September 1, 2011
There couldn't be two more divergent individuals in a single sport than Dave Scott and Mark Allen. One is an old-school jock (Scott) for whom victory comes with hard work, constant training, and a hard-edge attitude. The other (Allen) takes a more spiritual approach, letting his body tell him what it needs and freeing his mind of all negativity. Their different approaches served both men well as triathletes. Scott became the man to beat in the biggest event of the sport, the Ironman World Championship, and Allen became the most famous runner-up to that main event, though in all other races, he was unbeatable. Still, he played second fiddle to Scott, who was called the Man. In the Ironman match of 1989, the two raced nose-to-nose to a thrilling conclusion. Fitzgerald opens the book in the final leg of the race, but before revealing the outcome, he takes readers through the lives of these two amazing endurance athletestheir training, their mind-sets, their rivalry, their mutual respect. A true page-turner about a too-little-known great moment in sports.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)