The Cache Creek 600 was supposed to be Premack’s ticket to Paris. Obviously, he didn’t finish that event, but within months, he was back on the road and he did qualify.

Wondering if there would be more gunfire, he rode with one arm for about 400 m and then hid on the side of the road to avoid detection. Premack recalls the event vividly: “Here I am in the middle of nowhere, I didn’t finish the event, and now I’m going to die on the side of the road.”

His first task was to stop the bleeding, so he fashioned his spare pair of cycling tights into a tourniquet. With the bleeding under control, he tried to wave down help, but an unfortunate combination of darkness and the inability to raise either of his arms conspired against him. The few cars that did pass him drove right by. Premack suspects it took about 20 minutes before fellow competitors in the event came across him.

Premack told them, “I’m shot.” They laughed and kept on riding, thinking he was simply fatigued, not that he had a bullet in his right arm. After Premack explained what had happened, they stopped laughing. Making things worse, there was no cellphone service. Eventually, he was taken to Ashcroft Hospital and he began his road to recovery.

There is more, however, to the story of Craig Premack than a gunshot wound in the middle of the night. Born and raised in B.C.’s lower mainland, he dabbled in sports, but his primary passion in the 1970s and 1980s was music. His yellow, Canadian-made Norco Monshee was for transportation, not recreation. When he got a car, he stopped riding.

Early Days as a Cyclist

In his thirties, Premack resumed cycling for exercise and as an economical means of transportation to work. His increased fitness motivated him to enter his first event, the Seymour-Cypress Challenge. He surprised both his competition and himself, winning the citizen’s class on both days of the two-day race. In the years that followed he excelled at road racing, but after a serious bike crash during a sprint finish, he suffered a concussion and required surgery. During his rehabilitation, his doctor suggested it was time to try a safer sport.

Also, at this time, he began running as a way to supplement his cycling fitness during the wet, cool west coast winters. He ran consistently for a couple of years and, in 2000, he participated in his first multisport race, the UBC duathlon.

Transition to Tri

Since the duathlons he raced at also featured triathlons, Premack began to wonder if he could complete in, as he calls it, “the main event.” His first race was an event for beginners in Parksville on Vancouver Island. The hilly bike route suited him well. He won the race and got hooked on the sport. Despite his amazing debut, he realized his future success would require him to stop swimming like a cyclist. Premack had a video analysis done of his swim stroke and began making the needed corrections. The improvements to his stroke gave him the confidence to attempt longer-distance races.

Ironman, Paris-Brest Double

The main reason that Premack was riding on that dark road in the Fraser Canyon in 2014 was to qualify for one of amateur cycling’s greatest challenges, the Paris-BrestParis event. To participate in the 1,200 km event, athletes must finish an officially recognized ride in a specified time. The Cache Creek 600 was supposed to be Premack’s ticket to Paris. Obviously, he didn’t finish that event, but within months, he was back on the road and he did qualify.

2015 promised to be a year of epic athletic accomplishments. In addition to attempting Paris-Brest-Paris, he entered in his first Ironman. The events were only 20 days apart, so recovery from Ironman would have to be quick for him to achieve his ambitious goal. When asked why he attempted both epic adventures in the same year, Premack explained, “I don’t like to put things off. My fitness was there and the future is unwritten, so I did it while I could.”

With his strong cycling background, Premack focused the Ironman training on completing the intimidating swim and run. Conditions at the start of the bike were about the foulest ever seen at Ironman Canada. It was raining and about 9 C. Premack’s experiences in completing randonneur events and cycling to work proved to be invaluable. He suited up in full tights, booties and a cycling jacket, then proceeded to cruise the course in comfort while his fellow less-clothed competitors were frozen like popsicles. Many were taken off the course due to hypothermia. His cautious approach on the bike also served him well on the run. He completed his first Ironman with a time of 13:14, a smile on his face and his sights set on France.

Of all the challenges Premack has attempted in his athletic career, he says the toughest by far was ParisBrest-Paris. Premack recounts that it was primarily sleep deprivation that made it so onerous. While cycling he suffered hallucinations that he was lost on the course and was cycling in circles. He described those hours spent in a mental fog like an episode of The Twilight Zone. Premack overcame the hallucinations by focusing on nutrition and the finish line.

Coping With COVID

Like many Canadian triathletes, the 60 year old was looking forward to racing Ironman Canada in the summer of 2020, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Premack was able to do one multisport race in 2020 prior to COVID-19 – the UBC duathlon, his 20th straight year competing at the event.

Although the person responsible for shooting him six years ago has never been caught, the unresolved crime remains firmly in Premack’s past. He recently became an ambassador for the Vancouver International Marathon Society and uses his extraordinary experiences to motivate others to get active. When it comes to his ability to inspire others, though, there is no better endorsement than from his son Paul, who is training to be a physical education teacher. Growing up with a dad who did “all sorts of these Ironmans and 600 km races was hugely inspiring,” Paul said. “Showing me what to do, not telling me what to do, was very effective. My late mother also did marathons. Having both my parents so active, I feel very blessed.”

Kevin Heinz is a regular contributor to Triathlon Magazine Canada.