7/31/2023 0 Comments Mark allen dave scott 1989![]() “When a race was over six hours, that was when Dave really shined,” admits Allen. But when it came to the Ironman, the race belonged to Dave Scott. Other athletes feared Mark Allen in other places, at other races. He didn’t show pain and his facial expression never changed. Mark Allen made a name for himself around the world, eventually winning the Nice Triathlon ten times and earning the nickname ‘The Grip’ for his ability to simply push the pace to the point where no one could hang with him. I was looking forward to coming back and giving it another go.” “I was right with the best guy in triathlon when I had a mechanical problem. “Even though my goal was to finish the race in the top 100 and I didn’t finish at all, I still came away feeling like I could be good at this sport,” remembers Allen. He ended up hitchhiking back to town and his race was over. Allen’s derailleur failed and he was left with one gear -the hardest- for the rest of the bike ride. “Dave wasn’t amused and went ‘who are you?’ I told him my name, he told me that he had heard of me, then he switched gears and took off. “I was trying to be funny,” remembers Allen. As Mark Allen came side by side with Dave Scott, the first words he ever spoke to The Man, were, “Hey Dave….how about we go for a run after the bike ride?” They knew so little about this newcomer that his last name was spelled ‘Allan.’ On the screen for the viewers at home, they had Dave Scott’s name under his image and Mark Allen’s as well. How special? Ironman added a second event in 1982 in October that sold out immediately and a former UCSD swimmer by the name of Mark Allen, who knew Julie Moss from lifeguarding and would actually one day marry her, decided that training for this Ironman thing would be a nice diversion from possibly going to medical school.Įric Heiden, the Olympic speed skating legend and cyclist, was doing the commentary for ABC that day and mentioned that this young man Mark Allen looked great on the bike, definitely smoother than Dave Scott. The response was so amazing that ABC flew Julie Moss and Kathleen McCartney to New York a week after the show aired to go on with celebrated journalist Jim McKay to reassure the American public that the two were okay and this Ironman event was pretty darn special. Who was this young red headed co-ed, viewers wanted to know? Was she alright? And what was it about this crazy event on the Big Island of Hawaii that would push someone to actually crawl to get to the finish? When Moss was carried off on a stretcher and Wide World of Sports moved on to Cliff Diving or Barrel Jumping without telling the audience what the heck had happened to this young woman, the switchboard lit up at ABC like a Christmas tree. McCartney won, Moss took second, but that was just the beginning of the story. The event was being televised by ABC’s Wide World of Sports for the fourth time and the first time since February of 1982, when Julie Moss collapsed for the last time within 50 feet of the finish line and, while she crawled for the line with most of America watching, was passed by Kathleen McCartney in a moment that to this day was the most important in Ironman history. The other cyclist’s name? Mark Allen, a lifeguard from San Diego who had come to Kona hoping to finish in the top 100. He was returning from the bike turnaround in Hawi with only one other cyclist in the same zip code. ![]() It all started in October of 1982 when the 1980 Ironman World Champion, Dave Scott, was once again racing the Ironman. The two have been within a second or two of each other since 7 am that morning. There is an entourage of vehicles surrounding two runners, one dressed in yellow and one dressed in green. I am sitting in the back seat of a Ford Mustang convertible on the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday October 14, 1989. On his sixth attempt it finally happened. By Bob Babbitt Mark Allen came to Kona five times trying to win the Ironman and to beat Dave Scott.
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