I am a native born resident of the Los Angeles area. started running at 25 after having an inner ear infection and the specialist I was seeing recommended in addition to blood thinning medication, and that I take up a sport to increase blood circulation. The obvious choice for me was running, even though I had no interest in it in High School since it was always used a disciplinary measure in school. Started with run/walking around 4 baseball diamonds in a park near work and home. Then later graduating to running 4.5 miles to and from work as a software engineer, at a company that allowed a flexible work schedule. This lead to next to try 10K races which I fell in love with doing, got better with competition and made my goal of breaking 40 minutes in the races and getting age division medals, from local races.
Time passed and MY running was going well, until one day… I left for work in from my Apartment in Canoga Park, and reached the first major cross street, and noticed a man that stopped to put mail in the box there. After that, I felt an impact from behind me and instantly fell backward. An old station wagon hit me, and an old man got out to check on me, I was stunned and thought I was okay. He then left the scene, and I was asked by the man who dropped off his mail about the condition, and he heard what I said earlier, though knew I was not as okay as I thought. He then told me that he was an undercover Narcotics Officer that told me to get in his Jeep to pursue the man who hit me. We caught up with him after he must have seen us coming and turned into a cul-de-sac and when we went in, the officer I was with got out of his jeep to show a badge and gun, which caused the man to leave his car and flee on foot. The brake was not set, so it slammed into a parked RV and damaged badly. So I stayed until the Police and Paramedics came. They checked me and said I was well enough to get see my doctor. I did so and was told no back injuries. Though after a few nights as a home with the draft of my open window, my low back and mid back went out of alignment. This brought about a series of visits to chiropractors. Then after I felt sound again with a return to running, came to a decision to test the waters, so I entered the LA Marathon. This was 1987 the second year of the race, missed the first one since I did no training. Even with this one, I did not know what to do exactly to train so from December to March I did my running. Then came race day and ended up run/walking with a finish time of 4:38. My Mentor Craig Chambers of the local running store Phidippedes, told me that I would cut a half an hour off then next marathon, and he was right.
So now fast forward to the year 1995, I ran 5 marathons and did the last one in Sacramento the California International Marathon for a time of 3:30, not good enough for qualifying for the 100th Boston Marathon. Then I would hit that time again in 2000 at the Chicago Marathon, still not qualifying. Then finally in 2011 I did qualify right here in a major rainstorm in Los Angeles that day. My time 3:44:30.
Now to today, I have completed 46 total marathons, 26 of them Los Angeles Marathons, countless ½ Marathons, 10K’s, 5K’s, 12k’s, 30K’s, Hood To Coast, and a Ragnar Relay.
My first coach was Pat Connelly of Second Wind Training, and later Coach Eric Baron of Track Club LA. I was a pace leader with the LA Roadrunners, USA Marathon Training, and have trained various clients as their personal coach, and nutrition counselor.
In addition, to open competing, I have run for various charitable organizations, including Youth Mentor Connection, Students Run LA, Kitten Rescue, and of C*A*T*S.
The benefit of doing Website work, Graphic Design, and Social Networking for a local running store I am up on all the trends in running products. Shoes wise, I ran initially in Nike, Asics, Mizuno, K-Swiss, Ecco Biom, and finally Vibram 5 Fingers. My Boston qualifier race in 2011 was in the Ecco Biom’s. To date I have raced in Vibram’s in four 5K’s and now three LA Marathons. Have created relationships with the Representatives of the products the store carries.
So to close, I hope you take away from this my passion for running and evolving to the goal of a healthy strong runner.
Natural Run Weight 