Ironman Knuckey running for the record in Hawaii

July 26, 2018 · 0 Comments

Written By SCOTT TAYLOR

The Hollywood Ironman is just an actor in a costume, but if you want the real deal, check out Alton’s Bob Knuckey. The 70-year-old Knuckey just might be one of the greatest athletes on the planet, factoring age in the equation.

Four years ago, he captured the triathlon world championship in the male 65-69 age group at the 2014 Subaru Ironman 70.3 World Championship triathlon in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. Knuckey completed the 70.3-mile endurance event — encompassing a 1.2-mile swim, followed by a 56-mile bicycle ride and finally a 13.1-mile run in 5:10:34, beating out the top athletes in his age group in an event that featured competitors from 49 U.S. states and 87 countries around the world.

Since then he has been at or near the top in several endurance races, including six Ironman competitions that consist of a 26.2-mile run, after a swim of 2.4 miles and bike trek for 112. This October, if all goes well between now and then, he plans to race the Ironman in Kona, Hawaii, which could be considered the granddaddy of them all. First run in 1978 with 15 competitors, the event now features more than 2,000 athletes from around the world.

“I started off in high school cross-country running. After high school, I got into marathon running — I’ve done about 40 marathons — and in (1972) I won the Toronto Police Games Marathon outright. I didn’t know I was winning until about a kilometre to the end,” he said with a laugh.

Knuckey laughed again when he was asked if his parents had been athletes themselves. “They were not athletic. I grew up in the back seat of a 1955 Ford with a cigar on one side and a cigarette on the other side and the windows closed. I’ve wondered how good I could have been without all that second-hand smoke inside of me.”

A shy young man, running gave Knuckey confidence because he was good at it, so he simply continued to run throughout his life.

In the 1990s, Knuckey isn’t sure when exactly, he was spotted by Barrie Shepley, the head coach of Olympic gold medalist Simon Whitfield, who won the inaugural event at the 2000 Olympics in Vancouver. Shepley is also the head coach at Caledon’s Canadian Cross Training Club, better known as C3.

By then, Knuckey had spread his wings from just running to duathlons, which add cycling to the race.

“The next thing you knew, I was with C3.”

Under Shepley’s guidance, Knuckey has been improving every year. He swims every day, runs, cycles and keeps to a somewhat strict nutritional plan, even if he admits that he’s not the most nutritional guy around.

“My goal is to go to Hawaii,” he said. “This will be my third time there. The first time I walked the whole marathon. It was a learning experience. I didn’t have a good nutrition plan. The second I did it I went with my training partner. She’s a 61-year-old lady from Mississauga who is an amazing runner. We both finished fifth that year. I ran the whole marathon, but it wasn’t pretty.”

This time, he wants to perform to his best and be done with the Ironman “because they’re really hard on you. I find the run really hard, but I’ve got my nutrition plan and it’s getting better all the time.

“My goal there is to break the record (for his age group). Two years ago, it was 12 hours, 59 minutes. Last year it was broken by half an hour, so it’s now 12:29 and the race I ran to qualify for the Ironman, which was in Texas, I went 11:20.”

With difficult wind and heat conditions in Hawaii, he hopes to run 11:50 and break the record, but he’s under no illusions that it will be anything but easy.

For his part, Shepley said he has no doubt about the kind of man he’s training.

“To watch one of the greatest endurance athletes every day for the last decade has been inspiring. At an age where many are slowing down and making excuses, Bob is doing weights, taking yoga classes and swim-bike-running spectacular distances. Imagine swimming from Caledon village to Inglewood. Then biking Inglewood to Hamilton and back to Inglewood. Then running from Inglewood to Nobelton all in one day without stopping? That is an Ironman. Bob’s qualifying tine of 11 hours, 20 minutes at Ironman Texas in April is one of the greatest Masters performances ever. “