Every now and then Roger Brockenbough's wife of nearly 50 years, Nancy, casts him a perplexed and exasperated glance and repeats the refrain she has uttered often over the years.

"You're old enough to stop all this foolishness," she'll say with a knowing smile.

Brockenbough simply shrugs.

At 72, he plans to continue to compete in triathlons until he becomes the oldest guy to complete the Ironman Triathlon Championship in Hawaii.

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"Two years ago a guy 80 finished it," said Brockenbough, a three-time age-group winner (2000, 2004 and 2005) in the grueling event that includes a 2.4-mile swim in the ocean followed by a 112-mile bike race climbing 4,000 feet of lava fields in 85-degree temperatures and a 26.2-mile run around the big island. "He's raised the bar a little bit."

Brockenbough, a resident of Mt. Lebanon who didn't start running until he was 51, will be one of the 11 inductees into the Western Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame tomorrow at a ceremony at Four Points by Sheraton Pittsburgh North.

"Swimming is definitely the hardest for me," said Brockenbough, a retired structural engineer with U.S. Steel who competes in a dozen or so long-distance multi-sport events a year. "I never really developed a good knack for it. Then comes biking. Running is the easiest for me because it comes naturally."

Brockenbough's time in the Ironman Triathlon ranges between 13 and 13 1/2 hours, with 13:01 his best showing.

"A lot of it depends on the weather," he said. "The winning time usually is around nine hours, but you have to finish in 17 hours or it doesn't count. It's a wonderful feeling when you're done. It's dark by then, and there are a few thousand people screaming for you. It's almost like a circus atmosphere."

He still has the little plastic trophy he picked up at his first triathlon in 1985.

"I just jumped right into my first triathlon. I didn't do any shorter events to prepare for it," he said. "It was in Mercer, a run-bike-swim competition."

Brockenbough, who described himself as "sort of a wimp when it came to sports" growing up in Virginia, decided to start training when he watched his oldest son, John, compete in a triathlon.

"I figured it would be more fun doing it than watching it,' said Brockenbough, who is 5 feet 7, 134 pounds. "I've been doing it for so long now I don't think that it's that unusual for someone my age."

He and John, 48, plan to participate in the Eagleman Half Ironman competition next month in Cambridge, Md. And in July they will compete in the Pittsburgh Triathlon sponsored by the Friends of the Riverfront.

"John has won it a number of times," Brockenbough said. "It's one of the tougher courses because of the mountains. The rivers are fairly clean."

Although he never has been seriously injured and finished nearly all of his events, Brockenbough vividly recalls the one triathlon he did not complete.

"It was 1995 in Illinois. I wasn't drinking nearly enough and passed out on the road with one mile left in the marathon," he said.

"The next thing I knew I was in the ambulance going to the hospital. I learned a valuable lesson. I really think I feel pretty much the same now than I did when I started doing these races at 51. If anything, I feel better because now I know more what it takes to train and compete in a triathlon. Nobody is ever used to it.

"The biggest challenge is to keep going once you start."