MARS — Tom Minnock played football when he was younger, but said “I was never an athlete.”

“My favorite sport was drinking beer and smoking cigarettes,” the Mars resident admitted.

How times have changed.

Having already completed three lengthy solo swims in the past four years, Minnock will be 58 when he attempts to swim the English Channel sometime between Sept. 25 and Oct. 5 this fall.

He began his athletic endeavors with mini-triathlons and his adventures grew from there.

“I saw the triathlon as a challenge, something to train for and try to do,” Minnock said. “I only learned to swim so I could do some Ironman competitions.”

Ironman events consist of a 2.4-mile swim, 122 mles bicycling and a marathon run. Minnock competed in three Ironmans in Lake Placid and one in Maryland.

Four years ago, he swam across the Chesapeake Bay — four miles — to begin his distance swimming endeavors.

“I swim 5,000 yards a day (at the Cranberry YMCA) for training,”said Minnock, a self-employed builder. “The Y opens at 5:30 a.m. I'm usually there at 5:15, waiting for the doors to open.

“I go out to Moraine State Park a few times and swim the lake there as well.”

Minnock's first long-distance swim was the Three Rivers Marathon Swim, swimming six miles in each river and winding up at the point. He did that in September of 2017, two months after doing the Chesapeake Bay.

He has also done the 10.5-mile Lake Tahoe swim. He completed the 23.8-mile Lake Erie Swim — from Ontario to North East Township in Pa. — in 16 hours and 44 minutes in July of 2018.

Minnock was 54 at the time, making him the eldest person to ever complete that swim.

“After those Ironman events, I thought he was done,” Karen Minnock, Tom's wife, said. “When he first told me about these swims, I said, 'no way, you are not doing that.'

“When I saw how serious he was about training and preparing, I felt I had no right to stop him. This is what he wants to do and I support him.”

She's not alone in that regard.

“I've got six kids, ages 27 to 33, and they are totally supportive of what I've been doing,” Minnock said.

Now he's taking on the English Channel.

The 21-mile swim is “more like 28 when you factor in everything,” Minnock said.

The water is cold, with plenty of jellyfish, and 600 vessels pass through each day.

“You never know what the waves and current will be like,” Minnock said.

While he is doing a solo swim, he won't be out there alone. A boat will ride alongside him, with his coach and support team aboard. No one is allowed to make physical contact with him during the swim.

Minnock's food and drink will be tossed to him from the boat.

There have been 1,881 completed solo swims of the English Channel. The eldest to complete it is Otto Thaning, 73, of South Africa, who completed the swim in 2014.

“It's hard to gage how long Tom's swim will be,” his wife said. “There are so many logistics involved. He could be in the water for anywhere from 10 to 20 hours.

“I've been nervous about all of his swims. I'm never on the boat. I'd be a basket case. I'll be extra nervous about this one, but it's a well-organized event.”

The shortest recorded English Channel swim is seven hours, 17 minutes. The longest is 27 hours.

This swim will not be the last challenge Minnock will meet, in the water or out.

“Another one will come along,” he said. “I just don't know what it is yet.”