![]() I had to be ready for my first child! In December of 1988, my wife and I learned she was pregnant and due in early August ‘89.I would override the depression that manifested following all my previous IRONMAN races through the consistency of a physical training regimen.I would stay fit and elevate my fitness during the winter of ‘88 and the spring of ‘89.“After bowing out of the 1988 IRONMAN World Championships, I had a renewed spirit to come back in four separate yet interconnected pathways: I was still trying to figure out how to win without doing the right training and still trying to adopt the aura of a champion without there being a shred of self-confidence when it came to Kona.” I’ve come up with the missing pieces to my IRONMAN puzzle. None brought that ‘Aha’ moment that said I’ve got it. I also knew I needed some way to feel strong instead of withering when I got off the plane in Kona. I could already go fast, just not fast enough for long enough. Maybe I needed more fast training? But that seemed like a waste. And winning IRONMAN is not just about fitness. Add more volume? How could I! I was already at the limit of what I thought I could handle. I’d suddenly know why every idea I had was flawed. In my mind’s eye, I’d play each one out to the end game in Kona. Believe me, I spent a lot of nights in the early weeks of 1989 lying in bed going over every possible idea I could come up with to get better. Something had to change about my training. I needed to do things differently if I wanted a different result. That was a guy who would never fulfill a dream. I certainly looked it there, but the only things I locked into were fear, dread, and avoidance. In six years of racing in Kona, I’d never even for one second felt that same type of calm. It replaced the nerves, and in that moment I would know that even with weaknesses and my humanness I’d be able to rise above it all and lock into something extraordinary for the rest of the race. The calm just seemed to find its way into me. In every other race - other than that one ominous day each year in Hawaii - I would lock into a calm that gave me the ability to overcome just about any race situation that looked impossible. There was also some part of my inner character that had to be transformed to be able to handle the pressure. In all the others, I had been reduced to a walking, barely surviving mess. In six IRONMAN starts, I’d only been able to run the entire marathon twice. I always felt strong going into the race, but clearly my results revealed huge weaknesses in my physical performance. In early January of 1989, I wracked my brain trying to figure out what needed to change. ![]() But, after my sixth IRONMAN in 1988, it was pretty clear the Kona puzzle was missing some huge pieces for me. I was pulling off victories just about everywhere else, so I knew the basics of my training were solid. But, more importantly, no one has ever heard the details of each of their personal journeys during the year that made this an even more amazing accomplishment and why I truly believe it is “The Greatest Race Ever Run.” Scott Zagarinoīut after years of doing that, I was still zero for six in Kona. Neither Dave nor Mark have told this story in tandem. Everyone has seen accounts of the race itself. This is the second of ten untold stories about the incredible moments of personal challenge and the decisions made that led to the 1989 side-by-side eight-hour battle between Dave Scott and Mark Allen. Time would tell if each had made the right decision! Mark would do a handful of running races. Dave would race some Olympic distance events. Allen took a leap of faith and set the wheels in motion for his season in New Zealand. Scott stuck to his proven winter training grounds in Davis, CA. In the winter of 1989, Dave Scott and Mark Allen chose very different landscapes to lay the groundwork each needed to be ready for another epic clash at the IRONMAN World Championship that would take place later that year.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |