Distance Runner: 49 Only a Number

At a time when most men are slowing down, Jurgen Ankenbrand, 49, is stepping up the pace.

He recently was one of 14 men and two women out of a field of 22 who completed the torturous 146-mile Death Valley-to-Mt. Whitney run.

Now he wants to visit Panama for a 50-mile race alongside the canal.

“That’s the kind of thing I’m looking for, something different,” said the Fountain Valley man who started competitive running only three years ago, about the same time that he was divorced.

“I had to do something to use up my energy,” said Germany-born Ankenbrand, who claims he never participated in sports as a youngster. Or for that matter, until he was 30 years old.

“I was always working and never had time for sports,” he said in a thick German accent.

Before his current job as food services director for El Acanto Convalescent Home in the City of Industry, Ankenbrand worked as a chef at some of the leading hotels in Europe.

“I got tired of working nights and weekends. It didn’t leave much time for other things,” said the one-time food services director at Cal State Long Beach, where co-workers urged him to try long-distance running.

Ankenbrand had been playing seven sets of tennis every Sunday for 20 years with the same partner (Don Ogden of Orange), “so they thought I was in good enough shape to run a marathon.”

That was three years ago and without much training, Ankenbrand has run in 16 marathons in an average time of 4 hours and 10 minutes, finishing them all.

But he has cut his tennis playing to only five sets each Sunday, noting that “tennis is now my second sport.”

Unlike other marathoners, who run upwards of 100 miles a week, “I don’t like regimented workouts. Maybe I’m lazy,” he said, noting that he runs only 20 miles a week, in training or not.

However, at this point in his life, Ankenbrand is getting bored with marathons.

“It’s no longer a challenge,” he said, pointing out that 90% of all marathon runners finish.

“I need something more challenging,” said Ankenbrand, who has run the Los Angeles and Long Beach marathons and two 50-mile races this year.

That was the reason for the 146-mile Death Valley run last month.

“It was my most challenging race and there were times when I wanted to stop,” he admits. “The heat was up to 115 degrees and I had so many blisters on my feet.”

Some of the other runners in the international field of competitors dropped out. Most of the other athletes were in their 30s.

“I was hurting and my body was telling me to quit, but I had the determination and will power you get from maturity,” he said. “I just kept going.”

It’s that philosophy that keeps Ankenbrand running.

“You have to have a positive attitude,” he said. “It has never occurred to me that I would not finish a race.”

And now, Ankenbrand said, all his races will be 50 miles or longer and he feels his age is not a factor.

“I’m 49, but I think of myself as younger than that,” he said. “The number 49 doesn’t mean anything to me. It’s just a number.”

And just to prove it, he plans to compete in a triathlon in August, the 100-mile Angeles Crest Trail Run in September and the San Juan 50-Mile Trail Run in November.

Ankenbrand has also learned that rewards are not substantial for long-distance running.

He received a T-shirt for finishing the 146-mile Death Valley-Mt. Whitney Run.

Acknowledgments--Suzanne Schultz, who teaches special education students at Springbrook Elementary School in Irvine, was named Teacher of the Year by the school and later received a letter from Barbara Bush, lauding her for the honor. “Thank you for caring,” wrote the First Lady.