Like father, like son. . .and daughter.
Todd Wiley is proud of his 14 Ironman triathlons, including four trips to the World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, but there is one other aspect of his athletic persona which makes him beam even more.
That’s watching the success of his son, Carson, and daughter, Brooklyne, as they follow in his footsteps.
Carson, 21, recently won the Doylestown 5K for a second straight year back on Memorial Day weekend.
Brooklyne, 24, finished fourth this past weekend in her age group at the 2024 Eagleman Triathlon 70.6-mile race held in Cambridge, Maryland.
By the way, Todd, who is 54, finished fifth overall in the aforementioned Doylestown 5K in the splendid time of 18:07, giving him an age-graded percentage number of 83.2.
If you know of a faster family in Pennsylvania, please give us a call.
For the elder Wiley, there’s a great deal of satisfaction derived from seeing his kids making good use of the genetics being passed along by him and his wife, Patty.
A modest sort, Todd wanted to be sure this piece was more about the future Wiley generation than what took place in the past.
“This doesn’t need to be about me,” he said with a chuckle during a recent phone interview from his home in Pipersville. “I’ve been there, done that and moved on.
“I live through them (Carson and Brooklyne) now. And I coach at Central Bucks East High School (in Doylestown) and live through them, too. I love seeing the youth excel.”
Todd is the head cross-country coach as well as an assistant for the winter and spring track teams.
As for his children’s success, Todd says both he and his wife have kept their distance and let nature take its course.
“You find your path,” he insisted. “Whatever you find, we (Todd and Patty) support you. They played soccer, they tried other sports. But they just kept gravitating to running.
“Whether because mom and dad did it, who knows? But we always said the kids are either going to grow up hating the sport or loving it.”
With dad making trips to Hawaii, tagging along wasn’t too hard to take and perhaps had some influence on their destiny.
“They were everywhere I raced,” Todd recalled. “They were there with me. We’re just happy they picked a sport that we enjoy. It’s just icing on the cake that they are excelling at it.”
Both of the younger Wileys ran for CBE and have attended Elizabethtown College (between Harrisburg and Lancaster). They made their mark during their tenure.
There was a seminal moment in the past year when Carson started to finish ahead of Todd in training runs and now the gap for the 3.1-mile distance is about a minute.
Dad couldn’t be happier.
“It makes a parent smile when they choose a sport that has given you so much and enjoyed so much,” Todd said.
“I knew the day was coming when Carson was going to pass me. Last year it finally happened. He kept getting faster and I kept getting slower! I just couldn’t hold him off anymore. We always did trash talk. But deep down it (passing the torch) made me happy, when your kid runs past you, turns around and says, ‘ha, ha, dad!’ But it’s all great. We couldn’t be more proud.”
Brooklyne is a civil engineer yet still finds time to train at the highest level. The Eagleman finish, which saw her take 246th overall out of a field of about 1,500 female competitors, shows she will be a force in the years to come.
“Going to Hawaii and seeing my dad race, it was really fun,” she said. “My parents always said you’re either going to love it or hate it. But I remember coming back to school on Mondays and teachers had us write stories about what we were doing on the weekends and I would write about my dad’s races.
“It was really cool growing up and getting to experience all that. My mom definitely made it fun for us because she made it into an adventure.”
Among other events, she did the steeplechase at Elizabethtown and that was a challenge in its own right. The water jump can be a real test in the latter stages of a race.
“It made track a little more interesting,” she said. “Sometimes (in conventional long distance events) it gets boring doing laps and laps (like the 5,000 meters).”
Carson also figures to make his mark in multi-sport. Brooklyne recently took him out for a 50-mile bike ride and things got a little competitive, especially climbing some of the hills.
“It’s great to have a role model like my dad,” Carson said. “When we were kids, it seems like we would go to his races almost every single weekend.
“And it’s something that I started dreaming about doing myself, racing like that. I started getting into triathlon and it’s easy when you have a role model to look up at. He was always good at the sport. It’s easy to find some of the aspects that he did.”
Carson saw the fast times his father posted and realized these were standards to which he could try to aspire.
“He definitely did some pretty fast times,” Carson said. “There were ones I always wanted to break. I’ve not quite gotten there yet. But I still have time to get there.”
If he ever does, a proud dad will be waiting and watching for him at the finish line.
>Race calendar
Thursday
BCTC Splash and Dash, 6:45 p.m., Fairless Hills. Contact www.buckscotriclub.com
Saturday
33rd annual Roll, Stroll, Run, 7 a.m., Souderton. Contact www.runsignup.com
Sunday
Break-Fast 5K/10K, 8 a.m., Doylestown. Contact www.break-fast5k.com
