Scott Molina and Erin Baker are back in Provo this week, still an item after all these months. Already, a year has passed since the first Heritage International (now Seven Peaks) Triathlon was held here, and several thousand miles, laps and interval workouts later, these two are going as strong as ever.
Triathlon-wise, it's been the romance of the year. Scott & Erin. They had breakfast the day before last year's inaugural event - Scott was coming back from a run, he asked Erin if she'd eaten yet, she said no - and then, the next morning, they met again during the awards ceremony at the conclusion of the race. Erin placed first in the women's class and Scott placed second (to Mike Pigg) in the men's class.They've remained one-two, or vice versa, ever since.
"We discovered that we're incredibly alike," said Scott Friday morning over breakfast at the restaurant in Provo's Excelsior Hotel - yes, the same restaurant as a year ago. "We have similar interests. And we feel the same about our sport. We both realize it takes a lot of work, and we're not into shortcuts."
After they left Provo with their winnings last year, every time they saw each other their heart rates were up. Way up.
They began training together.
Scott went back to his home in Boulder, Colo. (The Community of Negative Bodyfat), and Erin, who is from New Zealand, went there, too, at the invitation of fellow world-class triathlete Colleen Cannon. Soon, if Scott & Erin weren't swimming together, they were running, or cycling, or checking their VO2 intake.
After a month of this, they got the idea that they were compatible. If you can train with someone - the rest is a breeze. Or, as Erin says, "You can see people at their worst sort of moments . . . and it's not the sort of situation where you go through those stages like pretending you don't have make-up on when you really do."
"Not only that, it gives you a lot of chance to talk, and find out about each other," adds Scott. "A lot of people probably envision training as real intense, but actually, there's a lot of time for talking."
Erin would qualify that statement, however, noting that it's difficult to talk, let alone breathe, when the guy you're riding with is trashing you into the pavement. "Actually, the only time I had to talk in the beginning was when we stopped at a 7-11 for a drink," she says. "I think he wanted to see how tough I was."
To this, Scott says, "huh?"
Anyway, they survived the training period, and after a month they had an actual, normal-pulse-rate date; and in between dominating their respective gender divisions around the world last year, they settled on a wedding date for this coming February or March - when another season is over and they've caught their breath.
In the relatively short history of triathloning, it shapes up as the most formidable male-female pairing ever. Molina is one of a handful of elite, world-class men who dominate the sport while Baker enjoys the same status among the women. To close out last season, Scott won the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon - the Super Bowl of Triathlons - while Erin finished second in the women's division of the Ironman. That was just the opposite of their finish in Provo in '88.
This year, they've each won three triathlons to date, and today, they're favored to add to their respective resumes by winning again.
The way they each got into triathloning in the first place is also similar. Scott was sitting at his home, in the Bay Area of California, watching the 1980 Ironman on TV when he decided it was the sport for him. He came from a running and swimming background, and learned cycling from that point on.
Likewise Erin. In 1984, she was in New Zealand, watching TV coverage of the popular Les Mills Triathlon - and decided to whip herself into three-sport shape. She had been an accomplished New Zealand national age-group runner, and had swum most of her life. She added the bike to her repertoire, and was off.
From their opposite sides of the world, they rose to the heights of triathloning - and then they met in the summer of '88 in Provo. The couple that trains together has remained together ever since.