CURTIS FLOCK

Non-conformist, will travel Late 1990s to Early 2000s

In the late 1980s, if you went triathlete hunting, the last place you would look would be the Alberta oil patch. For decades this storied triathlete lived a double life. Six months of the year Flock was a hard-working oil field worker, but come late spring, he transformed into a chiselled full-distance athlete. After competing at Ironman Canada for many years, Flock believed that the adventurous spirit of the race was being replaced with a more corporate and competitive feeling. To flaunt the proliferation of expensive bikes he was seeing in transition, Flock purchased a $50, 50-pound beach cruiser for race day. Flock showed it was the mettle of the athlete, not the carbon of the bike, that made a full-distance triathlete, as he rode to bike split better than 88 per cent of his competition on the cruiser.

Flock was also the fabled “suit and tie guy” at Ironman Canada. When the rules were changed in the 1990s to prohibit naked torsos, he protested by running in a dress shirt and tie. Despite his on-course antics, Flock was a fast triathlete and an even faster ultra-distance triathlete, placing second at the Ultraman Canada twice.