’.