Don’t say I did not warn you about finding yourself training at 5 am in the morning, before work/school. I had heard that Dave Scott was going to be racing Ironman Japan exactly one week before Avignon [ITU Olympic Distance World Championship].

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. An account of the 1989 Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, featuring longtime rivals Dave Scott and Mark Allen, and how the two men became such driven athletes.

However, I must say that Fitzgerald did an excellent job bringing Scott and Allen to life, and I lost some sleep staying up to see who won. In his new book Iron War , Fitzgerald recounts in gripping detail the showdown between Mark Allen and Dave Scott. They battled their demons with discipline, mental imagery, and a strong desire to follow an organized plan. The 350th Pursuit Flotilla shadowed the iron monster until a Frigate Squadron sent from Galdrin was able to intercept. Highly inspirational reading for anyone interested in endurance sports or human performance generally.

Allen’s finish time of 8:09:15 wasn’t just a new course record, it was also some 18 minutes faster than Scott had ever clocked. While it was a fascinating read - the discussion about motivational intensity and tolerance for suffering was well-done - Timothy Noakes' work was more or less left out of the conversation. But they shaped the world of triathlon and helped make it popular, especially Scott, arguably the first person to really race an Ironman, as opposed to just trying to survive to the finish line.

For instance, Allen using Phil Maffetone's go slower to go faster low heartrate focus on aerobic workouts, was very interesting, and I have more to learn about that. Even they themselves probably can't remember what was going on as they were pushing it to extreme limits.