If Peter Nickles seems a bit macho at work, consider what he does in his off hours.
He has run at least 40 marathons from New Zealand to Dublin. He’s completed an additional 20 triathlons — including Hawaii’s notorious Ironman and two Ultraman races. He swims several miles per day. He has flipped his bikes at least twice and nearly drowned several times. The price of his sporting life: back surgery, the cartilage in his knees and, more times than he likes to admit, his dignity.
He’s not stopping, though.
“It keeps you young, it keeps you alive, it keeps you focused,” he said.
Nickles was a literature major before he became lawyer, but few books can be found in his sunlit office at the Wilson Building. There are, however, dozens of medals.
He said he got into triathlons because his back gave out running marathons. He didn’t enter his first triathlon until he was in his mid-50s — and he had just learned how to swim.
“I was scared to death,” he said. “I had people swimming over me. I thought I was going to drown.”
When Nickles couldn’t get into bigger races, he invented his own. He was famous at his old law firm, Covington & Burling, for weekly races near his home in Great Falls. The winner got a ceramic turtle made by Nickles’ wife, Maria.
Nickles said he was proudest of his showing in the annual Race Across America, a grueling, weeklong bicycle race from Irvine, Calif. to Savannah, Ga. He entered as a lark, when his oldest son, John — then a professional triathlete — suggested that they enter the race as a bonding experience.
In order to qualify as a “finisher” in the hellish race, a team has to arrive in Georgia at least 48 hours after the race’s winners. Nickles said that was his only goal. But when the race was over, Nickles and his team had finished second — by a scant 43 minutes.
“My competitive instincts just took over,” Nickles said.
– Bill Myers
