November 2006 Athlete Profile- Frank and Kathy Salvo

Kathy and Frank "The Tank" Salvo are fun to hang out with. One of my questions is "Who's your inspiration?" and spending a bit of time with them, it's very easy to see that it's each other (an answer neither of them chose!). Combined, they have been racing tris longer than anyone I know, and they're enthusiasm and passion is still right there. This year was a comeback for the two of them. Kathy took a five year hiatus from the sport, and Frank was recovering from a broken leg. They both tackled two IM's!

Watch out for the two of them next year, I see Kona qualifying in the near future.

Athlete Of The Month Profile

1. Name Frank Salvo, 45 years old.  Married to Kathy for 20 short years and the last 13 with our little one, Samantha.
2. How long have you been training for and racing triathlons?  Since 1981.  Got into the sport after running in high school and riding my bike as a lifeguard while in college.  Did Ironman Hawaii for the first time in 1984.
3. What is your favorite aspect of the sport?  All of it – the variety of training and performance challenges in the three sports, travel to interesting places of the world as an athlete rather than regular tourist, the variety of people and their backgrounds and strengths, the fact that it can be hard enough to learn about myself in different ways even after 22 years.
4. What do you consider your biggest athletic achievement?  Either the first time I did Hawaii (given what I know now it is a miracle I finished) or doing IM Canada followed by Hawaii in 1992 only eight weeks apart.
5. What are your big goals for this season?  I’d like to be able to run well at the end of an Ironman – did 3:31 at IMC in 1991 and think I am capable of getting close to that at least one more time.
6. What’s your favorite meal?  A plate of pasta, salad and glass of red wine.
7. What’s your favorite movie?  Don’t really have one – but I do like Chariots of Fire, Love of the Game, Miracle and other sports-as-experience flicks.
8. Any other hobbies?  Other than spending time with the family, I like to work with my hands (which has been good during the construction on our home) and cross country skiing.
9. If you could visit one place this year, where would it be?  I like what I like, and that would be Hawaii.
10. What’s your favorite workout?  Long, hard, continuous – so that I can lose myself in the intensity of the effort and feel good afterward.  Two of my favorites are 40 x 100’s swimming or 2 hrs of up-tempo, steady running – I had the opportunity to do this along the California coast near Monterey last month and it was just incredible.
11. Who’s your inspiration?  Although there are a few people who I really do find inspirational (like Lance Armstrong, Dave Scott and George Sheehan), most of the time I draw energy and enthusiasm from the people I interact with in my everyday life, training and racing.  In 2003 my daughter told me “you can do it daddy” right before I left for the start of IMLP and this past weekend I found myself running in IMFL next to a 60 year-old guy – to me these are real and motivating, yet somehow simple and basic enough to keep me well grounded.
12. Any other words of wisdom?  “Remember, it is a marathon, not a sprint” (JP Morgan); and “Marathoner’s are made, not born” (George Sheehan). 

Athlete Of The Month Profile

1. Name    Kathy Salvo 42 years old. Married for 20 years to Frank.  We have a daughter Samantha who is 13.
2. How long have you been training for and racing triathlons? My first Triathlon was The Westchester Sprint Triathlon in 1985.  My goal was to be off the Bike before Frank finished the race.  I did but just barely, Frank Won the race that year.
3. What is your favorite aspect of the sport? Traveling to a bunch of incredible places to race and all the friends I have made though the years
4. What do you consider your biggest athletic achievement? I have been racing for the past 21 years and still love the sport
5. What are your big goals?  I will someday run a Sub 4 hour marathon in an Ironman and I will qualify and run the Boston Marathon.
6. What’s your favorite meal? Pizza, a great bottle of red wine and a Carvel vanilla ice cream cone.
7. What’s your favorite movie?  MIRACLE…The Story Of The 1980 USA Olympic Hockey Team
8. Any other hobbies? I love to Garden , Play the Piano, and Coach Samantha Summer Swim Team
9. If you could visit one place this year, where would it be?  ITALY
10. What’s your favorite workout? I love going on long group rides or a long run by the water.
11. Who’s your inspiration?             My friend Barbra Norman.  She was 49 years old when I first met her.  She was the person who I trained with and did my first 40/60/80/100 mile bike rides with…My First ½ Ironman with and My first Ironman in 1988, The Bud Light Endurance Triathlon.  Barb Set a World Record for her age group in her race that year a qualified for Hawaii.  Three months later she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and underwent a Bilateral Radical Mastectomy and started Chemotherapy. You would think that would slow a person down…Not Barb, She wanted me to qualify for Hawaii so we could do it together.  We did Gulf Coast (I qualified) and then less than 3 weeks later we did another ½ Ironman.  Barb took her last Chemotherapy pill that morning and won her age group 6 hours later.
    
    We had a Blast in Hawaii, and we Celebrated her being cancer free for 15 years by riding across South Carolina a couple of years ago.  We are looking for a new adventure for year number 20.

12. Any other words of wisdom? Never give up on your dreams

 

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