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Ryan Linden

Anything Is Possible

By InnerVoice

July 13^th, 2018

My body just felt off

In 2014, I qualified for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, which had been a big goal of mine. I had a great build up to the race and was super excited to get an opportunity to see how I matched up against the best in the world. Race morning came and I had that excited, nervous feeling as I warmed up. You're sitting there treading water in the middle of the Kona bay, and as soon as that gun goes off all the nerves and excitement just disappear. You put your head down in the water and you forget about the nervousness, you just look around and see orange flailing all over the place. It’s go time! On this occasion, I exited the water roughly in the position I thought I’d be, which was positive.

On the bike is where things started to change. My body just felt off. I was drinking and fueling normally, but I didn’t feel myself. Ryan, just get back to town and then you get to run, you love to run. Things had changed so quickly - I’d left T1 excited and thinking I could really make a good day of it , but by mile 3 of the run I was walking already, and by mile 5 I was in the bathrooms. I felt dizzy. I made the turn back to town and somewhere along mile 6 a lady found me on the side of the road. I was out of it and she got me help. I got transported to the finish line and had a full medical team work on me. I had multiple IVs in me, and a really bad fever. Eventually, I was transported to the ER where they thought I had appendicitis. Luckily, it came back negative, but for me the dream of finishing Kona was over. I was excited for my Every Man Jack teammates - many of whom won their age groups or podiumed - but for me, I’ll never forget not finishing that race. Luckily, I got another shot at it in 2016 and it went much better. I can still feel the emotions I had leading into the finish line. I’ll never forget not finishing, but I’ll never forget finishing, either. Even better was that my wife and parents were there with me.

i thought it was going to be easy

I grew up like any other kid, playing sports from a very young age. I started with the basics like baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, golf and skiing. I started swimming for our local summer swim club at age 7, and I was hooked. All the kids in the neighbourhood had the same summer schedule: we’d ride our bikes to swim practice for 2 hours, then we had tennis straight after. I continued playing baseball and soccer as I grew older, but eventually joined the year-round swim club in the area, the Oakland Live Y’ers. Being a part of this club was a big deal, it taught me discipline, commitment and hard work - things I have carried with me to this day. I continued on swimming, moving up the ranks, knowing it would be my focus in high school. In freshman year I decided to join the cross country team despite having never really run and not really knowing what the sport was. I had fun that year, but was more excited to swim in the winter. The following year it hit me how much fun I’d actually had on the cross country team; I tried out for the varsity team and made it from the start.

After high school, I no longer wanted to swim - I was burned out after so many years - and I ran my first marathon that fall. It wasn’t an aim, and I wasn’t sure what it took anyway, but I ran a 2:57 and qualified for Boston. Over the next 2 years I dropped my time down to 2:29 and thought I had a shot to run the Olympic Trials standard. In college, I was fortunate enough to train with Hansons-Brooks team, and while I never quite got the standard, I met my wife while running with the team. Talk about lucky! Des and I spent many years training for marathons together, and I watched her eventually make the 2012 Olympic team.

The summer after those Olympics, I was ready for a change in sports and figured it was time to put my swimming and running background together and try triathlon. The goal was to make Kona. I’m not going to lie, I thought it was going to be easy and I’d be at the top level right away. Little did I know how hard biking would be and how humbling the whole experience would be.

I'll always be the same guy

I’ve qualified for Kona twice and 70.3 Worlds every year since 2013, but I couldn’t have done it without support from people like my wife, and my coach Matt Dixon. Without them, I would still be lost in the journey. Desiree is my biggest supporter, as well as being my training partner for running. Through her I learn so much about sport, both in terms of the training regime, and mentally how to become a better athlete. When she can, she’s always at my races supporting me. There's times where we disappear from each other and we don't get to see one another for extended periods. When things get tough I think about how I want to show her why I was busting my ass for 20-hours-a-week over the last eight weeks. I like to use that mental side to push through.

I am also very fortunate to be a part of the EMJ Triathlon team, which is an amazing group of guys that I’ve gotten to know over the last 5 years. They are always pushing you, looking for what you can do to make yourself better. I’m lucky that one of my EMJ teammates lives close by and we try to train together a couple of times per week. My old roommate is also a big part of team, and he’s always there to help me push my limits.

Along the whole journey, though, my parents have always been there no matter what sport I’ve been competing in, and they still try to make it to a couple of races each year. To me, my tribe is always there no matter what, helping me be better whether I’m having great days or not so great days. To them I’ll always be the same guy if I win the age group or have to drop out of the race.

“I want to push my limits. I want to see how good I can be at something and I want to enjoy it. For me, it’s like meditation, my Zen Zone is if I can go out by myself for a 5-hour ride or a 2-hour run. I’m just enjoying nature and I’m able to forget about everything else and just relax.”

coffee nerds

We’ve been coffee nerds for many years now. Whenever Des and I go to a new place, one of our travel goals is to taste the coffee from the region and learn their techniques. Then we decided to start doing some home roasting and we got a small one kilo commercial roaster. We ended up talking to Ben and Sarah True about it, and it turned out they had also just gotten a one kilo commercial roaster, so eventually I came up with the idea that we should work together.

The four of us are all endurance athletes and have decent names in the industry, so we started Linden & True. I talked to Ben and we decided that we’d launch during the Boston Marathon - with the crowds and the love of coffee that the endurance community already has, we thought it would be a good idea. Our popup at Trackhouse turned out to be a huge success, and it blew up from there - especially with Des winning the marathon. Since then it’s kind of been nonstop. We’re learning more and more each day about building a company, and there’s lots of intricate parts that you would never think of. Anything from shipping to getting certain quantities to understanding best practices. But that makes it super fun. And like sport, it’s an ongoing process of fine tuning and training and learning. You’re not just going to become a master roaster overnight, you have to be committed to it and put in the hours. So having four elite athletes might actually work perfectly in that sense. At least we know we’ll put in the work.

I wanted to be a pro skier

Growing up I loved skiing and would take a couple of trips each year to the mountains with my dad and my best buddy. It is one of the first things I remember doing with my dad. He enjoyed skiing, but he never grew up with ski lessons so he learned to follow along and go with me wherever I went. It just built that relationship. He’d go with me down the double black diamond mogul hills, it was pretty cool. We would take these big trips out west - 7 or 10 days at a time - a couple of times a year. Sometimes we’d hike up to the top and ski back down, so you can imagine the time we had to bond.

I really wanted to be a pro skier, like in the movies. The reality was that wasn’t going to happen, even after me and my buddy ski-bummed for a year in Park City. During the 2002 Olympics we just worked the chairlift and skied every day, we did it because we enjoyed it and we were able to push our limits to see how far we could go. I think the dedication, discipline, and wanting to see how far I can push my body is what led me to triathlon.

Watching Des win boston

Watching Des win the Boston Marathon was...crazy. It’s something you always dream of happening, and we’ve been close so many times. I was at the finish line watching on this tiny little orange TV that’s on the back of a camera, and there’s just all these emotions running through your body. As I saw her take the lead I thought ‘Holy shit. Okay. Is this going to happen?’ It’s a long race, so you’re never quite sure if it’s going to be your day, but as it got down to the last couple of miles it was clear that she was going to do it. It’s everything she’s worked her butt off for, and as I watched her dream come true I completely forgot that it was raining and cold and miserable. It makes you remember that things like this do happen. People who work their ass off and do the right things, they do get rewarded.

I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it.

It’s been a bit of a change since then as well. When we go to certain races, or we go out to dinner, people have started coming up to us. A couple of weeks ago we were at a brand new brewery down the street from our house - it’s just this little hole in the wall type place - and this guy approached us. He said Des looked familiar and that he was pretty sure she’d broken tape one time. We all had a good laugh.

Photo from Desiree Linden Fan Page / A Runners Eye (https://www.facebook.com/DesireeLindenFanPage/photos/p.1648772995207935/1648772995207935/?type=1&theater)

Anything is possible

I like to be someone who gives back to other athletes and helps them along the journey. I can teach them how not to make the same mistakes I did, and show them it’s not all about wins or losses. In long-distance racing there’s always going to be highs and lows. When you’re in a low spot, remind yourself to break the race up and look for all the positives. You have to give it all you have and believe in yourself and your training. But most importantly: have fun because if it’s not fun there’s many others things you could be doing. For 99% of us we are doing it for fun, friendships, and to be healthy, and we’re all lucky to still have our day jobs no matter how well we raced that day.

At the end of my career I want to be remembered as someone who worked hard, pushed the limits, wasn’t afraid to try something new, and was ready to challenge the obstacles. If I never make it back to Kona again I know I have tried my hardest, took chances and had fun along the way. When I put all of them together I think it comes back to the skills I learned in my early years in swimming: dedication, commitment, and if you put your mind to it, anything is possible.

Footnotes

Words by Ryan Linden, Photos courtesy of Ryan Linden and as attributed, Cover Photo by Talbot Cox, Edited by Cody Royle, Published by Travis McKenzie, Copyright NTSQ Sports Group Inc.

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FootNotes

Words by Ryan Linden, Photos courtesy of Ryan Linden and as attributed, Cover Photo by Talbot Cox, Edited by Cody Royle, Published by Travis McKenzie, Copyright NTSQ Sports Group Inc.

Colin O'Brady

Ryan Linden

Anything Is Possible

FootNotes

No Human is Limited

I'm Here To Win

The Humble Son

My Incredible Journey

The Most Interesting Man In The World

Season 3