1. How long have you been running and why did you start running? I’m your typical midlife-crisis runner. I ran cross country and track for a couple of years in high school, but lost interest by the time I started college. I resumed running, but not racing, in my 30s and when I was about to turn 40 my wife suggested I enter the Shamrock Run to improve my mental health. Did it ever! She deserves credit for all the fun I’ve had in the sport since then.
2. How long have you been part of TRL, and what drew you to the club in the first place? I joined in 2023 after watching several members win the 4X400 relay at the Rose City Mile. They looked like they were having the most fun of any team out there and I liked the look of their racing kit. It took a few months to muster the courage to attend my first Tuesday track workout, but now it’s one of my favorite parts of the week!
3. What do you do when you’re not running (job, family, school…whatever it is you’d use to introduce yourself outside of running)? As anyone who’s chatted with me for a few minutes knows, I’m really into birds. I’ve been lucky to study birds for work and my wife and I have traveled throughout Oregon and Washington to see as many species as possible and just enjoy being in their company. Unfortunately, our dog hates birds, but we still bring her on most of our trips.
4. OK, that begs for a follow-up question. You study birds for work? Care to elaborate? And what are the most exotic birds you’ve ever seen? My educational background is in Wildlife Biology, with a focus on bird conservation. I had a lot of temporary field jobs during my 20s, everything from measuring baby hummingbirds in their nests to capturing sandhill cranes with a rocket net. I still get out a few weeks a year to count birds and measure plants, but now I spend most of my time analyzing large datasets for the U.S. Forest Service.
I saw a lot of exotic birds when I worked in Venezuela in 2002. The most exotic was probably the Helmeted Curassow, a large, turkey-like bird with a bony head that could only be found in the national park where I lived. I feel supremely fortunate to have seen that one. Closer to home, my wife and I got to see a Baikal Teal, a Eurasian duck that had somehow found its way to a pond on Sauvie Island in January. A fellow birder spotted it in the morning and once word got out on social media, dozens of local birders crowded along the pond to get a look. It disappeared the next day, so it was another species I was lucky to see.
5. What’s your favorite distance/type of run (5K, half-marathon, marathon, ultras, relays, track, trail, etc.)? Right now, I love racing at road, track, and cross-country events. My favorite road distance is the marathon, but I’ve had my best results in the half. I like the extremes of the 800 and 10,000 on the track. And of course, any cross-country distance is fun.
6. Where is your favorite place to run in the greater Portland area? I love running along rivers, so my favorite route is the Waterfront Loop in Portland. There’s a section where it feels like you’re running right on top of the Willamette!
7. What’s your most memorable running experience (or experiences)? Mine come three marathons: crossing the Burnside Bridge in Portland, entering Hayward Field in Eugene, and walking to the start line in Hopkinton. I was too wrecked to remember much of the finish in Boston.
8. What’s the best running advice you’ve ever received? “Use your arms!” I need to be reminded of this constantly.
9. Tell us one fun fact, hidden talent, or something we don’t know about you, but should? When I was younger, the one team sport for which I wasn’t picked last was trivia (is trivia a sport?). My best category is 20th century pop culture. I watched a LOT of tv in the 80s and 90s.