Anyone who knows me would describe me as persistent (or stubborn), but I considered quitting in my very first marathon. I had always had a desire to see what I could do in a marathon, and after grad school, I decided that time was starting to run short if I wanted to really see what I was capable of. I was horribly unprepared and inadequately trained, and with about 8 miles left my legs cramped up so bad that I could hardly walk. My goal time was completely out of reach and it just seemed like so much pointless pain to go on. I continued on, though, and I knew my wife would be there at the finish line to support me no matter what the clock said.

That first marathon was disastrous, but it left me saying “I can do better” so I signed up for another. This process repeated until I also said “I can do more” and moved into ultra-running and triathlon.

“To reach the next height sometimes you have to take the stairs, and sometimes those stairs are long and you might even have to build a few of the steps yourself, but the alternative is to stand at the bottom complaining you can’t jump high enough.”

One thing that took me by surprise when I started doing endurance sports is that I had no idea how important and complex nutrition was before, during, and after training and races. I ate whatever, whenever, and had no idea how to get fuel in during long runs, or how to manage hydration and electrolytes. In trying to get a handle on that, I learned how individual nutrition is for everyone. I couldn’t just copy and paste someone else’s plan and expect it to work for me. Just like nearly everything else, I could use other people as guides but had to figure out how to adapt things to work best for my own success. There were no easy shortcuts.

I’ve been fortunate to not suffer many things in my life that I would consider great tragedies. The loss of my grandfather in college caused me to lose someone I looked up to greatly and had looked forward to sharing so many of my life’s achievements with, and it took me a while to recover from that, but the tragedy that impacted me most was the sudden, unexpected loss of a friend to a motorcycle accident in high school. It was the first time I had experienced such sudden unexpected loss.

Everything in my life at the time was centred around the future: get good grades so you can get a good scholarship, so you can get a good job, so you can…. and so on and so on. Then, my friend was just gone. I can still hear our last conversation and how his handshake felt when we parted ways. Why was I so focused on the future if it could be gone at any moment? I dealt with that for a while before coming back to a balance of working towards the future while enjoying the present. I make a deliberate point now to consider both of those in any decision or goal. For me it’s one of life’s biggest catch-22s: goals worth achieving take time but we have no guarantee that we’ll have that time.

Generally, when things get tough for me, my inner voice thinks of when times were even tougher and how I was still able to battle back. Those lowest-of-low experiences are a great resource to pull from when new low points occur. And during an endurance event, low points are going to happen.

Another important thing to focus on when things are tough is where you’re going, not where you are. Block off the distractions and consistently move forward towards the goal.

Finally, thinking about all the work that has gone into something is a huge motivation for me during low points. I know I’m prepared, and I didn’t spend all that time getting to that point and my family didn’t provide so much support just so I could give up.

“I wanted to be a pitcher for the Texas Rangers, just like Nolan Ryan. The 2011 World Series crushed what little hope I had remaining in searching for vicarious athletic achievements and drove me towards pursuing my own goals.”

For a long time, my “tribe” for my athletic pursuits was just me and my wife. As I’ve grown in my sport, I’ve connected with people who have similar mindsets so we can share our respective journeys: our obstacles, goals, motivations and inspirations. In ultra-running, this is a few people that I’ve met at races and have formed bonds with through those shared experiences.

In triathlon, I joined Team Every Man Jack specifically because of the people on the team: a great group of guys with a passion for the sport and for being good ambassadors of it. It’s the first time I’ve been part of a team in racing since high school, and it’s been incredible to have a group for motivating, challenging, and supporting each other.

The next race I’m focusing on is the Kona Ironman World Championship, which also happens to be on my bucket list. For ultras, I’ve stuck mostly to smaller local races to this point, but I’d really love to take on some of the big races out west and abroad, like UTMB.