The Sport Factory At 66 Years Young, What Hasn't John Cook Done?

At 66 Years Young, What Hasn't John Cook Done?

Graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in aeronautical engineering. Piloted jets for the Navy, Pan Am and Delta Airlines for nearly 40 years. Has run the New York, London, Marine Corps and Boston marathons. Didn't exactly lope through them, either. His PR is 3:25.

Skippered ocean-racing sailboats, once sailing his 37-foot sloop from Newport, R.I., to the Bermuda Islands in four days and five hours. Did short-track speed skating, cross-country skiing and once cycled with Lance Armstrong. Annoyed with the guy, yet?

You probably justified your emotions by theorizing Cook's a me-first, egomaniac narcissist. Think again. Five years ago Cook trained 20 beginning marathoners. All 20 finished the Bermuda Marathon, collectively raising more than $100,000 for the American Diabetes Association.

In 1993, Cook, then in his late-50s, and his wife, Kiki, adopted a Vietnamese orphan who had been abandoned in a Saigon tree stump.

Kind of tough to dislike the guy now, huh? And, of course, he's part of the Ironman family, having raced at Kona six times from 1993 to last year. His PR is 13:56 back in '93.

Asked what it is that drives him to accomplish so much, Cook, for once in his life, has difficulty finding the answer. "I don't know," he says. "Life is neat and there's so many things to do. It's so fascinating, and there's a niche for everybody. It's fun to do different things."

What makes Cook's tale all the more compelling is that he has experienced disappointment, too. He suffered a divorce. He spent a good chunk of his life fighting Pan Am and the Airlines Pilots Association over a merger, raising more than $800,000 for legal fees in a class-action lawsuit that he eventually lost. And in his quests for Kona, he's been told, "Thanks for the effort, but your best just wasn't good enough."

In 1997, having already raced at Kona three times, he entered five half-Ironman races, finished second or third in all of them, but still didn't land a qualifying spot. ""You do as well as you can and that's all you ask for," says Cook. "If you don't go, you don't go."

Cook was 40 when he took up distance running to relieve some work stress. He did his first marathon six years later. The triathlon intrigued him but a bum shoulder from a football injury stopped him from extensive swimming. Finally, he underwent shoulder surgery in 1989. Within a year he sampled a local sprint-distance race. Within another three years his name was drawn for a lottery selection at Kona.

Of triathlon's lure, Long says, "I found a regeneration of enthusiasm. It's more complete than running. I still love to run, but triathlon requires a lot of thinking, more preparation. It's a more complete body workout. It becomes a lifestyle."

Cook says Kiki teases him about his zest for anything he tries. "My wife says I'm crazy," Cook says. "That everything I do, I do it to the extreme." Kiki offers the perfect example. When they met, John was into sailing. "I love the feeling of speed on the water," he says. Tennis was Kiki's racket. After they had been dating for six months, the couple took a trip to New Zealand. By then, Cook was hooked on tennis, too. "We could not pass a tennis court without John stopping the car and we'd get out and play," says Kiki. "He doesn't know anything less than 150 percent."

Cook has trained and raced relatively injury free the past four years, an accomplishment in itself for a man in his mid-60s. The key, he says, has been doing significant aerobic training but at a moderate effort level. He wears a heart-rate monitor and seldom trains above 75 percent of his maximum heart rate. In his heavy summer base training phase, Cook will average 5-6 miles swimming a week, 200 miles cycling and 35-40 miles running.

Cook has experienced his share of memorable triathlon moments. Like in 2000 when he finished fifth in his age group at Kona. Like in 1993 when he arrived for his first Ironman Hawaii race two weeks early and was moved by the camaraderie and spirit among the athletes. "Everyone was competitive, but they all want you to finish," he says. "That's the goal. They told me how to train, gave me advice about my bike setup and nutrition. I don't think anybody I met kept anything secret." But for an all-time goosebump-inducing, teardrop-seducing Ironman moment, it would be difficult to beat Cook's experience at the Timberman Half Ironman last August in New Hampshire. It involved his adopted Vietnamese son, William.

The Cooks first considered adopting 11 years ago after watching a CNN telecast. The story was about starving children in third-world countries. During the segment, one of Cook's daughters, Courtney, now a University of Connecticut senior, said, "Why don't we save one of those children?"

Two years later, after a long, trying process, after switching agencies and almost giving up, John returned home on a Sunday evening after finishing his first half-Ironman. The phone rang and an adoption-agency employee asked, "What are you going to name the boy?"

The Cooks have raised William Lewis Cook, now 8, since he was two months old. "He's very special," says the proud father. "He's very bright, just lots of personality, fun, stubborn, all those things. He knows what he wants to do and he'll tell you."

Fast forward to the half-Ironman last August in New Hampshire. With John on the course, sweating out the 13.1-mile run, Kiki arrives with William and the family's other son, Hatch, then 17. Kiki parks three miles from the finish.

"I'm not walking three miles to the finish," says Hatch. Kiki hands him the keys, telling Hatch to find a closer spot. William and mom set off by foot. William, wearing sandals and not wanting to miss his father's finish, takes off running. Kiki tells him to meet her at the top of the hill, but that's the last she sees of him for a while.

"I was a little worried," says Kiki. "I kept asking people if they saw this little Oriental kid." William ran all the way to the finish area. He spotted dad, then ran beside him the last 100 yards to the finish line.

Thinking back on that snapshot, John says, "I just loved it. He's so cute, and he's running so fast. I was hurting, trying to stay up with him. I was running as hard as I could, which was so much fun."

Still jealous of John Cook?

Didn't think so.

Published in: Success Stories