On Nov. 1, Donnie Bunker, a builder here in Siloam Springs, was in Maui with his family. But he was not on a typical Hawaiian vacation.
Bunker was on the Pacific island to compete, along with more than 800 others from 43 countries, in the Xterra World Championships.
Xterra is a form of triathlon that features off-road mountain biking and trail running instead of the more traditional street biking and running. Contestants start on a one-mile rough water swim, move to a 20-mile mountain bike trail and then finish with a six-and-a-half-mile trail run. The event inspired Nissan's SUV of the same name in 1999, according to an article from that year in Pacific Business News.
Bunker got involved in triathlon a few years ago before moving to Xterra this year. On his trail to the event in Maui, Bunker says he competed in nine different races, including the South Central Region Championship, which he won, and an eighth place finish at the National Championship.
While it is a notable achievement to progress to a World Championship, Bunker says that the competition isn't his favorite part of his Xterra trips. He instead said that his time with his family has been the best part of the sport.
"When we go out traveling to an event, it's just us out there," he said.
Bunker has two sons, Cooper and Tanner, who are 6 and 3 years old respectively, and a 2-year-old daughter named Ruby. His kids, along with his wife Savannah, supported him throughout the season and travelled to Hawaii with him.
For Bunker, sports have always been a family event. He started swimming competitively at only 4 years old.
"My father was a swimmer, so I was sort of following in his footsteps," he said. From there, Bunker kept competing and lettered in five sports in high school.
He went to Missouri State University for college, where he was on the swim team and majored in construction management.
After college, Bunker got into motocross for a few years, but then took a break from athletics.
But after a few years, Bunker broke his neck after falling at work.
"While I was recovering, I realized that I wasn't really doing anything except for work," he said.
After recovering, Bunker turned to triathlon.
"It was all events I was good at," Bunker said. "I had done a lot of swimming, and I ran and biked a lot in high school."
To prepare for Xterra, Bunker says that he estimates he ran about 1,000 miles and biked another 1,500 over the last year. He noted that the biking figure was low because it was mountain biking. When he was training for the street triathlon, that number was closer to 3,000, he said.
Bunker's season of competition led him to nine different Xterra races. Competitors can qualify at any of the Xterra world tour stops, which include the region championships and national championship. Bunker actually managed to qualify twice.
"I went to the regional championship because I wasn't sure I would qualify at the National Championship," he said.
Instead, he qualified for the World Championship at both events. At the World Championship, athletes are divided into "elite," or professional athletes, and amateurs. The amateur athletes are then further divided by age group. Bunker finished 21st for his age group.
Bunker says he trained alone for the most part because it was so early in the morning. But he said the area is still a great community for the events, he said.
"Northwest Arkansas is becoming a hotbed for cycling of all types, and we should all take advantage of it," he said.
And just as Bunker's parents led him into sports, he is leading his kids. Bunker said that his two oldest children are already getting into cycling.
"I bought them whatever bikes they needed because I'd rather them spend their time biking than video games or getting into something worse," he said.
General News on 11/25/2015