Gerry Gienger
isn’t your typical
“mature” athlete. The
70-year-old—yes,
70—rides his bike an
average of 40 miles
a day, three times a
week. On alternate
days, he runs three
to four miles and
lifts weights.
He has cut back,
taking Sundays off and totaling only 3,000 miles
biking this year. “We still have some good
weather coming, so that total might go up,” he
said.
Always an athlete, “Doc” played football,
ran track and wrestled for legendary West
High Coach Bob Siddens, winning a state
wrestling title his senior year. He was an NAIA
championship wrestler at Iowa State Teachers’
College (now UNI).
Life got busy—marriage, children, an
optometry degree. Three years after earning
his Master’s degree, Doc went back to the
University of Nebraska to study oral surgery.
One day, at the age of 42, he was scheduled
for an appointment to buy life insurance. “I
came out of surgery and asked one of the nurses
to take my blood pressure. It was 160 over 95. I
snapped at her to take it again. It was worse the
second time!
“I was fat.”
From that point on, Doc took control of
his life. “I told my office staff that I wanted to
be at the Y at 11:30 and would be back for 1:15
appointments. I started running again and
biking. I went from 225 to 180 over the next six
months.”
That’s just part of the story. Anyone who
knows Doc appreciates his passion for life. His
good friend, Scott Bradfield, describes Doc
this way. “There are many aspects of Gerry’s
personality. He has a great many interests. He
is a tremendous story teller with an intense love
of life and experiences.”
Doc devours life. His physical activity is
no different. For example, at age 57 he decided
to take on the challenging Grand Canyon Rim
to Rim to Rim run—50 miles up, down and up
through 22,000 feet of elevation. He completed
the run again at age 59 and did half (23 miles)
at age 65.
Doc has completed RAGBRAI 12 times
and ridden eight more partial routes. But
RAGBRAI is nothing compared to some of his
other accomplishments. He and his wife, Deb,
went on a two-week bicycle tour of France
where they got married. His biggest challenges
have come along the bluffs of the Mississippi
River and the mountains of Colorado.
Doc has completed the TOMRV bike
ride—from the Quad Cities to Dubuque and
back in two days—10 times. He has bested
Pedal the Peaks, a week long ride through
mountains of the western United States, four times. He’s accomplished the Ride the Rockies,
a beautiful, challenging seven-day ride through
the Colorado peaks at 60 to 70 miles a day, three
times.
At the age of 67, Doc rode Triple By Pass,
a one-day road ride at 10,000 feet over three
mountain peaks.
“The first time I rode Ride the Rockies I
came back and said ‘I’m never doing this again.’
And I did two more. I came back from Triple By
Pass and said the same thing and I meant it!”
Mountain biking isn’t the only passion for
Doc. Skiing is a true love. Bradfield witnessed
this passion first hand. “Doc knows a good day
skiing and how to celebrate it. He also probably
owns the record for the hardest falls for his age
group—50, 55, 60, 65. I’ve seen him crash so
hard on a black diamond run his goggles broke
in half. He was 65 at the time!
“One day we waited at the top of Aspen
Mountain till it cleared out so we could race
each other to the bottom. We were both used
to skiing pretty fast. We snapped into our gear
and pushed off. I got a good lead on him and
remember thinking, ‘That’s that.’ I didn’t see
him for a minute or so. Right up until the very
last leg of the run I was relaxed, confident in
my sure victory. Then I caught a blur out of the
corner of my eye. I double checked…yup, it
was Doc, streaking down the far left side for
all he was worth. He had so much momentum
going, I couldn’t catch him. We laughed so
hard. For the record, at the time he was 54 and
I was 37.
“This spring he skied Columbine, a black
diamond run at Winter Park (Colorado) that is
characterized by Volkswagen-sized moguls and
one particularly steep head wall. Doc skied it
with apprehension but good form all the way
down. What is remarkable is that we celebrated
his 70th birthday that week.”
Doc has helped many others attain their
fitness goals through the years. He has coached
weight loss classes and groups and written a
self-help booklet on healthy weight loss. He
has taught spin cycling classes at the YMCA.
He inspires those he still rides bicycle with on
a regular basis.
When asked what the biggest myth about
fitness is, Doc replied, “That it’s hard. It doesn’t
have to be. It can be real easy. People don’t have
to work real hard at staying in shape. I’m the
perfect example of that today. I’m not working
real hard. I just refuse to do it. Used to be if I
was to walk a mile while running, I’d never tell
anyone. Now it’s sort of a mile on and a mile off.”
Doc’s philosophy is simple. “Stay at it.
Never quit. Rain and snow and Iowa weather
gets in the way of it, but we can work around that. We can do something.”
And for others who need motivation? “It’s
never too late. Start and don’t stop. Start easy.
You have to lift weights. You don’t have to lift
heavy weights. Go light and a lot of reps. You
need muscle mass to burn calories. Just start.”
What does the future hold? “I hope when
I’m 85, I’m still skiing, still riding a bike.” |
