Art Duncan : From Couch Potato to Triathlete

By Kirby Adams

I've known Art Duncan for quite a while; our kids went to Keneseth Israel Preschool together.  I never remember him as being overweight.  However, Art recently reminded me that he is at least 30 pounds thinner and in much better shape than he was several years ago. 

Art is an anesthesiologist who actually had himself tested for anemia when he started medical school because he couldn't figure out why he was getting so fatigued when he'd try to exercise.  As it turned out he was healthy, just really out of shape. He grew up playing golf, baseball and bowling, but activities like cycling or running seemed crazy to him. 

Art says, "I didn't get it; why would anyone want to do those things? They hurt!"  At about the same time Margaret, Art's wife, was heavily involved in the Lakeside Swim Club's masters program.  After the birth of the couple's two children she was having a tough time scheduling time to make it to the weekly practices.  One day Art says she laced up her running shoes and ran out the back door saying, "I have to get some exercise!"  The next thing Art knew, his wife was running the Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon and then the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati , Ohio .  To Art the idea of either of those distances was unfathomable.

It was probably Margaret's success and enthusiasm that started working on Art.  He set a goal to participate in the Tom Sawyer Triathlon.  "It was a fiasco. I broke my glasses and made many other errors," he recalls.  But he finished and vowed to do more. 

The next year the once-sedentary doctor did a few more triathlons, the short distance varieties.  Eventually Art and Margaret started training together on weekends.  "We hire a sitter and take a long bike ride.  It's our date for the week and it's brought us closer as a couple," said Art.  Art calls Margaret his training buddy. 

Four years after that first triathlon the couple has competed around the country including the Eagleman half triathlon in Maryland .  When they aren't out riding together on the weekends, Art and Margaret tag team train.  One works out while the other stays with the kids and vice versa.  Art has to be at the hospital at 7 a.m., so he does most of his workouts in the dark.  He says he likes the peacefulness of the morning workout.

This year using the Gale Bernhardt training workout (www.galebernhardt.com), Art competed in a full triathlon. "It didn't take as much intense training as I thought it would," he says.  The longest workout was seven hours, and Art says, as he pulled up to the start of the race, he wondered if he had trained enough. In the end he was saying, "By gosh, it works!"

As for Margaret, there may be a full Ironman in her future.  In the meantime, at shorter distances, Art says his wife is always first out of the water and he spends the rest of the race trying to catch her.

The couple that trains together (well, some of the time) has inspired their two children, who competed in the Kentuckiana HealthFitness Duathalon at Shawnee Park .  The Duncans try to set a good example for their children while planning their workouts around the family's schedule.  And they won't allow conflicts in scheduling to cause them to miss their workouts. "We're better parents because of our physical lifestyle."

Kirby Adams is the consumer reporter for Kentuckiana's News Channel WHAS-11 and a sports and fitness buff. You can e-mail Kirby at kirby.adams@whas11.com. Kirby is also a member of Kentuckiana HealthFitness' Editorial Advisory Board.

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Kirby Adams
C/o WHAS-11 TV
P.O. Box 2588
Louisville , KY 40201