KENNEBUNKPORT — Throwing the javelin at a championship level is more complicated than riding a bicycle.

But Steve Pelletier has discovered that the track and field discipline — like the concept of balancing yourself on a seat and pedaling — is something you don’t lose.

The mind and the muscles never forget.

“I can reflect on a day in 1972 and say, ‘What made it good? Was it the acceleration? Was it this? Was it that?’ So I coach myself,” Pelletier said.

Fifteen years after his semi-retirement from the sport, more than four decades separated from his heyday as a competitor at Edward Little High School and the University of Maine, Pelletier, 60, is back in business.

Pelletier, a member of the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame, returned to the track in 2010. He trained two to three days a week and lined up a limited competition schedule, with hopes of picking up the sport this year in earnest.

In his initial 2011 meet, Pelletier eclipsed the national All-American standard in his 60-to-64 age group by nearly two feet with a throw of 129 feet, eight inches.

Earlier this month, Pelletier traveled to Cony High School in Augusta for his encore, representing Lewiston Recreation Department.

He improved his distance to 144 feet, 11 inches, good for a National Masters ranking of 11th in his age bracket.

How’s that for earnest?

“In this age group, if you throw 130, you can go to any meet in the country and be competitive,” Pelletier said. “Jump up to 140 and now you’re highly competitive at any meet you go to. You’re one of the guys to beat. Now go up 15 feet from that and you’re one of the elite guys.”

Pelletier is giving himself ample opportunity to join that group. He will compete three times in August, beginning next Saturday with the Maine Senior Games in Scarborough.

He intends to throw in Vermont and New Hampshire’s senior championship meets the two weekends after that.

Medals, ribbons and personal bests are nothing new for Pelletier.

He won 11 championships at the college and AAU levels, ranking first in State Masters from 1978 to 1984 in two age groups.

Pelletier was the National Masters Champion in 1983 and 1984. He also was widely considered the state’s best javelin coach from the mid-1970s until 1991.

That’s when his body started dropping hints that it was time for a break.

He endured a hernia operation in 1991.

“Two years later I had another hernia on the other side. I did it throwing,“ Pelletier said. “Good throw, too.”

Bicep and rotator cuff injuries took a toll and drove Pelletier away from the sport for good — or so it seemed — in 1995.

Pelletier never wavered on his commitment to physical fitness, however. Gradually, he realized that his arm, shoulder and core muscles no longer ached.

“I started working out, and I found that my arm was steadily getting better and that I was getting back the form I used to have,” he said.

Only four throwers in Pelletier’s division have reached the 50-meter mark, just over 150 feet.

“If I keep saying my prayers at night and eating my Cheerios … no, I don’t really eat Cheerios … but if somehow I could put it all together and do that, I would be very pleased,” Pelletier said. “I’m never satisfied, but I would be pleased.”

Win or lose, goals exceeded or not, Pelletier hopes he is an example to former athletes who are sitting on the sideline and reminiscing about the glory days.

He and two other men hope to launch a Maine Masters team, giving over-40 athletes a chance to get back on that bike, whether they’re thinking locally, nationally or globally.

“I want to encourage anybody to get involved,” Pelletier said. “You don’t have to be a former college superstar.”

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