About Me

I was born in Appleton, WI on March 2nd. I have always lived an active life, whether playing soccer, Little League Baseball, Pop Warner Football, or various neighborhood games throughout the summer. My parents would never let me or my brother stay in the house and play video games or watch tv if the weather was nice. That simple lifestyle stayed with me. In middle school, I played basketball, football, and Babe Ruth Baseball. Going into high school, I gave up on basketball, but stuck with football and baseball. I also played trumpet in my school's top level band. I participated in our jazz band and was also a part of a brass quintet. My senior year of baseball I received 1st team All Conference, and was also named to the All Area Team. It was really while I was in high school that I began to learn the value of hard work. I put countless hours in the weight room during my summer breaks and everyday after school. I really started to like strength training to better myself, not only as a person but as an athlete. I continued my education at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse and received a degree in Exercise and Sports Science with an emphasis in Sports Management, I also received a concentration in Strength and Conditioning. I tried out for both of the football and baseball teams, with no such luck. But, I continued to strength train and at one point weighed 196lbs with less then 12% body fat. Throughout my first years of college I started playing on a traveling fast pitch softball team. In the summer of 2004 I was playing in the state tournament and I blew out my left knee when an opponent slide into me at third base. This is actually the reason I made the switch from the body building focus to an endurance athlete. My doctor recommended I start riding a bike for rehab, and the rest was history. There was more to it then that but, that was probably the main reason I got started.

My dad started running strictly for his health when I was a kid and did his first 5k a while back, while I was probably in middle school. He ran his first marathon while I was in college. He ran the Green Bay Marathon that year and I still remember going up to watch him run. It was extremely motivating and after watching him run that marathon I promised myself I would someday run one too. The following year I ran a half marathon while my dad ran another full. He qualified for the Boston Marathon at that race and again, I promised myself I would someday qualify for the Boston Marathon. My dad has really inspired me to always challenge myself and never settle for anything. He taught me from a young age that nothing in life comes easy and you need to put in hard work to get what you want. Sharing our passion for running and exercise is something that no one can take from us. I love sharing it with him and still love the fact that him and I can go to local races together. He in fact is the reason I qualified for the Boston Marathon and got to run in it in 2011.  The coolest part about that is he also got to run it.  Not many people out there can say that they got to run in one of the worlds greatest marathons with their dad.  It was a pretty neat experience and one that I will treasure my entire life.  That is actually the exact reason I am going to do everything in my power to continue to live a healthy lifestyle, so I can someday run races and share my passion with my kids as they age and grow up. I don't want to be a parent who is out of shape and has ailments due to unhealthy habits and worse die at a young age due to preventable decisions I made. I want to be able to grow up with my kids and play with them and be able to "hang" with them when they are adults raising a family of their own, much like my father did with me.

I also have the full loving support of my wife, Sarah. Sarah and I have known each other since middle school. We actually got to know each other because of sitting next to each other in 7th grade band class. She played the french horn and I played the trumpet. During our freshman year of high school, she asked me to the Homecoming dance. We have been together ever since. Yes, we are one of the rare "High School Sweetheart" stories. We got married in 2007 and subsequently had our first kid together in 2009, followed with our 2nd in 2010. She has been by my side through everything and we have seen each other grow up and change throughout just about everything. She has never left my side through anything I have put her through. I am extremely grateful for that because she could have very easily said "thats it" and left, but she saw something in me. She is the entire reason I am able to do what I do today. The shear amount of time I spend training for countless marathons, triathlons, not to mention the money I spend on these events is absurd, but she somehow understands and helps me do it. She is out on the road side with each and every race I do, she is my support crew, my psychologist, and my cheerleader and that's just on race days. Training for these events became exponentially more difficult with the addition of kids into our lives, and again she picks up the slack.  We work together to make our lives work. Without her I would be lost and there is no doubt in my mind that there is no way I would be doing what I do today without her in my life.

I am often asked why the hell I do what I do. I am also often called crazy, dumb, obsessed, psychotic, and many others I probably shouldn't mention on here. I am a competitive person and have an extremely strong desire to be the best. I am realistic, I know I will never truly be the best and probably won't win any big race I enter. But knowing the fact that I am out doing something that so very few people in the world aspire to do inspires me. I also struggle to settle with the fact that there is something more difficult, longer, tougher, different out there that I haven't done or accomplished. For example after running a half marathon, some people may say, ok, that was fun and that's all the further I want to go, but I think, ok, now on to the marathon. This is exactly why I did Ironman Wisconsin in 2013, because it was longer and tougher than anything I did. Now on to my next challenges, running an ultra running event (a running race over 26.2 miles - typical distances include 50k (31 miles), 50 miles, 100k (62 miles), and 100 miles).  I am also aspiring to qualify for the Ironman World Championships in Kona, HI, the pinnacle of the sport of triathlon.  I am driven to push myself to new levels not yet achieved to see how far I can physically and mentally push myself. I can't think of any other reason as to why I do what I do than that.

In a nutshell, albeit a big nutshell, that is who I am. Feel free to ask any questions of something I may have left out!

Be fast, be strong, & carry on!