Ahead of the pack

Ieng Klukken said she hated her physical education classes “with a passion” at Huntington Beach High.

Tell her in those days that she would now be a winning marathon runner and Klukken would probably just laugh. But even back then there were signs she was a good athlete. Her siblings remember.

“She’s always been light on her feet,” said her sister, Chou Taing. “When she was younger, she did the high jump with a rubber band. We’d hold it up with our pinkie fingers; it’s a Chinese game.”

Her brother, Hawk Ung, has a different recollection.

“You know how she runs fast now?” Ung said. “It’s because I used to chase her to beat her up. It’s the truth.”

Whatever the reason, Klukken no longer hates running with a passion. Instead, it has become her passion, and she specializes in 26.2-mile intervals.

The Huntington Beach resident, 37, was the women’s winner at the Surf City Marathon on Feb. 1, her first marathon victory secured when she crossed the finish line in 3:04:52.

She immediately followed that up with her second, the inaugural Pasadena Marathon on March 22.

The Surf City was Klukken’s hometown marathon, but Pasadena was a different story. It was pouring rain, and Klukken said she wanted to finish just to get out of the miserable weather. But once she crossed the finish line, weather concerns became secondary.

“It feels so good,” she said. “You’re like a star. It’s like you’re running on a red carpet.”

She’s always been hard-working. Her friend and neighbor Laura May held a party for her Saturday at the family house on Tyler Circle, a celebration of Klukken’s victories and a chance to wish “good luck” for the upcoming L.A. Marathon in late May.

There were burgers aplenty, and Klukken wasn’t supposed to prepare anything for the party in her honor. But there it was, a bottomless pit of egg rolls sitting in a big turquoise bowl on the table.

Try one — or 20.

A lot of Klukken’s motivation to run comes from her parents. Her father died of a heart attack in 1995, forcing the family to sell their doughnut shop on Yorktown Avenue and Main Street. In 2003, her mother, Nay Kim Ung, suffered a stroke at 56.

Ieng Klukken has cared for her mother ever since, in addition to raising her children Tyler, 12, and Nicholas, 11, with her husband, David.

“Her mom lives across the street from us,” May said. “This is Ieng’s home base. When her mother suffered a stroke, she dropped everything. Prior to that, she was a super-dedicated wife and mother and daughter. She’s an incredibly caring person.”

Soon after her mother’s stroke, Klukken started competitive running, beginning at 5K events then pushing to her first marathon.

“There is no coach,” said David Klukken, who is a Brazilian jujitsu trainer in Long Beach. “It’s all self-motivated. She does it for other people, for causes. It’s not all about winning, because if it was, we’d have paid for a coach already.

“She pretty much puts her head down and starts running. It’s not getting from point A to point B, it’s, ‘I want to run for three hours.’ ”

That first marathon also came as an encouraging surprise. She finished in 3:08 at Long Beach in 2007, after expecting to finish in “maybe four hours.”

She hasn’t stopped since. Klukken even has a shoe sponsor, Spira footwear, although she’s skipping this weekend’s Orange County Marathon to rest a tender knee and focus on the bigger L.A. event.

“It’s a handful,” she said. “But I need that time to myself, to just go out and run. I feel 100% better then, and the race is even better.”

Her positive energy is contagious. She said her son Tyler’s teacher at Dwyer Middle School has taken up running after learning of Klukken’s success.

And Klukken, in turn, has her sources of inspiration. In her training, which consists partly of running down Beach Boulevard to the beach, she met a pair of women, ages 60 and 72. Both are preparing for the OC Marathon.

“That inspired me,” she said. “I said if I can still run at 60 or 70, I’m in heaven. These two women, they keep me motivated.”

Not that she needs tons of extra motivation. She’s a long way from running from her brother, but Klukken is clearly enjoying herself.

Neighbor Julie Bradley remembers when Klukken came up to her and said she was going to start running.

“I was like, ‘Cool, that sounds good,’ ” Bradley said. “And then she just couldn’t stop running.”

Reporter MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or at [email protected].