Iron War: Two Incredible Athletes. One Epic Rivalry. The Greatest Race of All Time.

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Having read both Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and also Iron War I can say that both are superb books. Matt Fitzgerald pivots his book, Iron War, around a moment in history: October 14, 1989, 2:59 pm Hawaii-Aleutian Time. If you’re looking for inspiration to get you started on base training for the spring/summer seasons, check it out. I also would have loved more on the science of it all but perhaps like Dave Scott I just need to snarl that desire off because it seems the big lesson from his and Mark Allen's accomplishments is mind over matter. However their objections don't seem based on the book getting anything major wrong, so I think it's still a good telling of an amazing story, and recommended.

Iron War] is a truly great read--and an ode to our sport with all its quirky characters and epic venues. OverviewThe classic account of an unforgettable endurance test, now updated with a new introduction. Triathlete magazine "Dave Scott and Mark Allen had one of the greatest battles in sport history during their epic 1989 Ironman Hawaii matchup. One of Dave’s favorite swim workouts was a set of seven 500-yard intervals with a short rest period after each. The two protagonists are interesting people and their achievements, which are related in the book, are phenomenal.For over a decade, Dave Scott and Mark Allen were locked in one of the fiercest rivalries sport has ever known. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The two greatest athletes of triathlon’s pioneering generation raced side by side, literally, for eight straight hours at breakneck speed before Allen finally tore away from his longtime nemesis with less than two miles left in the 140. Dave and Mark and top athletes had to make this their job, working out 30-40 hours per week - which is an insane time commitment. However from 1986 onwards the younger Allen began to push him closer and closer resulting in the phenomenal 1989 race in which not only was the world record smashed but the two men finished within a minute of one another, both having the performance of a lifetime simultaneously, running stride for stride during the final marathon section at an unbelievable average of six minute miles having already completed a 2.

There is no question about the thesis that drives the narrative: Their traits and experiences at once bedevil and propel each man toward, variously, difficulty and greatness. Fitzgerald opens [ Iron War ] in the final leg of the race, but before revealing the outcome, he takes readers through the lives of these two amazing endurance athletes, their training, their mind-sets, their rivalry, their mutual respect. After 8 punishing hours, both men would demolish the previous record - and cross the finish line a mere 58 seconds apart.I enjoyed reading about Dave Scott and Mark Allen's different approaches to the training and racing, all leading to the 1989 showdown on the Ironman World Championships on the Big Island.

Thrilling and inspiring, though at times repetitive, annoying and heavy with mundane trivia and details that take away from the story. I just couldn't listen to it after 5 minutes it is clear the author does not capture the magnitude, or gravity of this book.

It generated a level of interest far beyond the circle of diehard fans who followed this tiny niche sport back then: Scott and Allen weren’t just rivals on the race course. Matt does a decent job of describing where Mark and Dave came from and the factors that made them the great athletes they are. The overpronunciation, and at times also pronouncing words wrong (such as putting a noticeable T where a D is actually in the word) was almost unbearable. I carry these flaws, these scars, these failures, these moments of self-loathing, these periods of sorrow and depression, in a sort of mental hope chest.