Dr. Jessica Juntunen cannot stop. A local sports medicine specialist by day, Juntunen is an endurance junkie who competes in long distance triathlons throughout the year — the distances of which are hard to comprehend for those who find challenges in a respectable 5k run.
Juntunen’s natural state is one of perpetual motion: starting her days with an early-hours run, going off to work, coming home for another exercise and spending time with family. Then there are the weekend hours spent on 100-mile bike rides. Or the trips to the pool for a tiring swim session. At every point, she is looking to better and best herself and “keep the momentum going.”
“I think the first time doing [a triathlon], you think, ‘Well, can I even do this?” And I did better than I expected,’” Juntunen said. “I feel like every time you do something that you think you can’t, you just want to keep that going — keep that momentum going.”
Juntunen has competed in countless triathlons, half-Ironmans (a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and a 13.1 mile run) and four full ironmans (a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run).
“This is how you can tell I’ve got the triathlon sickness: doing a half-Ironman is easy because it’s the things you already do anyway, you know? At the very tail-end of training you might have to up it a little and do some things that you might not otherwise want to do, but it’s much more easy and takes away from less of life.”
Juntunen first contracted the “triathlon sickness” in Arizona, where she was finishing up her medical residency. More of a biking enthusiast at the time, she was convinced by a family member to simply add the swimming and jogging to Juntunen’s extensive biking routine (she’d often ride for more than 100 miles at this time) and join the sprint triathlon.
Up until that point, Juntunen’s sports history was rather segmented. She grew up in Oklahoma playing team sports, particularly soccer, until she wore out her knees.
“I was pretty depressed after that ended, it was right around the time I kind of went into college,” she said.
At that point, Juntunen completely ditched running and endurance activities and focused entirely on strength training, characterizing herself as a “total gym rat.”
“What’s ironic is I’m actually probably a lot better at that than triathlon,” Juntunen said.
After years of weight-training, though, Juntunen grew bored of spending hours in the gym. When she moved to Arizona, especially, she felt like spending more time outside in the sunshine. So she picked up soccer again, started jogging and eventually dipped her toes into the world of cycling.
“I bought my first road bike and that was kind of a slippery slope. So that’s what I enjoy the most is the biking,” Juntunen said.
Juntunen said she was never interested in a triathlon, but after her frequent bike rides got longer and longer, the three-event marathon seemed more achievable.
“I was getting to the point where for fun on the weekends I’d ride my bike a hundred miles and people are like, ‘Well, you can kind of float and you can jog. Why not do a triathlon?’” she said.
Years later, the endurance events are a regular part of Juntunen’s life. In 2025, she competed in four half-Ironmans alone: in Utah, Michigan, Iowa, and the half-Ironman World Championships in Marbella, Spain.
The thought of running, swimming and biking more that 70 miles over the course of a few hours may sound like pure torture to most, but it’s incredibly fun for Juntunen. One of the most enjoyable aspects, she said is the variation between course terrain, weather conditions and scheduling.
“For St. George [the Utah half-Ironman], that one was way earlier than I would ever do a race, but I knew it was going away and I knew I loved the area and wanted to do it, so that was more of an experience race, I was not well-trained for it because here we’re stuck inside training the whole time and that’s not fun,” she said. “The race was amazing but it’s also one of the most challenging courses, tons of elevation on the bike and I think it was 96 degrees that day, so I went from training in my basement in an air-conditioned setting to going and climbing up in those mountains on my bike and running in 96 degrees. I’m not going to say that that felt good at the time but it was a lot of fun to do it and I’m glad I did it.”
For her second event of 2025, Juntunen competed in a half-Ironman in Des Moines in June for her birthday weekend. She was particularly motivated for that event.
“I told people all I wanted was a World Championship spot and that’s what I’m going to get for my birthday,” she said. “Thank God that worked out.”
Juntunen’s time at the Des Moines race was good enough to qualify her for a spot in the World Championships in Spain that November. Even though it secured her spot at the prestigious international event, it wasn’t her best performance of the year. That came later in the summer at the Michigan half-Ironman.
“Michigan was my best. The people here in Wisconsin who do these things, that’s when we’re peaking with all our stuff because we don’t even really start getting into things until the snow thaws, so September is kind of the sweet spot and so I did that one in September,” she said. “I’d already gotten my spot for Spain, but I’d signed up for Michigan and I was like, ‘I’m going to go do it,’ because I had friends coming out to do it with me, and it was supposed to be a fun race but I get a little competitive and so that was actually my fastest that I’ve done.”
Despite already qualifying for the 2025 world championships, Juntunen’s hard work and fast pace in Michigan wasn’t for nothing – it secured her a spot in the 2026 World Championships in Nice, France.
“I went to Des Moines wanting my Marbella spot for this past year and then I did Michigan for fun and I accidentally got one for this year,” Juntunen said.
In November, Juntunen flew out to Spain for the world championships. The premiere races are much more of a spectacle than what Juntunen had competed in previously, with more than 2,000 women competing in Spain.
“All of us men and women were there for the same weekend and the same events and everything,” she said. “It’s almost more stressful than the actual race. The calmest I’ve been is after you get in the water. Once you actually get going all the other crap is out of your mind.”
International travel can be a logistical mess by itself, but factor in the demands of an athlete’s body, sleep and equipment – and things get even more stressful.
“It starts even before you get there. I’ve flown with my bike before, which in and of itself is so stressful because you’ve got to take it apart, put it in the bike box and then what if something breaks? And I’ve had that happen,” she said. “So now you’re doing that but you’re also traveling internationally and people were getting their bikes lost, not loaded onto planes, there was drama around all that. Thank God mine made it.”
There were some issues with Juntunen’s bike after the travel, but she was able to scout out a bike shop quickly and take care of the necessary fixes.
“You’re already stressed out because you’d love to have this race go well, but that was probably the least of my concerns. I was like, ‘I just want—I want to be able to start. I want like — wait did I forget my wetsuit? Is my bike broken?’ That kind of stuff,” she said. “So that was way more stressful than the actual race itself.”
While not as stressful, the Marbella race was still an incredible challenge for Juntunen. Her time was slower than usual, and oddly enough, that was because her strongest section, biking, was more difficult than ever.
“The bike people around here, they’ll talk about Ironman Wisconsin – which I’ve done three times now – how it’s one of the hillier bike courses,” she said. “It makes me laugh now because there’s more elevation on the 56 miles in Marbella than on the 112 miles in Madison, to put it in perspective. But at the same time it was gorgeous, I enjoyed every bit of it, I waved at all the fast people going past me but it was a good time.”
Even though Marbella was her worst half-Ironman time, Juntunen was happy with her performance. She is also ready, however, to challenge herself to do better.
“Marbella was my slowest half-Ironman time ever and I had so much fun. I had some issues with my knee before I went, it was all blown up, all puffy and swollen, but I was like, ‘Well, I’m not going to not do the race, so I’ll walk it if I have to,’” she said. “Luckily I didn’t have to walk it. It was not my prettiest race, but it was one of the more enjoyable ones.”
And that is the main obstacle, she said, that others may not understand. For enthusiasts like Juntunen, not pro-athletes, the competition is with themselves and their personal record – not against others. Most competitors in Juntunen’s class find themselves cheering each other on.
“Coming across the finish line, that’s the part that is addictive. I think that’s almost what keeps us coming back,” she said. “Of course I enjoyed that race because of the setting – it was something novel and new and all that – but then you look at Des Moines and, no offense, that’s not the most exciting course. But still, when you’re coming down the big finishing shoot and you go across the finish line, whether or not you’re super pumped with your time, you still think, ‘Wow, all the hard work I just put in.’”
Looking ahead, Juntunen will compete in half-Ironmans in Muncie, Indiana and Rockford, Illinois this summer before heading to the south of France for the World Championships in September. Long term, she’d like to compete in the Wisconsin Ironman again, as well as other half-Ironman races across the globe. Her ultimate goal, she’s hesitant to admit because it’s such a high-bar, is competing in the Ironman World Championships — the world’s premiere triathlon event, which is held every year in Kona, Hawaii.
“Kona is where it all started, it’s iconic. People fly in to watch the race because watching the pros is amazing. I’ve been out there and one day I’d love to actually be the one doing it, that would be super, super cool,” Juntunen said, with a smile starting to spread across her face. “But my strategy might just have to be to keep doing these until I’m 75 and I’m the only one left, then they have to let me.”
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