Heartbreak on the Hill : Long Beach’s Knaub Loses Grip, but Finishes 3rd in Wheelchair Race at Boston

The comeback trail led him to Heartbreak Hill, a proving ground of the Boston Marathon that Jim Knaub, a two-time winner of the wheelchair division, knew all too well.

Knaub retired from wheelchair racing after the 1985 race. He returned in 1987, but crashed on wet roads. He planned to race last year but couldn’t because of a high fever and a related irritating skin problem.

Monday afternoon, late in the 93rd Boston Marathon, the Long Beach resident was in the lead pack and feeling good about his chances. But when an inner-tube, fitted on the outside of the wheel rims to allow for a better grip, came loose on Heartbreak Hill, Knaub, 33, lost his traction.

And, it turned out, a chance to win.

Knaub settled for his second third-place finish at Boston, his time of 1 hour 38 minutes and 25 seconds trailing only Frenchman Philippe Couprie’s 1:36.04 and Canadian Andre Viger’s 1:36.45. Still, Kaub left Tuesday with a great deal of satisfaction and a time about nine minutes better than when he won the race in 1983.

“The biggest problem I had--bigger than any of the others--was that there were no other Americans in the lead pack,” said Knaub, who won in the wheelchair division of the Los Angeles Marathon March 5. “There were only two of us among the top 15 finishers. Everyone was speaking French, because most of the guys were from France or Canada. It’s become a sport with a lot of team tactics, like bike racing, so that became a problem.

“I wasn’t nervous, maybe just a little anxious to get it over with. I wanted to test myself there. I won the L.A. Marathon, and that was a big win. But this was an international field.

“I’m pleased. The maturity I gained in racing, partly from when I retired, allows me to look at everything with a positive note. I don’t get too down. I’m happy with the effort, and the chair worked well except for the hand grip.”

That turned out to be a big exception.

“If that (problems with the grip) didn’t happen, I could have won the race,” he said. “I was pretty much dominating. But that’s Boston. There’s luck involved there.”

Knaub expects to race Couprie and Viger again, maybe as soon as this weekend in a 52-mile race at Washington, D.C. A week after that, he’ll be back home, competing in the Long Beach Marathon.

“I will see them again,” he said. “They know I’ll be there.”

After finally making it through Boston, a lot of people know.