Jan Caille Passes, Archictect of the World’s Biggest Tri

November 7, 2021

When most folks pass it’s the last breath in the cycle of life, at the end of a long wind-down. That’s not how Jan Caille’s passing strikes me. His brain was a powerhouse feeding energy into an intellectual grid and a state of rest was unnatural to him. I can’t imagine Jan resting in peace. He had too much on his mind in this life and presumably does in the next. Wherever he now is, he's full tilt.

You pronounce his last name ki-yay, “as in, yippee-yi-o,” and that’s how he explained his name to me 35 years ago on the day I met him. He was one of the agile wits and intellects in my life. I was born a century too late to know Oscar Wilde or GK Chesterton, so I made do with Jan Caille.

Why this man, who recently passed, is important to you is that he gave us the first fantastic, outlandish, stupendous triathlon. The Chicago Triathlon – variously sponsored by the Chicago Sun Times, Ms. T’s Pierogies, Accenture – was so big I don’t really know how many people raced it in a single year. 9,000? 12,000? It took an hour or more to get all the waves of swimmers into the water. Running from one end of the transition area to the other took several minutes. The expo transactions at that race, as measured in dollars, may have been the biggest of any endurance race, including the expos at 30,000-person marathons. This was all the work of Jan Caille.

The image above of Jan belongs to Jim Curl, one of the founders of the Bud Light Triathlon series (USTS). In 1983 Jim coaxed Jan into putting on an event in Chicago as part of this nationwide series that brought triathlon to the masses in the U.S. A couple of years in Jan decided the event was better off as a standalone monument rather than part of a series and while the USTS owners did not see it that way, business differences could not stand in the way of friendship. Jim and Jan became and remained fast and lifelong friends.

Jim entitled that photo of Jan “Mister Happy Guards the Gatorade,” and if you knew Jan this was the perfect caption. Jan was cerebral, but that often manifested as acerbic. He made things right by focusing on the wrong, and was not shy in expressing it. But he didn’t just identify the wrong, he fixed it; he was expert at empowering a staff to fix it; and every really big mass participation triathlon – from the Danskin events to London to Hamburg – took as their template the logistical masterpiece that Jan built in Chicago.

Jan Caille was a polymath. He held a degree in mathematics and played both basketball and water polo. He was, by profession, an architect and artist before turning to event production and marketing. Jan sold his events business in 2010 to LifeTime Fitness, and turned his attention to creating a wildlife refuge on an 80-acre farm in McCleary, Washington. The farm had once been a cattle ranch and as such the stream, Wildcat Creek, had been diverted to water cattle. Up to the time of his death Jan had been working with the US Department of Agriculture, and Washington Fish & Wildlife, to restore Wildcat Creek back to its original route. Shortly before his death Jan was able to see the stream restoration and the creation of spawning pools within the stream for the salmon runs.

Jan died on October 1, 2021 of a cerebral hemorrhage, at the age of 77. He is survived by his wife Karen, son Jeremy, sister Kate Frank, granddaughter Adelaide Del Angel, and nieces, Anara Frank and Milo Michels.

Jan Caille was a physical giant, standing 6 and-a-half feet tall, and was a formidable business presence. But he was a teddy bear underneath. Jan "guarding the Gatorade" occurred in a poor and rural part of Jamaica, at Jake’s Triathlon, Jim Curl’s annual labor of love to benefit that community. Jan answered his friend’s call and volunteered his time and work.

Which illustrates the one thing at which Jan Caille failed. I believe he tried to hide his heart of gold, but those who knew him well were never fooled. I am dead certain he complained to Jim Curl mightily about the time and effort spent going to Jake’s, just before pulling out his credit card to buy his own ticket to Jamaica, to guard the Gatorade.