Book profiles Overland Park race walkers

Overland Park race walkers Alan Poisner and Jean Brunnekant have been piling up gold medals in national competitions for years while gaining little notoriety for their success.

That might change now that the two have been included in a book on their sport called "Boomerwalk."

Springfield, Ill., author Brent Bohlen chose to profile Poisner, 74, and Brunnekant, 92, prominently in the book because he believed they serve as good examples for why race walking is an ideal long-term form of exercise for the baby boomer generation.

Poisner has been involved in race walking for 24 years and has been president of the 50-member Heartland Race Walkers club for 20 years.

"He was good to profile because he got into race walking for a reason that a lot of people do. They get injured," Bohlen said.

Brunnekant's walking honors illustrate for Bohlen's book how race walking can be a lifelong and healthy activity. She has compiled seven gold medals and one silver medal while competing in four national senior Olympic events. She adds that her odds of winning are enhanced by the low number of competitors in her 90-97 age bracket.

"As you get older the men seem to hang in longer, but you don't have that much competition in women's events," she said. "I was never real fast, but you don't need to be when you get in the older age groups."

Brunnekant did not learn about race walking until age 75, when she saw the event at a local Senior Olympics competition. Seventeen years later she still attends most of the weekly club sessions held at Fitness Plus in south Overland Park, and she seldom misses an opportunity to exercise the rest of the week.

"When I first got into it, I kept track of (walks) I did each day, and if I didn't have a day checked I'd go, ‘Oh my,'" she said.

Brunnekant recruited her 90-year-old gentleman friend, Tom Young, and some of the other residents of her condominium complex to the club and sport.

"Tom says he never was athletic. He said he wasn't ever on the football team; he was the water boy. But when he got introduced to race walking, that did it for him," Brunnekant said.

Poisner calls himself a missionary of race walking. In addition to leading the club and competing in local, regional and national events, he has visited other clubs around the country. The former jogger had to quit that activity because of a disc injury. He discovered race walking could be vigorous while not taking a toll on his body.

When trying to persuade a runner to convert to race walking, he emphasizes the injury-avoidance point.

"Sooner or later runners are going to have to give it up or they will be up a creek," Poisner said. "I see them hobble around when they run because of injuries. Those types of injuries they're experiencing are cumulative. They might not cause much of a problem when they're in their 20s, but by the time you're 60 or 65 it all adds up."

Bohlen's book makes the same argument.

"The two main selling points for baby boomers is that it is highly aerobic and low impact," Bohlen said. "Everybody knows that people our age are supposed to do exercise that gets our heart rates up for an extended period, and race walking does that."

Poisner said older race walkers benefit because the exercise helps them improve and maintain strength, flexibility and endurance.

As a measure of his endurance and dedication to the sport, Poisner and four other club members recently participated in a 43-mile race walk from Kansas City to Lawrence.

Brunnekant said her genes, Swedish heritage and lifelong devotion to exercise probably contributed to her race walking success and longevity. Her mother, who lived to age 97, also was a devoted walker.

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