Triathlete ^ PLANT REPORT 10 ENDURANCE NEWS & COMMENTARY OCTOBER 27, 1989 IRONMAN '89 WAS THE RACE OF A LIFETIME JON FRANKS — AN ANGRY MAN IN AN It was an historic race, no doubt about that, and like all things his• UNEASY CHAIR toric, it signalled both great endings and great beginnings. How do you figure Jon Franks? The television and print media Finally the seven-year monkey is off Mark Allen's back; the only point their cameras at his two lifeless legs and call him "a role major triathlon title he doesn't own now is Hilton Head, and he model," "courageous," a "great story." Transition area volunteers at probably doesn't care too much about that one, anyway. various races who have been the object of his loud and unprintable The last chapter of triathlon's Big Four has been written. They've wrath have learned to see him in a less favorable light. all won in Hawaii now, Molina last year when no one expected it, Crowds at triathlon finish lines all over the country see him as a Allen in '89, years past the point when his great talent and will dic• hero and applaud him wildly. Valerie Silk, race chairman of the Bud tated that he might. What next>Who cares? The blank page has been Light Ironman, won't speak to him; she has trouble even speaking filled. about him. For Allen it was a joyous, unmitigated triumph. He told the Franks's issue, his platform, is his right to race as a wheelchair tri• audience at the awards ceremony on Sunday night that a vision of athlete, and by association, the right of other severely handicapped courage had sustained him, but that wasn't quite right. Allen has people to do the same. never lacked for courage. Indeed, it has been his depth of courage "Anything I can do to help the ranks of whatever it is I've joined, that at times has worried us all. Was he really a man who, like the I'll do," he says. "I'm just not running around saying that's what I'm greyhound he so resembled, or a thoroughbred horse, could actually doing." run himself to death, as he seemed ready to do in Nice in 1983, or in His favorite topics of conversation, though, are slightly more . .. Hawaii in '87? shall we say, colorful. First on the list seems to be Jon Franks. Tied Courage? Of course. But smart, too. At last, smart. And with Mark for second are the Hollywood stars and big-name athletes he says are Allen's smartest race, the Dave Scott era ended. Even if The Man friends or clients, and the many beautiful women — ''Playboy center• returns to Kona in 1990 and wins for a seventh time, folds and models," he gloats — with whom he says his long reign there has come to a close. He was ON THE RECORD— he sleeps. "When I go out with a girl on a date," magnificent on Oct. 14, fulfilling all of our, and Franks told the Tampa Tribune-Times earlier this even his own, expectations. This time, though, some• "I did it! I did it! I did it!" year, "I try to get everything out in the open right one was everything Dave Scott was and more, a lit• away. 'Relax,' I tell them, T'm normal. I can even tle more, 58 seconds more. It was enough. Mark Allen, to the have sex with you." For Paula Newby-Fraser, whose victory will no ABC camera van, or maybe Maybe he just knows what sells; skipping almost doubt (and quite wrongly) be overshadowed by the just to himself, when he real• weekly from race to race this year on the national tri• epic batde which developed less than an hour ahead ized that he had finally athlon circuit, he has, with the help of his publicist, of her on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway, the race beaten Dave Scott at the Iron generated a volume of media coverage that makes was more of a landmark than one might imagine, for man. Mark Allen and Dave Scott look like Little by surpassing the breathtakingly impossible course Leaguers. record she set last year, she affirmed it beyond any A motorcycle accident three years ago cost Franks, doubt. "My first goal was to beat Paula," Mark a Los Angeles chiropractor and fitoess entrepreneur, the use of both Allen said at the post-race press conference. Everyone laughed. He legs, from the waist to the toes, but if he feels sorry for himself, he was kidding, of course, but not by much. Nine zero zero fifty eight. hides it behind an in-your-face cockiness that either appeals or Any one of a hundred minor adjustments during the day might have repels; with Jon Franks there is not much middle ground. He's gotten her across in under nine hours, but none of them really mat• strong, handsome, intelligent, well-spoken, but if after an hour you tered. Has any single athlete been so dominant at the Ironman two aren't converted, you start thinking that maybe without that chair of years in a row? Not one. his, he'd be just another macho, loud-mouthed jock. For the men it was the race of a lifetime. The supporting cast in• "That hero stuff..." Franks says, tossing off his press clippings cluded the 27-year-old West German, Wolfgang Dittrich, who led with a shrug. "I think we all need heroes. Me, I like Rambo and the field out of the water with a 48:13, then held grimly onto the lead Eastwood." for the next 112 miles, setting the stage for the Allen/Scott duel to So how do you figure Jon Franks? come. How much do you pay a man for such a good day's work? Certainly there are race directors who are uneasy about his com• Dittrich's last Ironman marathon, in 1987, was a 3:48; this time he petitive routine. By necessity, he takes a lot of license with basic tri• managed a 3:12 and finished 10th. He earned $1600. athlon rules. He must be helped into the water, usually by volunteers The battle started for real at the bike/run transition area at the Kona supplied by the race. He swims on his back, in a wetsuit, with flota- Continued on page 2 Continued on page 3 The Plant Report is published every three weeks, 17 times annually by Mike Plant and Triathlete magazine. First class postage is paid at the business office: J415 3rd Street #303, Santa Monica. CA 90401 (213) 394-1321. Editorial office is located at 1557 Promontory Ridge Way, Vista, CA 92038 (619) 598-1797. Subscription rate is $45-U.S.A., $48-Canada, $54-foreign for one year payable in advance only in U.S. dollars. Each issue is mailed first class. Call or write the business office for subscription orders and inquiries. The entire contents of The Plant Report is copyright @1989 by Mike Plant and Triathlete, All rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Views expressed herein are those of the author exclusively. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Triathlete. 1415 3rd St., #303, Santa Monica, CA 90401 PLANT REPORT • 2 ON THE CIRCUIT I RON MAN • Continued from page 1 Surf Resort. Dittrich had been running for almost two minutes when Patrick O'Riordan's $100,000 Scottsdale International Triathlon, Allen, Scott, then Mike Pigg and Ken Glah roared in. Allen ran out scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 26, has been cancelled. The race had first, but Scott was right behind, and at an aid station still inside the been originally scheduled for May 28, but had been postponed due parking lot, he sprinted past Allen as if the finish line was 100 yards, to lack of sponsorship. O'Riordan cited that same reason for the can• not 26 miles, away. You knew then what was coming. cellation. "I just don't have the money," he said, adding that in the The two men ran literally shoulder to shoulder for the next 23 future he will announce no event or prize purse until he has sponsor miles. Scott would later praise Allen for a tactic that may or may not contracts in hand. At the same time he expressed confidence that a have been intentional: he ran to the inside, nearest the aid stations; $110,000 race would be held in the British Commonwealth of Ber• once every mile Scott had to drop back slightly to get aid, and once muda in 1990. every mile he caught the aid station volunteers recovering from O'Riordan estimated that with the cancellation in Sept. of the 1988 having just serviced Allen. A drib of energy was wasted here, a drab Bermuda International Triathlon (PR #7) and now Scottsdale, he has there. lost $150,000 in cash this year. The pace quickened at the turnaround, with nine miles left to run. John Hamack of Dallas, who has for years been active in triath- The mile splits, which had been incredible, escalated toward the in• sane: 5:40s, 5:45s. Finally, at the aid station at mile 23, Scott fell lons in the state of Texas, is a candidate for the Tri-Fed/USA Board five yards behind and struggled for three-quarters of a mile to catch of Directors. While Hamack's name was listed on the official ballot up. He felt tired, he said, but was still strong — stronger, he thought, which appeared in the latest issue of Triathlon Times, it was inadver• than Allen.