12 minute read
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
The 4th Makes a Prideful Return to Redwood City
Fourth of July festivities returned to Redwood City in a big way after a twoyear pandemic hiatus.
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A day filled with free events featured a pancake breakfast with the city’s Fire Department, chalk art on Courthouse Square, a downtown festival, the annual parade, and a pre-fireworks concert at the Port of Redwood City. The night ended with the traditional fireworks celebration at the port.
Grand Marshal, 105-year-old Louise "Auntie Lou" Prado
San Carlos Loves a Block Party
San Carlos is famous for social events, and block parties lead the way in both neighborhoods and the commercial district. On June 17, residents headed downtown to the 600 block of Laurel Street, where they dined in surrounding restaurants, enjoyed food outdoors, played games, and danced to the tunes of a disc jockey.
“Block parties are some of my favorite events,” says Recreation Coordinator Lauren Schneider of the city’s parks and recreation department. “They’re the best, especially since we haven’t been able to have them for so long.”
The city encourages residents to call Parks and Recreation at 650-802-4382 for help in arranging block parties of their own.
Redwood City Folks Enjoy Magical Music and Motion
The Magical Bridge Playground at Redwood City’s Red Morton Park now offers its “Magical Music and Motion” series, which combines yoga, movement, meditation, dance, and fitness for people of all ages, led by two instructors from Cañada College and Notre Dame de Namur University.
“This is meant to be very adaptive,” says Lori Hart, a volunteer with the Redwood City Parks and Arts Foundation. “We’ve had people who have brought chairs. It’s a feel-good movement kind of thing.”
Hall of Fame Athletes Honored
The San Mateo County Historical Association on June 23 inducted six new athletes into the Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame. This year's honorees:
Donovan Blythe, a globe-trotting basketball ambassador and coach whose dominant Eastside College Prep girls’ teams became state champions. Liz Bruno, a basketball star at Mercy High School and Santa Clara University early in the Title IX era. Many of her scoring/rebounding records still stand.
Ron DiMaggio, a longtime track and field coach who has mentored thousands of young athletes in Daly City and the North County. Chris Dorst, a Menlo-Atherton High School and Stanford University water polo standout who became an Olympic medalist. Scott Feldman, a Major League Baseball pitcher who honed his craft at Burlingame High School and the College of San Mateo early in his career.
Inductees left to right: Ron DiMaggio, Mike Jameson accepting for Helen Lengfeld, Chris Dorst, Liz Bruno, Scott Feldman and Donovan Blythe.
Helen Lengfeld, a stellar golfer and dedicated advocate for women on the links whose influence lives on at the Peninsula Golf & Country Club and beyond.
Fox Theatre Presents Christopher Duffley
Labeled “significantly delayed” in speech, social interaction and cognitive ability, Christopher Duffley began singing at age 4 and has inspired audiences around the world both with his music and his message that we’re all unlimited and usually just need a little reminding. Proceeds will support an organization that serves children with special needs.
Sunday, September 11, 4:00 p.m.
Tickets: www.foxrwc.com
Dr. Robert Plant earns a place in the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame.
By Dan Brown
One of the perks of being an age-group warrior, as Dr. Robert Plant has been described, is that the calendar resets every few years. Next year, Plant will turn 80. As a triathlete, he can hardly wait to feel young again.
I'm going to be the baby in the group,” he says with a laugh. It will be an advantage. At Plant’s age, it’s the younger athletes who typically gain the edge, particularly in a sport that requires a combined 139 miles of swimming, cycling and running.
For now, he’s having a heck of a time fending off a few of the plucky youngsters at the low end of his 75-79 age group. Sheesh — kids these days.
Still, Plant remains tough to catch for just about anyone. The longtime Redwood City dentist is constantly on the move, whether swim-
" ming, cycling and running, or brushing, flossing and drilling. In both cases, his endurance is staggering (this is his 51st year as a dentist). In all, he’s wound up with a career for the ages, especially in his sport. Plant, who got a late start as a triathlete, will be enshrined in the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame during a gala in Milwaukee on Aug. 4. Plant’s career age-group résumé includes seven national triathlon championships. He also won a pair of titles in 2018: The famed Ironman Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii, and the Triathlon World Championship in Australia.
Finding it Hard to Believe
“I was not quite accepting of it at first,” the unassuming Plant says of his Hall of Fame selection. “But then all my buddies were saying, ‘You deserve it, blah, blah, blah.’
“So, I finally accepted it. And I finally have kind of embraced it. I'm just happy that it’s not a posthumous award.”
This year’s four-member induction class includes two multi-time Olympians (Gwen Jorgensen and Laura Bennett) and two athletes who did their best work after getting their AARP cards (Plant and 76-year-old Lesley Cens-McDowelllof Pennsylvania). But the coronation should not be mistaken for a finish line. Plant is probably out training at this moment. Maybe he’s pounding out hilly miles at Sawyer Camp, cycling along Cañada Road or swimming at one of the three fitness clubs to which he belongs. Triathletes in the 80-84 category should consider themselves warned.
Earning Respect from Other Athletes
On a flight back from an Ironman championship in Kona one year, Plant sat next to another competitor with longtime Peninsula ties, someone also known for his day job. But Plant didn’t know that when he saw his hyperkinetic fellow passenger jiggling his foot up and down, stretching from his seat and propping his foot up on the armrest.
Plant finally introduced himself and learned it was Redwood City native Eric Byrnes, the former Oakland A’s outfielder turned endurance athlete. And just like that, a mutual admiration society was born.
“Bob is a GREAT guy and an incredible triathlete,” Byrnes replied via email when asked to confirm the story. “He’s the fastest dentist alive.”
Born in 1943, Plant grew up in Redwood City and went to grammar school at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and high school at Serra in San Mateo. Back then, his hometown endured the derisive nickname, “Deadwood City.” Plant says there was little for bored teens to do besides “cruise up and down El Camino in your hot rod, when gas was 25 cents a gallon.”
Over time, Plant discovered he didn’t need a sports car to go fast. He competed in track and field at San Jose State during the so-called “Speed City” era under coach Bud Winters.
Plant ran alongside future Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos, best known for their Black Power salute on the medal stand at the 1968 Games in Mexico
Dr. Robert Plant
City. Plant recalls a fun bit of trivia; he says the reason Smith and Carlos raised one gloved fist apiece is that they’d forgotten the second pair of gloves back at the hotel and had to share.
Plant started at SJSU as a long-jumper (the event was called the broad jump in those days) before shin splints forced him to convert to the quarter-mile (now the 400 meters).
“And I wasn't that very high-ranked on the team,” he says. Even so, Plant once got to replace Smith at the anchor position for the mile relay.
“It shocked me,” he says. “I was so hyped up, man, because Tommie had an ingrown toenail, and he couldn't run. So, the coach came to me and said, ‘Hey, Bob!’ Are you kidding me? I had not practiced passing the baton, ever.
“And when the third guy came around, I just blasted out. I almost went over the boundary line, the passing zone. And it was the fastest I ran in my life, and we won.”
Discovering a New Sport
Plant just kept going. After college, he competed in recreational 10Ks and ran marathons. In his early forties, he clocked a personal-best 2 hours, 41 minutes at the Boston Marathon. That’s an impressive 6-minute, 9-second pace for every mile.
His true introduction to triathlon competition came in 1989, when Plant volunteered as a timekeeper at the 1989 Ironman World Championships in Kona. It turned out to be the ultimate gateway race — an epic duel between two of the sport’s alltime greats.
The battle between longtime rivals Dave Scott and Mark Allen became known as the “Iron War.” For more than eight hours, the pair raced side-by-side at a record pace. After 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of cycling and 26.2 miles of running (a full marathon), Allen snapped the
tape just 58 seconds ahead of Scott.
“I was at the finish line, and I was so excited,” Plant says. “I thought, ‘Wow, I gotta’ do this race.’”
Getting the hang of it took work. Yes, he could run. Yes, that cardiovascular training and leg strength carried over into cycling.
But Plant did not take like a fish to water.
“Basically, with swimming,” he says, “I was like a rock with arms.”
In that discipline, he had to learn that technical precision with each stroke was at least as important as fitness. It became clear as Plant watched much older, much larger, swimmers glide past him during his training laps.
“I was looking at these ladies and thinking, ‘Man, they're just kicking my butt,’” Plant says with a laugh. “It was all technique, right? If you have lousy technique, you're not going anywhere!”
Eventually he figured it out, although swimming still ranks last on his list of triathlon skills. Nonetheless, he says he generally finishes near the top of his age group in all three stages.
When he won the Ironman World Championship for his age group in 2018, he set a record for the 75-79 category by finishing in 13 hours, 6 minutes and 3 seconds. How dominant was that? Fidel Rotondaro of Venezuela, his closest competitor, finished 30 minutes and 52 seconds behind.
“It comes down to just hanging in there mentally, just breaking through the barriers and trying to just persevere,” he says. “It’s just having that ‘don't-quit’ attitude, even when the body says, ‘Oh, sorry, I know you don't want to quit, but we're not going anyplace.’”
Going, Going and Going
It should be known to competitors everywhere that Plant has no plans to stop running — ever. His best triathlon advice — his “tri” tip — is simply to love it as much as he does.
“I think what really drives the sport is your inner passion,” he says. “It’s not the hype. I think it's your inner drive.”
He's running in Abu Dhabi later this year before heading to Egypt for another race.
“I get around a little bit,’’ Plant says, chuckling. “That's part of the fun, too. I go, ‘Oh, where's the World Championship?’ Well, I'm going to see if I qualify for that. And I want to go to such-and-such place.’”
Above: Plant's medals commemorate national and international championships.
About the only place he will not travel is on an ego trip. At his dentistry office on Arch Street in Redwood City, his staff had to trick him into bringing in his medals and jerseys, which they framed without asking his permission. In planning his acceptance speech for the Hall of Fame, he notes that he wanted to thank the volunteers and race directors. “Because triathlon is like a family,” he says.
But his modesty won't help him escape the highest honor his sport can bestow. The fastest dentist alive is about to get his brush with greatness. C
The office staff presented this custom-made bobblehead to the dentist and triathlete.
