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Background

I started running when I was about eleven years old. At first, running was a means to train for the sports every American kid is immersed in: basketball and football. During my first year of junior high, I remember getting myself out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to do 300 push-ups, 300 sit-ups and then go out into the dark for a four mile run before school started; basketball practice occupied the time after school. Junior high also introduced me to organized track. I was always a distance runner, even when the "distance events" at that age referred to 400 meters. After my freshman year of high school, my track coach convinced me to give up football in the fall for the cross country team so I could run year round.

In high school, I heard word of this sport called triathlon and saw pictures of Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Scott Tinley and Scott Molina competing in the lava fields of Hawaii. They epitomized the sport for me just as footage of Greg Lemond and Alpe d'Huez ingrained images into my mind that were foundational to the multisport lifestyle. I traded my old ten speed for a more adequate road bike as I began to discover the joy of cycling, sometimes going out with teammates after track practice. Triathlon was calling me.

I competed in my first triathlon at age 16 right after my sophomore track season ended; and finished in the top ten overall. The excitement of multisport entered my blood and I knew I had found my athletic calling.

I began to get more serious about swimming and joined the high school swim team during the winter season. I went to off-season track workouts right after school, followed by swim practice in the evening. Cross country occupied the fall and track the spring. In the summers, it was triathlon. At the end of high school and beginning of college, I made a couple of trips to Indiana where the national championships of the era were held. Although the competition was stiff and my results were modest, I wanted to see where I could go with triathlon.

Philosophy

Triathlon is a vehicle. Multisport is a lifestyle. Perhaps the fascination of triathlon is that it can be a vehicle for discovery, development and adventure. This is true regardless of the level one races at. Only a number of athletes can make a decent living in the sport, but the sport provides a way of living for many.

The multisport lifestyle has been in my blood since I was young and I have learned an enormous amount from it about physical and mental potential, not to mention things about life in general that have nothing to do with racing. The competitive aspects of racing provide motivation and excitement that are temporary, but the lessons learned and the pleasure of training for the sake of training and living a healthy lifestyle are the key aspects that continue to draw me to the sport.

Multisport Career Overview

I have engaged with the sport at various levels and from different points of reference. My early 20s led me on the chase for results in an attempt to develop further in the sport. It took me to the level of elite amateur, winning age group awards and placing fairly well overall. In college, I joined the upstart triathlon team at the University of Colorado and led the team to a national championship in 1994 where I placed third individually. Looking back, it's satisfying to have helped start a tradition at CU that has grown since. The University of Colorado and triathlon have become synonymous as the team has become one of the best collegiate programs in the country for the development of young triathletes, having made winning the team title at collegiate nationals a consistent rule.

In 1994, I did well enough at the US amateur nationals to earn a spot on Team USA for the Triathlon World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand. Meanwhile, I qualified for the duathlon team at the Rocky Mountain Regional Championships, which also allowed me to compete in the Duathlon World Championships that year in Hobart, Australia.

While my focus at that time was on shorter distances, I earned an Ironman spot at the Evergreen Triathlon in Colorado which was too tempting to turn down. So I competed in and finished the 1994 Hawaii Ironman World Championships, which provided a key lesson in how to train for and race longer distances and let me experience the lava fields of Kona first hand.

In 1997, I took out a pro license and lined up against (or rather, behind) some of the best in the sport. With no illusions of making a living from racing, it was an experience to simply participate in the sport as a pro. It provided a platform for pushing my personal performance up another notch.

By 1998, I felt I had finally gotten the triathlon bug out of my system. After eleven years of racing, and having accomplished many goals, from collegiate racing to competing in world championships to racing as a pro, I decided to leave the competitive arena and focus on other endeavors. That didn't mean leaving the multisport lifestyle behind, of course, only the serious racing. In many ways, it opened up other opportunities to explore and connect with the shear joy of endurance activities in my home of Colorado.

Yet the lure of competition has called me back to race from time to time. The need to test individual capability and current fitness seems to course through the blood of triathletes. The race often provides the ideal venue for such tests.

The winter twist on the triathlon theme has been part of that draw to test new limits. Part of the original lure of triathlon was that it provided something new and different for exploring human endurance. As the sport becomes more standardized and mainstream, it's fun to find races that can still provide a fresh perspective and new adventures.

Most recently, I decided to get back on the TT bike and juggle a year of Ironman preparation. The journey culminated at Ironman Coeur d'Alene in Idaho on June 25, 2006.

Coaching and Reporting

Beyond racing, I have also had the opportunity to engage with triathlon from the perspective of a coach and a writer. I spent about ten years as a masters swim coach. Right out of college, I worked as a personal trainer, which allowed me to coach triathletes entering the sport. My work as a freelance writer for different publications has allowed me to see triathlon from the perspective of the media covering it.

In college, I even organized a triathlon for kids and saw the sport from the perspective of race director. All of these angles have given me chances to view the sport from perspectives beyond that of competitor. Such perspectives have helped hone my own philosophy and motivation as an athlete living the multisport life.