Meet The Team: 2011 Louisville

150 150 Coach P

Endurance Nation has 28 rock stars making a stand in Ol’ Louisville.  Weather looks to be mild by Louisville standards.  But it will still be hot!  This is a true advantage for TeamEN members as we have been analyzing heat acclimation and how to properly adjust pacing on both the bike and the run so we don’t melt out on the course.  Because on race day it is not about fitness. . . .it is about execution.

Meet a few of our team below.


Chris Martin

2011 IM Louisville Race Captain

I am 39 and work as a firefighter/paramedic in Lexington, KY.  My wife and I have been together for 13 years and we have two sons, ages 3 and 4.  I have been riding road bikes for about 10 years, and ran for exercise for the ten years before that.  I decided to do my first triathlon in 2008 because I thought the variety of training for three different sports would be a nice change.  I did my first HIM earlier this year, IM Louisville will be my 5th triathlon, and my second IM after doing the same race last year.  My goal is to race to stay hydrated and race to my potential.

Evan Odim

I was drawn to triathlons back in 2009 by fellow EN ninja, John Withrow. He called me and said “I want you to hear me out first before you say no. Can you do that? What do you think about racing the 2010 NYC Triathlon?” I believe my response was “What’s a Triathlon?” As a self described fitness junkie – basketball, soccer, or boxing – I saw this as another opportunity to get my competitive juices flowing.

Along with a few half-marathons, I’ve raced in a couple sprints, one olympic, and one half-ironman leading up to Louisville. My goals are simple: raise awareness for a wonderful organization that I’m apart of (ReserveAid) and finish with a smile on my face. I’ll be supported down in Kentucky by my beautiful (and very pregnant) wife, Sarah, and my two daughters, Jamie and Joslyn.

Brad Boomershine

Brad Boomershine
West Carrollton, OH
Manufacturing Operations Manager
50 yrs old

Married to my coach, nutritionist, cheerleader, psychologist, and best friend, Debby, for 27 years. One “child”: our two-year-old golden-doodle Louie!

This will be my first IM.

I re-entered sports competition in 2006 as a duathlete after a 26 year “retirement”.  First marathon in late 2007, qualified for Boston, finished
in top 25%, ran a 3rd (& most recent) marathon late 2008 with 3:07 PR.  Won a spot on Team USA in Duathlon and raced to 32nd in the 2009 USAT World Duathlon Championships.  First triathlon in 2009, with one each sprint, olympic, and HIM in 2010 while maintaining a busy duathlon schedule.  I’m amazed and blessed with a this great “machine” that God has given me to take
on these physical feats, especially the Ironman!

“Do or do not!  There is no try!” – Yoda

Amy Hendrigan

I live in downtown Boston with my husband Bob. I was raised in Cambridge, Mass and grew up a swimmer. In college I played varsity water polo (little-known fact: my team nickname was “Killer” – trust me, it was ironic!). After college I spent many fun-filled years in California, where I first dabbled in triathlons. I lived in Santa Barbara, and then in the Bay Area, where I got my masters in city planning at Cal. I’ve been back in Boston for seven years and currently work at a foundation, making grants aimed at ending homelessness and creating healthy communities. This is my 2nd Ironman, my first was Louisville 2010!  Last year I went 13:03, would like to be considerably under 13 this year. Bring on the heat!

Joe Matchette

I currently live in Warner Robins, GA with my wife, Gen, two daughters (11 and 6) and my son (9).  We are a triathlon family — even the kids have all done two races.  We became a tri-family when my wife started it all in the Spring of 2007.  I deployed to Iraq that summer and started training for my first sprint in the fall of 2007.  I got the bug and did my first IM in November 2009.  IMLoo will be my 3rd IM.  This past year has been full of triathlon training and Breast Cancer.  My wife was diagnosed last year 3 days before I competed in Ironman® Wisconsin (BAD NEWS!).  I found out in April that I had received a lottery slot for this year’s Ironman® World Championship (GOOD NEWS!).  As BC is now such a big part of our lives, I am dedicating my Ironman® races this year to raising money for a local support charity.  Any help will be appreciated:  http://www.yourcause.com/joematchette.

Mac Caudill

I’m a 2-time Emmy winning director & editor. I worked with Peter Jackson on several projects (Lord of the Rings, King Kong) and am now focusing my efforts on filling the airwaves with trashy reality tv shows.  I’m originally from Louisville, KY and this will be my first IM.  I’ve been running for nearly 30 years, but took up swimming/cycling in the past 2 years.  The last leg of this race will be my 9th marathon.  Conversely it will be the farthest I’ve ever swum or cycled.  Fortunately my wife will be joining me on this race, so we can share in the pain together.  I also have 6 cats, played the trumpet for 20 years and can bake a mean Derby pie.

Michael Johnson

Michael Johnson
Salina Kansas
Orthopedic Surgeon
49 yr old (USAT Age 50 yr old)

Doing 8th IM Race
3rd Louisville race (did coolest and hottest years)
12:44 last year

Goal: <12 hours, <6:00 Bike and <4:45 run (run More!!)

Scott "New Yawk" Dinhoffer

Hey all! This will be my second IM start having done Arizona last November. Good news is this time I was able to train without a recurring run injury hampering me and I am feeling good. While 11-14 lbs lighter than IMAZ at a current weight of around 174, wishing I had done more weight loss. I am a divorced father of three girls (10,10 & 12 (yes Twins)) I was getting into marathons around the time I got married in ’95. Married life, commuting an hour or so each way to work and kids took their toll on me and I topped the scales a few years ago at 206. After getting separated a friend recommended I do an ironman, yes straight up, go for it! I was already down a bit in weight & was following a book he recommended and into my training for IMAZ. Almost one year ago, I was poking around the internet when I found a video of two guys preaching their four keys of ironman execution. This led me to the EN website, a purchase of the Long Course Tri Ebook which I devoured and here I am.  Looking forward to meeting everyone in Louisville and executing a good race.

Carla Happel

Two years ago I volunteered at IM Louisville, and while slathering athletes with sunscreen it occurred to me that the 2011 race would be ON my 50th birthday. Which meant I had no choice but to sign up. This is my first Ironman. I’ve done four half-irons in the last three years, but this is quite the leap for someone who didn’t even run until I was 42 (and forced to by the Navy). I’m a solid mid-to-back-of-the-packer, but that hasn’t stopped me from completing 40 half-marathons, 6 full marathons, 4 half-irons, and around 50 miscellaneous triathlons in the past eight years. I likely won’t tear up the course, but I look forward to crossing that finish line feeling and looking strong!

John Withrow

John Withrow is a former All-American wrestler at the University of Pittsburgh, who currently lives in Scotch Plains, NJ with his wife Jessica and their two boys, JT and Luke.

With a healthy disdain for running, John completed his first sprint triathlon in 2010 as a personal challenge to himself. He spent his whole life doing “strength” type of things and the thought of running a 10k at the end of an Olt tri almost dissuaded him from signing up. He will be competing in Louisville as the Founding Member of Team ReserveAid, which is raising money to help men and women of the military who are surrefing financial hardship from their service. When John tried to recruit other people to do IMLou with him, most said he was crazy because of the 140.6 mile distance and also because last year’s race was 95 degrees with 90% humidity. His response to this was simple “It’s hotter for our Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, we won’t be wearing boots and fatigues, and nobody will be shooting at us!”

John will be wearing his Team ReserveAid kit at IMLou, but owes more than words can explain to the physical and mental preperation that EN has given him for this race, his first Ironman.

John McLean

My name is John Mclean. I live in Charlotte, NC but work all over the globe. I work for a medical device company going through clinical trials, so I travel about 50% of the time. My travel makes for some interesting training session, everything from countless laps in a hotel pool to riding an exercise bike for hours (thank God for the Ipod). I was in the US Army for 8 ½ years and decided when I got out I was never going to run again, then I ballooned up to 264Lbs. I didn’t really notice that I was out of breath going up the stairs, until the power was out because of Katrina. That is when I decided that I was going to get back in shape. I started with a 5k’s, 10k’s, half-marathon’s, and a marathon and always wondered what was next. Then I discovered the wonderful world of triathlon where I did numerous sprints, a couple of Olympic, a few Half Ironman’s always looking at what was next. Then I signed up for Florida in 2009, where I finally didn’t look for the next challenge. This will be my 2nd Ironman, and after Florida where I did 12 mile with a stress fracture in my foot (Mainly because I wasn’t really ready). I look forward to having a great race!

Scott Liston

Scott ListonFairfield, OH
Ironman® Louisville
Bib Number 2495
M45-49 age group

I have been in triathlon since 2003. This is my second Ironman. I did Louisville with Endurance Nation coaching last year and had a great experience so I am back for more! Finding Rich and Patrick’s go harder, go shorter approach allowed meto do this since the volume is doable when combined with a busy work and family life. Every day I get to ride and run, I am thankful for my health and the opportunity to have fun with my fitness. I am thankful my family is gracious to let me do it.   Awesome!

I live just 90 miles from Louisville in greater Cincinnati. I am a finance manager at Procter & Gamble in corporate new business development. My beautiful wife, Deb, is a group cycling instructor and comes out to the races a couple times a year and usuallytakes home hardware in the sprint duathlon! I have four beautiful children ages 21, 19, 17, and 13. I am thankful to God for the opportunity to do the sport of triathlon and I look forward to meeting my teammates again at the dinner. Let’s do this!

Todd Kauffman

My name is Todd Kauffman and I live in Lansing, MI.  I work for the Michigan Department of Transportation.  IM LOU will be my first Ironman.  I have done two half IM’s, Steelhead 70.3® (2008) and Rev3 Knoxville (2011).  I’ve been running since middle school and got into triathlons six years ago.   I am married to my wonderful wife Jennifer, and have a son Rory (6), and a daughter Lily (3).  Completing this race would not be possible without the support that I have received from my family, especially my wife,  It has been a life long dream to complete an Ironman® and I look forward to doing it with Team EN.

Joseph Lombardi

Hey Team!…Joe “Chip” Lombardi, almost 50 years old (Septemper 25th!), Native of Rhode Island, Current resident of New Hope, PA (NE Philadelphia), via Cincinnati OH and La Crosse, Wisconsin (Alma Mater).
Longtime runner turned triathlete 2 years ago…this is my first full IM (have done 3 HIM’s most recently Ironman® Rhode Island)….Also relatively new to EN had been following the plans but didn’t join until March of this year. So Very Glad I did…what a great group!
Married 15 years, Divorced 2.5…2 Kids (boys –  Nick 14, Sam 12)….
Currently enjoying a separation from work (23 years with the same company in sales, marketing & business development in the Food Ingredients business), which was perfectly timed to allow for my training over the past 6 months!
Looking forward to meeting you all in Loo-a-ville!

Jason Clishe

I live in Cincinnati with my wife Colleen and our 2 boys (10 and 8 years old). I discovered Ironman® back in the late 80’s when I stumbled upon the Kona broadcast on TV and was really impressed by it. I loosely followed it over the years and eventually completing an Ironman® made its way onto my bucket list. While I was watching the 2009 Kona broadcast in December ‘09, I realized that I couldn’t come up with any good reasons to put it off any longer, so I decided right then and there to do one and signed up for Louisville 2010. That presented a couple of obvious challenges: I had no bike, and I had never swam a stroke of freestyle in my life. The next few months were stressful since I had just jumped into the deep end of the triathlon pool and had to quickly get my bearings, but I completed an Olympic distance tri in May ‘10 and with the exception of having an awful swim, I came out of it with some confidence and was feeling relatively good about Louisville. I went on to complete Louisville in the scorching heat and vowed to come back faster next year. My search for speed led me to Endurance Nation and I started my training program for this years race back in December. Those basement trainer rides and 15 degree snowy, nighttime training runs seem like forever ago. Training with Endurance Nation has been an awesome experience and has put me in a good position to see a big time improvement over last year.

Matt Samojeden

Matt Samojeden, 55 years young and Live in St Louis MO. Third year doing Triathlons after being away from the sport for over 20 years. This is my 3rd IM LOU and 5th IM. This is my third season with EN. I’m a business development executive for Hubbell, a large electrical equipment manufacture. The job has a significant amount of travel which makes getting the training done an added challenge at times. My wife Sandra of 23 years is into Nature and wildlife photography. So when I not training, I get to be Sherpa and carry the heavy gear.

My goals for IM LOU this year are to improve on last years times on all elements , swim, bike, run and transitions!

David Wonn

David Wonn North Little Rock, Arkansas – 58 yr old – main frame code slinger – programmer for banking software

Soooo I get lots of finger aerobics at work.  My wife and I have two children and 4 grandkids, the oldest 2 (shown in my bio picture) ride with me on many of my long runs. Right now I feel the best I have felt since last year.  But my power on the bike and my pace on the run are behind previous years due to the injuries and way too much work earlier this year.  I enjoy the EN style training and I’m looking forward to using the Four Keys to drive my Ironman® Vehicle to the finish line…

1986 I did my first sprint TRI (and this year I did that race for the 26th consecutive year) and IMKY will be my 6th Ironman® …

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Coach P

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