Heart of a Champion by Patrick Lindsay Page B

would turn out to be what many observers regard as the greatest contest ever held on the lava fields. Going into the race, Dave Scott, famed Lord of the Lava, had six titles to his name. His great rival Mark Allen, called the Zen Master because of his ability to focus and to intimidate the competition, had never won—from his six starts, he had one failure to finish, one third place, two fifth places and two second places. In the 1989 race, the brutal contest between these two men became known as ‘Ironwar’.
    After the swim and the bike, nothing separated Scott and Allen. In an astonishing display of determination and athleticism, they swam every metre shoulder to shoulder. Scott led out of the water in 51 minutes 16 seconds to Allen’s 51 minutes 17 seconds. At the end of the 180-km (111.8-mile) bike run, Allen had made up that 1-second deficit, finishing in 4 hours 37 minutes 52 seconds to Scott’s 4 hours 37 minutes 53 seconds. So the two men began their Olympic-length marathon still attached at the shoulder. Scott set his usual relentless pace as they ran stride for stride out of the changeover. Not a word was exchanged between them as they ran, breathing and striding in perfect synchronisation, out of Kona, through the lava fields, up to the turnaround at Hawaii and back to town.
    With all eyes fixed on the engrossing ‘Ironwar’ up front, few noticed the slight, smiling figure ghosting through the field back along the Queen K Highway. Greg’s hard work to improve his swimming leg had paid handsome dividends, and he came out of the water in the leading pack, in 51 minutes 39 seconds, just 22 seconds behind Dave Scott. He rode strongly, finishing the bike leg in 4 hours 43 minutes 43 seconds, and headed off on the run feeling on top of the world. He was matching it with his heroes. The plasterer from the Shire was battling out the toughest Ironman race in the world on equal terms with the best professional triathletes on the planet. Greg moved easily into his favourite role—the hunter—and began the chase.
    Ahead, Dave Scott and Mark Allen were still inseparable. The only time they drifted even a few metres apart was at drink stations, where Allen had the inside running and Scott was forced to drop a few paces behind to pick up his drinks. After 38 km (23.6 miles) in tandem and with just 4 km (2.5 miles) left, Allen made his move on the last rise before the finish. Dave Scott tried to go with him but his legs wouldn’t answer the call. Mark Allen surged home, putting 58 seconds between them by the time he crossed the line in 8 hours 9 minutes 15 seconds. Allen had run the marathon in a race record time of 2 hours 40 minutes 4 seconds. His record remains to this day.
    Greg’s confidence soared as he hunted down the field. As he moved into the last 5 km (3.1 miles), he began to regret he didn’t go even harder earlier, but these feelings had evaporated by the time he turned into Ali’i Drive, the beautiful banyan tree-lined avenue along Kailua Bay leading to the finish. With less than 1 km (0.6 miles) to the finish, he passed Pauli Kiuru and then Kenny Glah to skip across the line in 8 hours 32 minutes 15 seconds—third place overall! He’d taken more than half an hour off his previous best time. He’d even beaten his friend Paula Newby-Fraser, who won her third women’s title, by a massive 27 minutes. Greg Welch had served notice that he was a world-class triathlete.
    At the presentation, after Greg had received his third place medal, the MC said to him, ‘Greg, you’ve come third in the greatest triathlon in the world and the 20 guys who came after you have been doing this full-time for five years. Are you going to give up work and go full-time at this?’
    Greg’s reply brought the house down: ‘I might ask the boss for Saturdays off!’
    Greg’s recuperative powers were tested to the limit just two weeks after he returned