IRON WAR: Book Review

"my biases are such that the voluntary suffering of triathlon, borne in pursuit of the triumph of spirit over flesh, seems the most potent metaphor for our nature and condition...human beings are the creatures that try harder and never stop trying. We try when its hopeless. We try when it doesn't make any sense. And when we succeed in trying harder than we have ever tried before, we try harder still. We are cinderella, and rocky, and the little engine that could. we are beautiful in this way. heartbreakingly beautiful" matt fitzgerald.

above are some of my favorite lines from this book. they illustrate why i think this is not just another sports biography but something truly special.

there are many excellent reviews to be found on-line, from reviewers at the top of the triathlon food chain in terms of knowledge, credibility and perspective. i dare not even try to do what they have done, and will limit myself instead to a personal reflection on what this book has meant to me, and what it might mean to you.

ironman has been in my psyche for a long time. it just took me a very, very long time to actually get around to  doing one. i remember dressing in my speedos as a teenager and riding through the countryside, pretending i was dave scott. he has been my hero for a very long time. "the man" was almost like a character from greek mythology to me, a tanned demi-god who had human form yet was doing something not humanly possible. his image was inspiring, yet his character was two dimensional. he was like any other hero from mythology to me. he was all image and i lacked an appreciation for his full on humanity, and ironically, this deprived me of truly appreciating how superhuman his accomplishments really were.

Hercules taming cerebrus

"the man" winning kona..."again"

matt fitzgerald's book brings dave and mark to life. it returns them to the status of human beings with all the neurosis, narcissistic pathology, desires, and personal laundry which that involves.  it situates their lives as ironmen, in the greater context of their struggles to be human. after reading it, i liked them more. i appreciate their achievements on a deeper more resonant level and i am, in turn, more motivated to bring out the best in myself, to transcend my own limits. in this respect, the book is successful in a way that elevates it beyond what one might generally expect from  this  genre and the limits of fitzgerald himself as a writer. i wouldn't call it literature, but it was more powerful to me than lots of literature that i've read.

iron war, brings the early days of kona back to life in the reader's mind. i enjoyed being transported back to kona 1989 for a while, and it was a confirmation for me about why i think ironman is special and why kona is the ultimate ironman race.

mark and dave battle in the last race of the late-early period of ironman history

personally, i might have been able to live without the dummied down scientific explorations that probably make the book about 50 pages longer than it needs to be. for me, they don't add much. there is a huge mental component to ironman.  i agree. it takes huge mental power to push the limits of what is imagined possible the way dave and mark did in 1989. no shit. and, the pure limits of what we know about physiology can never explain why mark and dave finished within 5 minutes of crowie's record time, on a slightly different course, twenty years earlier, riding bikes that no self respecting age grouper would ride today, and with full changes of clothes at t-1 and t-2. i don't need half-assed enquirer type accounts of scientific theory to enrich my understanding of that.

i recently had the chance to enjoy matt fitzgerald's book, while on a trip to cayman islands, over several evenings spent on an outdoor patio, sipping wine, as my 18 month old daughter fell asleep. perhaps the serene surroundings added to my enjoyment, but i have to say that i recommend this book highly as a vacation read, especially if you have kids. it won't tax you. it will fit into your schedule and you can easily finish it on a short holiday in the kind of sleep deprived, attention deficit type, short reads that a busy parent and triathlete can muster when they are not working.

finally i would like to thank matt fitzgerald for writing the first book of its kind. we need more books like this about the history of our sport and its major figures. he has done, to my mind, a great job of bringing my heroes to life, of celebrating the sport of triathlon and situating it philosophically, as a human endeavor, in a way that i can relate to. highly recommended as an essential part of any triathlete's library.