Have you always been into sport and if so what were some of your earliest sporting memories and triumphs?
I’ve always been involved in athletics since a young age. It wasn’t until adulthood how much I learned athletics meant to me. It was always just something I did, even if my heart wasn’t in it.
When did you first get into long-distance running and tell us about some of the successes you’ve had in that discipline? Where has the sport taken you and what have been some of the highlights?
I first got into long-distance running in college. I never enjoyed distance running in high school since coaches would use running as punishment. I finally rewired my brain and realized that I not only was good at running, but I enjoyed it, too! It’s taken me almost 20 years to learn how to run properly as well as which distances I’m best suited for (namely shorter in duration… under 15k) and how to train properly to maximize my potential! Running has allowed me to not only travel across the United States (and even travel internationally) to compete, but to also explore areas that haven’t been touched by development to witness nature’s beauty. If it wasn’t for my physical fitness, finding some of these places out in the middle of nowhere would be much more challenging!
When did your passion for power lifting begin and tell us about how you combined this with your love of running to begin a path into obstacle racing?
I found my passion for powerlifting was in college and enjoyed how much weight I could throw around as a smaller guy (155 lbs). I always felt that pound for pound, I was one of the strongest people in the weight room at that point in my life. Fast forward to my venture into obstacle course racing, the combination of my being pound for pound one of the strongest people to toe the start line as well as a very fast trail runner makes me a versatile threat. My current training has helped me rebuild a lot of that powerlifting strength from my college days, so much so that when I hit a strength gauntlet in Spartan Race, it’s a great way for me to put smaller, faster competitors away.
When did you co-found @BROCRMedia and could you tell us more about the company and what it does?
BROCR Media started in 2015 as a way for my friend, Jacob Bosecker (@brosecker) and I to kill time before we went out to do a second lap of the Indiana Spartan Race. We published it to Facebook after that race weekend and it was well-received. BROCR (Bros who do OCR) is a web series that covers obstacle course racing and shows viewers the fun/entertaining side of the sport and highlights the athletes in it. We pride ourselves on being “The Daily Show” of OCR and having fun with the athletes we interview and showing people that although this is very much a serious sport (with Olympic aspirations), at the heart, it is FUN.
Tell us about the message you try to instil in those who come to you for coaching and who are some of the people you have worked with?
The message that I try to spread to those is thus; be active. You only have one life to live and make the most out of it. Your body was designed to do SO MUCH MORE than to just eat, sleep, and watch TV. GET OUTSIDE!! Test yourself and push yourself to do things others didn’t think were possible. And to go hand-in-hand with the mantra of being active, I want to add HAVE FUN. Why do anything if it’s not fun? Being active and being outside is SO MUCH FUN. Laugh and laugh hard. Laugh at yourself and don’t be afraid to make fun of yourself.
What events will you be competing in this year and what other projects and exciting plans do you have in the pipeline?
I’m planning on running all of the Spartan Race US Championship Series Races, including the North American Championship in West Virginia and the Spartan Race World Championship in Lake Tahoe, CA (of which I have already qualified for the two latter championship races). I also intend on running trail races in the greater Indianapolis area as well as a couple other obstacle course races in the coming months.
