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True Grit: The Road to Ironman

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An Ironman Competition is widely considered to be one of the most challenging and physically demanding single-day sporting events in the world. Comprising a 3.8 km swim, followed by a staggering 180 km bike ride and topped off with a full 42 km marathon, it’s easy to understand why.

Despite the competition’s fearsome reputation, longtime faculty member, Giles Campbell, made it his mission to complete his first Ironman over the summer and accomplished this feat on August 19th in Mont Tremblant, Quebec. Read on to hear (in his own words) how he used grit and perseverance to carry out this incredible achievement.

Written By Giles Campbell

In a rash moment back in September 2017, I signed up for my first Ironman competition in Mont Tremblant. I’d been racing the sprint distance (750 metre swim, 20 km bike and a 5 km run) for several years, but always thought I’d like to try something more extensive. To get a taste of what long distance racing is all about, I entered the Welland Long Course—a 2 km swim, 56 km bike and a 15 km run.

Training for an Ironman is tough and requires endurance. Some can prepare for the race in six months, but I felt I needed a head start. I gave myself a year to train, starting in September 2017. I ran, biked and swam several times a week. At first, the training lasted between six and eight hours a week, but by Christmas it went up to eight to ten hours a week and by summer I was training for about 17 hours a week. It was exhausting and I burned many calories each day. On one five-hour bike ride in the summer I burnt 5,500 calories in one shot! I loved the training and spent many hours preparing with members of my tri team, TryForce Niagara.

The Ironman triathlon has been running since 1977 and was founded in Hawaii by U.S. Navy Commander, John Collins. It started with three separate events – the Waikiki Rough Water Swim (2.4 miles), the Oahu Bike Race (112 miles) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.2 miles) that a group of military athletes were competing in individually. As the story goes, Commander Collins dared them into competing by saying, “Whoever finishes first, we’ll call him the Iron Man.” The races were combined in 1978 to form the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon and is now known as ‘Kona,’ the Holy Grail of triathlons. Of the 15 competitors who started the race, only 12 of them crossed the finish line that first year.

My race took place on August 19th in Mont Tremblant, Quebec. I was surprised just how big the competition was with 2,272 racers competing with me. On race day, I rose at 4 a.m. to eat breakfast and ready myself. I was at the course by 5:30 a.m. full of jitters but confident that all the training had prepared me for the race—I was ready! Fireworks went off and the Canadian Air Force jet flew over the start line indicating the beginning of the race. We had a rolling start so not all 2,272 athletes started in the water all at once! The water was warm and fairly calm, and I was pleased with my time—I finished the 3.8 km swim in one hour and 14 minutes.

The bike route was laid out as a 90 km loop that we all did twice. The first loop was fine as I ate my nutrition and hydrated well. At about 120 km, however, I was hurting. My neck and back ached as I was in the hunched over aero-position on my tri-bike for four hours. When I made it to the turn-around corner I was re-energized knowing that the end of the bike section was coming soon. All I wanted to do was get off my bike! Mont Tremblant is very hilly with some extremely steep ups and downs to contend with. The biking portion took me six hours and 19 minutes to complete and as I returned to the transition area, I was amazed I had no cramps and that my muscles actually felt good.

Heading out into the run with the thought, “Okay, I’ve just ridden 180 km and now it’s time to run 42 km” was daunting, but I clicked into my metronome pace and took the road head-on. There were lots of aid stations, so I kept myself hydrated and continued to eat my energy gummies, ice chips and a few cups of salt water. The course was similar to the bike route, as you had to complete two loops. The first loop runs just beside the finish line and it’s quite hard to turn left for another 22 km and not right to finish. I had my wife, Fiona, and many friends cheering me along, which further motivated me to keep going.

The second loop of the run went well even though I was very tired. All day I’d felt that at some point, likely during the run, my body would begin to seize up, but thankfully it never did. So, as I approached Mont Tremblant Village, the reality that I was going to finish really hit me. Up the last hill and into the village, the route became about a metre wide with thousands of people cheering and ringing cowbells. You simply can’t get enough cowbell! 

“The finish line was amazing, lights cameras and the announcer saying over the speakers, ‘Giles Campbell, you are an Ironman!’”  – Giles Campbell

An absolutely amazing and an emotional finish—I could not believe it! I finished the run in four hours and 10 minutes the whole race in 12 hours, 6 minutes and 44 seconds. As I entered the ‘finisher tent,’ I realized I had prepared so much to get over that finish line that I had forgotten to prepare myself for what comes after — intense pain, uncontrollable shivering, hunger and thirst — but then you get a great medal and the congratulations from loved ones, plus for me a big mug of tea!

Here are my stats:

106th out of 332 of the men in my age group – M45-49
577th out of 1,669 men in the race
687th out of 2,272 competitors

With one Ironman under his belt, what’s next for Giles? He is considering entering the Lake Placid Ironman or the Niagara Barrelman next year. On top of that, he is in the process of recruiting his brother-in-law to join him in the competition with a two-year deadline. For Giles, the road to Ironman is ongoing and he plans to keep challenging himself in this mighty competition.

Lower School, Ridley News, Upper School

Adding Grit To A Positive Education

One of the advantages of a Ridley education is that the experience of being a student is about more than passing tests and meeting standards. In recent years, researchers have identified predictors of success as well as keys to living a satisfying, happy life and this is something our school consciously enacts.

At Ridley, we are infusing the best of this research – centred on grit and flow – into a Ridley education to help instill in our students the lifelong habits they need to flourish in our global community.

The concept of grit is one aspect of Positive Education that Ridley has incorporated into school culture. Grit is defined as the tendency of a person to sustain interest and effort in pursuing long-term goals. Grit allows people to pursue challenges over the course of years.

In her groundbreaking research, Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth, University of Pennsylvania Professor of Psychology and MacArthur Foundation Genius Fellow, determined that passion, perseverance, and stamina outweigh IQ as a predictor of success. In other words, grit is the key to lifelong success.

“Educational policy has not yet taken adequate note of the whole child. Kids are not just their IQ or standardized test scores. It matters whether or not they show up, how hard they work,” says Duckworth, in an interview with the Washington Post. Duckworth has advised the White House, the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs.

Ridley encourages students to discover and pursue their passions and equips them with the capacity and determination to persevere through challenges, risk failure, and develop grit and resilience, while creating a supportive culture that allows students to face adversity in a positive and engaging environment. Accomplishment and engagement are essential elements of a flourishing life, and both can be fostered through conscious effort, grit is a fundamental element for achievement.

“The importance of the environment is two-fold. It’s not just that you need opportunity in order to benefit from grit. It’s also that the environments our children grow up in profoundly influence their grit and every other aspect of their character.”     – Angela Duckworth

Duckworth’s research began by searching for an answer as to why some people succeed while others do not. Being ‘gritty’ means consciously deciding to push forward in the face of adversity, failure, and physical or emotional pain, without knowing when the adversity will be over.

“One way to think about grit is to consider what grit isn’t,” explains Duckworth. “Grit isn’t talent. Grit isn’t luck. Grit isn’t how intensely, for the moment, you want something.”

Self-control and grit are often confused, says Duckworth in her research, while they are related there are key differences. Grit allows people to pursue challenges over the course of years, while self-control, helps to maintain focus, in the face of distraction, in the pursuit of those goals.

The concept of grit has been around for some time. In 1889, the year Ridley was founded, Dr. Francis Galton reviewed the biographies of eminent individuals, throughout history and concluded that success resulted from intellect combined with “zeal” and the “capacity for hard labour”. The modern study of grit continues in examining single-minded perseverance over the very long-term.

“I believe grit will for many adolescents be more evident in activities pursued outside of the classroom–in the school play, on the football field, in the school orchestra, in community service, and so on.” – Angela Duckworth

At Ridley we are empowering our students to do more themselves, by increasing opportunities for Ridleians to play an active role in their school communities so that they can gain the necessary habits, skills, and practice to lay the foundation for flourishing lives.

Ridley strives to be at the forefront of educational development to ensure our students become successful members of the global community. Ridley will continue to review the latest research in education for new ideas to ensure we are a leader and innovator in molding the minds and lives of our students.

Lower School, Ridley News, Upper School

Ridley Exploring Mindfulness as Part of a Positive Education

Ridley strives to be at the forefront of educational development, to ensure our students become successful members of the global community. For this reason, our school was an early adopter amongst independent schools, embracing positive education as a fundamental approach to learning.

Being on the leading edge of positive education means continuing to explore new ideas and research as it becomes available. This semester, the students of Lower School have been part of a pilot programme to evaluate the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation on students. The programme developed by Jacqueline Oscvirk, creator of The Mindful Family, involves students from Kindergarten to Grade 8 practicing mindfulness twice weekly.

Mindfulness meditation focuses the human brain on what is being sensed at each moment, instead of the past or future. It is a way to calm the mind and develop clarity, calmness, empathy, and positivity.

Within educational systems, mindfulness has shown an improvement in students’ attention and focus, emotional regulation, creativity, as well as problem solving skills. Studies have shown youth benefit from learning mindfulness, in terms of improved cognitive outcomes, social-emotional skills, and well-being. These benefits may lead to long-term improvements in life.

“Our intention is to equip all of our Lower School students with the tools to overcome everyday challenges.” – Hanna Kidd, Lower School Counsellor

There is substantial evidence that skills which increase resilience, positive emotion, engagement, and meaning can be taught to school children. In this way, without compromising either, Ridley teaches both the skills of well-being and the skills of achievement.

“It’s another tool for teachers to use,” says Hanna Kidd. The Grade 7 and 8 students will begin their mindfulness training in early April, with the goal of using mindfulness to help reduce stress and anxiety as they prepare for exams.

Ridley is incorporating the latest research in positive education from around the world. Discoveries such as grit—the ability to persevere through challenges—by Dr. Angela Duckworth, and flow—the ability to become immersed in a challenging task—by Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, have already been added. Based on this science, Ridley equips students to deal with the daily demands of life and learning by creating an environment that:

• Generates positive emotions
• Practices mindfulness
• Builds on strengths not deficits
• Models grit and resilience
• Nurtures positive relationships
• Encourages goal setting and accomplishments
• Fuels our vitality

Ridley students are empowered to embrace their individuality, develop who they are, strive for who they will be, and define the lives they will lead. They develop the intellectual, physical, emotional, and social skills needed to succeed. They are inspired to acquire the knowledge, explore the truths, and nurture the values that will allow them to lead flourishing lives.

Ridley News, Sports, Upper School

Ridleian Becomes National Champion in Archery

On March 5th, Reece Wilson-Poyton ’18 captured the Canadian National Indoor Archery Championships in the Cadet Recurve category, which requires archers to hit a small target from 18m away. This victory caps a remarkable run for the Ridley student, who took up competitive archery in 2015.

His goal is to make the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics teams, and plans on beginning his training for shooting Olympic outdoor distances (70m) next year.

He was inspired to take up this less-common sport after attending the archery contests during the 2015 Pan-Am Games held in Toronto. “I love the sport so much because I am constantly improving, learning, and changing,” says Reece, who is now giving back to the archery community by becoming a Level 1 instructor for beginners at the Brockley Archery Club in Hamilton.

Athletics is an integral part of the Ridley College experience, all students participate in some form of physical activity every day. Ridley participates in the Sport for Life Society’s Long Term Athlete Development Model (LTAD). Which exposes students to a variety of sports as a foundation for engaging in sport for life. It provides a path to better sport, greater health, and higher achievement based on the latest sport science and best practices in coaching and training from around the world. Even when students find a passion outside of one of our over 75 co-curriculars, we do our best to accommodate.

Reece travels several times a week to Caledon, ON for training sessions, and practices on campus with Mr. Clyde Dawson. “Ridley has helped by allowing me to practice on campus under the supervision of Mr. Dawson two times a week after school as part of my sport credit,” says Reece.

Reece was recently featured in an episode of Future Legends on WIN HD Caribbean, who profiled his perseverance and determination, to overcome an eye injury to compete at the highest level. Ridley encourages students to discover and pursue their passions, persevere through challenges, risk failure, and develop grit and resilience. Accomplishment and engagement are elements of a flourishing life. Grit is a fundamental element for achievement and Reece has embodied this.

His next competition is the Multi-sites Indoor Championships of the Americas (MICA), which will involve archers from the Americas and the Caribbean. Afterwards Reece says he will be focusing on upcoming outdoor competitions in Montreal and Sault Ste. Marie, shooting at a distance of 60m, and attending a training camp in Florida.