Few in the sport will have a better idea than Mark Allen of the motivation and emotions which will potentially swirl around Jan Frodeno‘s head before, during and after what has been billed as ‘the last dance’ of his storied professional career.
Frodeno is an Olympic champion, a three-time IRONMAN World Champion and has two 70.3 Worlds and pretty much every other title that matters already on his glittering CV. Allen too claimed everything there was to win in the sport in his era, including six Kona titles – and he went out in the grand manner.
‘An ace that Jan’s holding’
So when we sat down to chat, we first asked him about the memories – which are clearly still vivid – from that sixth and final triumph on the ‘Big Island’.
He told us: “Clearly, Jan has an extra motivation because it’s his final World Championship race, probably the last race of his career.
“And I know personally that when I went into my final Ironman in 1995, knowing that there’s no more tomorrows, it frees you up to actually go to a depth that maybe you never do otherwise. So that could be sort of like an ace that Jan’s holding.
“So in 1995 when I came off the bike in an impossible situation, 13-and-a-half minutes behind Thomas Hellriegel, there was just that thing in the back of my mind like, this is it. And it really did free me up to just go so deep within myself like I’d never gone before, and to pull up something that enabled me to win it. That’s how it could work for Jan.
He could be in a completely impossible situation where it looks like there’s no way he can win it, but he might pull something out of the hat because this is his final one.
‘Complete feeling of fulfilment’
“The flip side is that because it’s your final one, if you’re in an impossible situation. You can also kind of go, you know what, I don’t need this. I’m done. I’ve put it all out. I’ve won a gold medal. I’ve won the 70.3 World Championships. I’ve won Kona. I’ve set records.
“And that actually went through my mind when I was kind of in what looked an impossible position. About a mile-and-a-half into the marathon, I was like, I don’t need this. I’ve won five of these. I’m not coming back. Just pull the plug. Everybody will understand. It’s like, just walk away. There’s the hotel.”
What actually happened was that Allen emerged from a pack of runners, passed second-placed Jurgen Zack at around the eight-mile mark and then gradually whittled away Hellriegel’s advantage, making the catch with three miles to go.
He remembers: “I knew that I had done something special, and I knew that that was my best Ironman ever, because it was the most difficult one to win. Your fastest may not be your best.
“And my gauge for best is how much of my potential did I get out of myself on that day? And I got 110% out of myself in that final Ironman and so there was this complete feeling of deep satisfaction and fulfilment and completion for what I had done.
Another dimension
“And my son was there for the first time. He was born about a month after the 1993 race. And so to cross the finish line as a champion and to see him and to hold him and give him a kiss on the cheek and rub his belly, it was something so special.
“And that year it was interesting because a lot of years in all my other Ironmans, I have this sort of biomechanical breakdown that takes place as I’m fatiguing on the marathon and my feet start to slip in the shoes and I get blisters and all that kind of stuff. That year, my biomechanics didn’t break down. I ran through the finish line 100% strong. I only got one tiny little blister on my foot.
“And when I was doing the television interview for American TV on NBC, I was holding my son. And so then we finished the interview and I started to walk away and my arms started to shake and I said, ‘somebody needs to take my son or I’m going to drop him’. And they took him out of my arms and I walked a couple more steps, then my legs locked up, I couldn’t move. I threw up.
“So I was just standing there, legs locked, arms shaking, throwing up and I’m going, how did that happen? I crossed the finish line three-and-a-half minutes ago. I was absolutely perfect and now I can’t even move and I’m hurling all over the course. But it just shows you how you can get into this energy field and space that is so different from your normal reality.”
Jan ‘is definitely not a quitter’
So could history repeat itself for Frodeno on Sunday? “It really can go both ways,” reasons Allen. “It depends on how good he is at sort of convincing himself if he is in a tough situation, that it’s worth keeping it going. And he’s not a quitter. I mean, we’ve seen that in Kona when he had back problems and he ended up walking on the marathon and stuff like that. So he’s definitely not a quitter. He’s not going to quit.
“But, yeah, on the other side is, let’s look at the reality. He’s older than anybody else in the field at an age [42] that is pretty darn old for endurance sports. And this is a very hard course. This is not the kind of course where you just sort of put your head down and drill it like Kona.
“I don’t recall him ever racing a bunch of badass dudes like he’s going to have to on a course like this. Yes he’s been training on this sort of terrain and won 70.3 Andorra this season but clearly that wasn’t the kind of field that he has to contend with here. So I’m not so sure if it suits him or not.
“Obviously, we’ll see. And the thing is that there’s a number of guys that can really run fast, so he’s probably not going to get away on the bike, and he’s going to have to have the marathon of his life if he’s going to win it.”
