What is your running experience?
I joined the military at 21, but for a long time, I never really ran much more than twice a year, 2 miles at a time. When I was 40, I saw a picture of myself from a recent vacation and decided that something had to change, so I started running. I’ve pretty much been running ever since. I started with 5Ks and the occasional 10K. At age 42, I thought I had peaked with half marathons. I ran the Marine Corps Marathon the first time in 2016 and was pretty sure I was going to die, vowing “I’ll never do that again!” And then like most of us who say that, I did it again. Like a lot of times.
How long have you been with Trottin’ Oxen?
I joined Trottin’ Oxen on June 9th, 2018. I had returned from my last overseas assignment in the Army, and I wasn’t in the best place mentally or emotionally. My wife Kylie suggested we branch out and try to meet new people, so we (accidentally) showed up for a long-run meet-up that Saturday morning at 08:00, having no idea that wasn’t the normal thing. I don’t recall everyone who was there (I do remember Oren ran with me out of pity), but I distinctly remember the first question Jenn asked Kylie and me was “What race are you training for?” Now I find myself asking all new people the exact same question. Our earliest memories of Trottin’ Oxen were of how welcoming everyone was, and how it seemed like everyone went out of their way to make my wife and me feel at home. After that first positive experience, we just kept coming back.
What experience will you bring to the Trottin’ Oxen Leadership Board?
I’m running for the Chairperson position for one reason: I want to make everyone who walks into our club feel welcome and comfortable, just the way y’all made Kylie and me feel the first day we showed up. I want new arrivals to feel like they just found a new family, and I want people who’ve been coming to Trottin’ Oxen since the beginning, to always feel like they are a part of something special. That’s what has kept me in this running family, and aside from Kylie and our 4 adult(ish) kids, my running family is the only family I have within 1,400 miles.
And to check the block – here is the ‘resume part’ where I attempt to woo you with all the experience I have working with boards and on teams: I have chaired, been an elected officer, and been an at-large board member for 14 years while serving in U.S. Embassies overseas, including Embassy Commissary Association boards, Interagency Housing boards and Chairing the Department of State’s International Cooperative Administrative Support Services Governing Board at 2 of the largest US Embassies in the world (Mexico and Russia). The budgets for some of these boards amounted to over $50 million annually, and the board’s decisions directly affected the living and work lives of thousands of US Employees, their family members, and the exponentially larger locally employed population.
TL;DR: Please vote for me. Thank you.