The Terminator
By the late 1980s Mark Allen had become my favourite US triathlete. I’d read his book and been regaled with tales from Avignon. I was also already working on my own Grip Of Death on my Peugeot Elan.
I admired Mike Pigg but knew I’d never be as brave as him on the bike. I also liked to think that I ran like Steve Jones. Smooth, light, low to the ground. Pigg was a fast runner. But not textbook.
But the triathlon career I wanted to eventually have was Scott Molina’s. The 1984 Triathlete of the Year. Like me, he came from a running background but he was also super-strong in all three sports.
Molina was also famous for huge mileage. I was sixteen when I started triathlon, but whenever the school holidays rolled around I was out in Slough creating my own Molina-style training programme.
He raced often, 23 times in 1984, everywhere, and across all distances. He travelled to the races with the best prize purses because he wanted to win races and earn money. He was The Terminator!
Scott is also a super-nice guy and took the time recently to help me with TSP3 about Scott DHs. And TSP8 about the France Irontour.
The article above, Terminator 2, is from the November 1994 issue of Triathlete (USA). The piece was written just before the Irontour. Scott explained that he was having a great season even though he’d taken the whole of 1993 off to deal with some back issues.
He’d finished well up in some competitive races. 4th in Cleveland. 2nd at Boulder Peak. And was pretty much back in full training. With a new focus on quality, especially on the bike, over quantity. Below.
Images: Triathlete (USA) November 1994
Also. In the late William R. Katovsky’s editorial piece we get the story of how Scott got his famous nickname.
I have a confession to make. Almost a decade ago, when I wrote a magazine profile on this month’s cover subject, Scott Molina, I had just seen the film The Terminator. The similarities between the futuristic indestructible cyborg killing machine and the indestructible pro triathlete were hard to ignore. Hence I came up with the name Terminator as the title of my article. Funny isn’t it, how some nicknames stick.
Such is my legacy to triathlon.
Pleasingly. Scott Molina is still truckin’ into his sixties. Training and racing near his home in Christchurch, New Zealand.
I also love this story he told on Babbitville about explaining to his first father-in-law that he was going to quit his job and move to San Diego to be a professional triathlete. A job that didn’t exist in 1982.
