I was born and raised in Eugene Oregon where I spent most of my adolescence. I participated in various types of sports.  My Dad was a track coach at the University of Oregon and Track and Field is what became my favorite sport.  I was able to hang around a lot of world class athletes and coaches while my Dad coached at the U of O.

When I began high school I mostly became focused on track and field and the pole vault was my specialty. After my freshman year my family and I moved to Tennessee. When I was in Tennessee I began travelling to Jonesboro Arkansas three times a week to be coached in the pole vault by Earl Bell. Earl Bell was an Olympian medal winner and a very sought after coach. While training under his supervision I became top ten in the United States for high school kids with a best score of 16 feet.

After high school I attended my first year of Community College in Portland Oregon to continue my pole vaulting career. My freshman year I had a best score of 16’5 3/4. I ended up placing third in the Junior College National Championships.  After my freshman year I withdrew from college after partying myself out where I then moved to Las Vegas.

While I was living in Las Vegas, I ended up rededicating my life to God and met my beautiful wife. During this time I became interested in heavy weight lifting. I made it my goal to become as big and as strong as possible while keeping away from the various muscle enhancing narcotics.  After a few years of hard work and moving around the country with my wife, I ended up finding a powerlifting gym in San Diego and fell in love with the sport of powerlifting.  I met and worked with a well-known coach who helped me compete at a high level in the sport.  My best lifts was a 804 pound squat, 601 pound bench press and a 710 pound deadlift.  My best total score in a competition was 2,104 pounds.  I ended up getting my body weight up to 300 pounds and that’s when I decided I needed a change in direction due to my health.  That’s when I decided to start jogging and heard about the sport of Ultra-Running.

An ultra-running race is anything over 26.2 miles which is a standard marathon. When I first started jogging after my powerlifting days, I could almost make it ten minutes without stopping. I decided to work hard and see how far I could run and over time I began to lose weight and gain endurance.  I competed in my first marathon in 2006.  Today I have competed in 4 marathons and 8 ultra-marathons (2 50k, 4 50 mile, 1 100k, 1 100 mile). I was able to place in the top ten in 4 of those and top 12 in two others.  My best marathon time is 3h 10m.

I have experienced a lot of different training methods and have seen what the human body can accomplish with a lot of hard work. Today I am interested in all kinds of fitness and wanting to help and encourage others who are trying to reach goals that they never thought were possible. This is why I have chosen to coach at Crossfit Pistoleros.