Greg Hansen: Tucson cancer survivor Tim Bentley is a man on the run

Throughout the summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is profiling 10 Tucsonans making a difference. Up today: runner, coach and cancer survivor Tim Bentley. 

A few weeks after Tim Bentley completed four years of what he calls “kick-your-ass chemo” treatments, he drove to the Tucson Racquet Club intent on regaining his fitness.

“I could barely jog, so I mostly walked,” he remembers. “I had taken so many big, fat doses of radiation, I joked with friends that I could set off alarms.”

Bentley began his running career as a Sabino High School freshman in 1981, and ultimately finished 11th in the state finals. But it isn’t the 11th place finish he treasures. It’s the mentorship and direction given by long-time Sabercats coach John Brooks.

“Coach Brooks totally changed my life,” Bentley says now. “Running came to define me.”

With lymphoma finally in remission, Bentley stepped onto the Rillito running trail. At that moment, John Brooks — yes, coach Brooks — was walking on the trail with his wife.

“How the heck does that happen?” Bentley asks, a tone of awe in his voice. “Mr. Brooks basically taught me how to be a runner, how to be competitive. That’s what saved my life. My attitude had been that I’m going to kick the crap out of cancer and be the best patient they’ve ever had. I got that attitude from Mr. Brooks.

“How did I see this man at the end of treatment, the first time I went back to running? I’m telling you, there’s something special happening here.”

That same “something special” has defined Bentley’s dedication to the Tucson running community.

He was the president of the Southern Arizona Roadrunners club. He is the Arizona representative for the Roadrunners Club of America. He was the fitness director at Canyon Ranch. He was the head track and cross country coach at St. Augustine Catholic High School for seven years. For almost a decade he operated the Spring Cross Country Classic at Lincoln Park.

He even volunteered to run the Thin Mint Sprints to raise money for the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona, and organized a Fit Kids series of races that involved more than 2,000 Tucsonans. Long before he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2009, Bentley helped raise $125,000 for the American Cancer Society’s race/walk to the top of “A” Mountain, an event that involved 4,000 people.

And that’s just an abridged version of his involvement in Tucson’s running industry. This is a man who makes a difference.

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After running at Glendale Community College and NAU, earning a degree in broadcast journalism, Bentley went to work in marketing and sales in both Tucson and Kansas. He is now an advertising, marketing and wellness official at Tucson Medical Center.

A few weeks ago, Bentley was training on the Rillito trail and happened to pass Tucson’s iconic Olympic distance running medalist Bernard Lagat.

Lagat nodded to Bentley, who waved back and later joked that Lagat was probably thinking “I hope that old man is OK; I might need to call for help.”

Instead, it’s Bentley who runners in Tucson call for assistance.

“Tim has established himself as a vital part of the running community through simple care and concern for everyone around him,” says Pima College track and cross country coach Greg Wenneborg.

“He’s always been a great guy, but seems to have had an awakening after contracting and quietly defeating leukemia. He now seems to have figured out how to truly live life and appreciate every day. He does what he enjoys and brings others along with him. He seems to be having the perfect midlife crisis without the crisis. I’m very honored to know the dude.”

Bentley refers to the running community as “my tribe.”

At St. Augustine Catholic, he coached seven-time state champion distance runner Nico Montanez, who went on to become an All-American cross country runner at BYU and is now training in California for the 2020 Olympic marathon trials.

Of all the miles Bentley has run since his freshman year at Sabino, he has never run a marathon. That will soon change. He has been running 50 miles a week in preparation for July 29’s Jack and Jill Marathon in Seattle. He has a not-so-simple goal: to break the 3-hour 30-minute barrier, which would qualify him for the 2019 Boston Marathon.

It’s a goal that fits with his let’s-do-things-that-make-us-happy approach to life.

“When I moved back to Tucson in 2006 I realized something was missing, something that would make my brain happy and my heart feel good,” he says. “That missing element was running.

“I appreciate it even more now because I’m very lucky to be alive. I beat the odds, or fate, or whatever you call it. When I was going through cancer treatment it was like someone punched you in the face twice a week, and you keep coming back for more. What it taught me was that I don’t want to miss anything.

“I’m going to take full advantage of this second chance.”