IMCDA Race Report - Pen Caldwell
Dear Rich and Patrick,
Team EN is the perfect training tool for me. My wife and I have a blended family of eight kids and three Great Danes. All heart and no common sense is about our only defense for taking on the dogs. We are spread out between Nashville, San Diego, San Francisco, and Durham. My spectacular wife, who qualified and ran the Boston marathon several years ago while single and working three jobs to care for her five children, now works pretty much all the time teaching first graders, keeping administrators employed, and parents happy. I average maybe half the month in hotel gyms and lots of it on the back side of the clock, missed two Out Season training weeks last fall and 6 weeks of your 20 Week Ironman Training Program this spring due to a bad back, and another 2 weeks due to a flu scourging the likes of which I had only previously read about. So like all age-groupers, my life and my age keep getting in the way of this little triathlon hobby. And yet, there I was last weekend at IMCDA… trying not to get choked up during the National Anthem and when the gun fired to start the swim because you told us not to waist heart rate on emotion (and I didn't want anyone to see me sniveling). Stay slow. Stay smooth. Cool it…get to the LINE.
The point of all this is that 98% of the 2300+ people standing there with me, getting ready to push their limit, aren't able to cover their commitments getting paid to compete in endurance sports. And truthfully, on the list of what really matters in our age-grouper, often conflicted reality, we get that endurance sports is pretty low. But it's there and it's a goal and somebody's watching whether we quit or not, so we need help. We need advice by the truckload from someone who understands where we are, and we probably need that advice right now which might be 3PM half way around the world. We need community because most of us train alone and because it's more effective for us to quickly hear "been there" or "good job" from 10 people rather than 1 when we have a training setback or need a lift. The list goes on. I am simply trying to say that the coaching you have created via Endurance Nation was the perfect vehicle for achieving my goal of completing an Ironman, and giving it my best, while still managing my life. For any age-grouper reading this, TEAM EN IS THE WAY TO GO!
So my race? I have only done sprints and international distances before Coeur D'Alene and have never been coached. When I set the goal last year, I figured on going 13:30 total - swim in 1.5 hours, bike in 7 hrs, and run in 5 hrs if I got coaching and did the work. I wasn't counting on missing so much training though. As it turned out, I finished in 13:08 so way to go RnP!…and Al and Peter and Brenda and Dino and Mike and Mark and all of you at Team EN. You got me there. Thank you.
There's probably nothing I can impart in the way of the mechanics of the race that hasn't been said so I thought I'd offer up some of my thoughts on the weekend as related to a couple of coaching points by RnP. Rich talked about staying away from stressed out athletes in order to stay calm and stay gracious. At the time I heard this, I thought no way will that be me because I was truly filled with gratitude for all of my blessings…my wife's patience and support, a job that provides the income and time to pursue this, my health, the 3000 volunteers at Coeur D'Alene, the rest of anonymous supporters that would be cheering me on throughout the day, my grown children who were taking a weekend to come say "go Dad!!!!" a handful of times in 14 hours, all the answers from Team EN members I still have not met.
But even so, there were still many race weekend moments where my mind went to stress which is really to say my mind went to all about me which is to say I was sliding into ill-humor, a would-be serious downer for the people there that love me. The details and logistics of the event just can do that to you if you let them….worked so hard, get enough sleep, don't forget a new heart rate monitor battery, will my bike cleats last, should I run with a visor…gotta by one, tire pressure, parking, trapped on the I-90 parking lot for three hours Thursday night, I-90 eastbound just east of Spokane closed at 5am race morning, forgot my yogurt parfait breakfast race morning, this is an expensive weekend….
The only way to combat all these buzz killers is to see them coming, so thank you Rich! My wife and kids had a great trip and were almost entirely spared from the insidious stress that entered and quickly exited my mind throughout the weekend. And I just kept thanking everyone and I trying to notice how fortunate I am…like the kind waitress at our hotel who was not able see her son's weekend baseball games because she had to work, and the my age man on a teacher convention born with one leg 6 inches shorter than the other who joined me in the elevator.
The other biggy for me was the Patrick forewarning that finishing Ironman is about being prepared and solving problems and not stressing about the cause. That awareness combined with Rich's "slow is smooth, smooth is fast" was huge for me. Thursday night drive from Seattle and WA Highway Department closes I-90 with us on it for 3 hours??? We won't get to Spokane til 3AM!!! What the… Easy. Nothing you can do. Let's listen to the NBA finals and get some sleep. The rental car has Sirius and the seats recline
…5AM and this highway patrolman is actually closing I-90 eastbound, right now, on race morning??? Easy. Plenty of back roads my phone will show me. Ok. At transition and only 30 minutes to go. No worries. I've got my list. Long line for tire pumping. "Good morning, would you mind if I borrow your bike pump. Thanks so much, good luck today". Check. Body marking. Probably a long line there too, but I've got my own marker. "Good morning, would you mind body marking me? Thanks, have a great race." Check.
Anyway, IMCDA was a top three moment in my life. I'll never forgot my wife in and out of my periphery the last mile on her cartilageless knees cheering me on. Good chance that moment could have been spoiled if I had not taken to heart
1) stay gracious because the stress WILL creep in
2) slow is smooth, smooth is fast
3) make a list
4) Ironman is about solving problems.
Oh yeah, one last thing. I have a bad lower back from years of mogul skiing, and as soon as I started swimming consistently after my last injury, my back stabilized. I am 100% certain that swimming three times a week is my cure. That is the exception I will have to fit in during the OS this fall
I relearned that with determination and work, we can go far, but with humility and gratitude, we maintain the support and loyalty of others which can take us further...into that audacious realm where we actually inspire others to be their best….the real meaning of Ironman, I think
Thanks to everyone! You inspired me
Pen Caldwell
Comments
I love this. It is right on.
Nice work and nicely said.
thanks Robert - good luck at IMLP
Wow, Pen. That was excellent. Sounds like you thoroughly enjoy and appreciated not only the experience, but what the experience meant to you. Nicely done and congratulations Ironman!