When I was 14 I was given my first triathlon magazine in a Christmas stocking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The centre page spread was an article on Julian Jenkinson, the only professional triathlete in the U.K. (according to the tax man). \u00a0Jules had one foot on a gallon drum of sports drink and was holding onto a yellow Peugeot bike; a pair of Bloc sunglasses perched on his head and he wore a Speedo one piece. Julian made triathlon look cool; he made me want to be a triathlete. Julian had written the article himself and I later discovered his monthly 220 columns. Julian wasn\u2019t the only person trying to be a professional triathlete; he was the only person smart enough to make it work.<\/p>\n
In my first year at University I went with the squad on a training camp to Tenerife; Jules came along, this might have had a lot to do with the PHD student who all the boys fancied and of course, who he was seeing. Chris Volley couldn\u2019t believe Julian Jenkinson was there, he added to the legend by telling us he had refused to ever let his parents clean their toilet seat again after Jules had visited his Isle of Wight bathroom. \u00a0<\/p>\n
I was too star-struck to know what to say to Jules. I was the annoying kid who smashed the start of the reps, desperate to keep up.\u00a0 I got in everyones\u2019 way before blowing my doors off.\u00a0 I was the idiot who I dread turning up to a session these days. I ran reps clipping Jules\u2019 feet and trying to cut up his inside on the corners. He could not have been nicer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jules would head out on the bike with us and add on a loop of the island to come back with a 100 miles for the day.\u00a0 He showed me the climb up the volcano. I was dragged to the bottom of the mountain at a pace that left me seeing stars; he said he\u2019d meet me at the top.\u00a0 Half way up I had completely bonked and was lying at the side of the road trying to drink from a spring and licking a banana skin in the hope of finding an extra carbohydrate or two. Jules span back down with a grin on his face to pick me up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jules would visit Bath regularly. I remember him turning up for a murder mystery party as a rowing toff, complete with flannels, a panama hat, a waxed and pointed moustache and a 7ft oar in his hand. \u00a0He was the only one who guessed who the killer was.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Julian seemed to have time for me; he was the British Ironman Record holder and a regular captain of the British team. He still is, I believe, the only person to have represented his country at elite level in Duathlon, Sprint, Olympic and Long distance triathlon.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t particularly talented but he went out of his way to look at my cleat position, to tell me to raise my saddle, to bang me on the head when bounced up and down on the bike. I remember him sitting on a wall for at least an hour one summer evening answering the questions of an over enthusiastic kid who didn\u2019t have a clue how to train or how to get by in the sport.\u00a0 Jules knew it all, but he didn\u2019t preach at me. I was buzzing around him like an annoying fly but he didn\u2019t make me feel like that. \u00a0It turns out Jules did this for many young athletes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I saw Jules at Chris Volley\u2019s wedding a few years later; I had been to train with a pro squad abroad, I\u2019d been sent home by the coach. I wasn\u2019t good enough to make the grade. I didn\u2019t know what to do with myself. I was skint and wasn\u2019t making any money. I thought the athlete dream was over and I was scared of the real world.\u00a0 Jules chatted to me, a few days later I got a message saying he had a job that would let me train if I wanted it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u00a0Julian was clever, funny, down to earth and an incredible athlete. He was, at one stage, the most important figure in the development of triathlon in this country, but unlike many others who simply weren\u2019t as good as him, he didn\u2019t hang about when injury put\u00a0 a stop to his career, he went on to other things and to be an incredible success at those. \u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sad Jules has gone and although he wouldn\u2019t have cared, I\u2019m sad triathlon didn\u2019t realise quite how much we owed him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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My thoughts are with his wife (the PHD student that we all fancied) and his family.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was 14 I was given my first triathlon magazine in a Christmas stocking.\u00a0 Advertisement The centre page spread was an article on Julian Jenkinson, the only professional triathlete in the U.K. (according to the tax man). \u00a0Jules had one foot on a gallon drum of sports drink and was holding onto a yellow … <\/p>\n