Testimonials

I have been a distance runner since Jr. High.  Always a decent runner in the upper middle pack I was never a consistently fast runner. I never qualified for the Alaska State track meet in any individual events.  As you can imagine Alaska is not the most competitive track state. I went to Northwest Nazarene University on a minimal cross-country and track scholarship. This is where I met Coach Ben for the first time.  We were both in our rookie seasons. Ben in his first year of coaching and me in my first year of college athletics. Over the next several years I learned a lot and was greatly challenged to push myself to the best that I can be.  We both realized I had yet come close to meeting my potential. By the end of my college career I had a school record in the 3000m steeplechase, was GNAC Conference Champion in the Steeplechase and finished 3 spots out of being All-American in Division II NCAA in the same event.  Not to mention massive PR’s in the 1500m, 3k and 5k. I owe all of this to great coaching.

Since then Coach Ben and I have accomplished many other things over the years and our lives have gotten much more hectic, but we have remained good friends. I asked Ben if he would be interested in running a marathon to qualify for Boston and he jumped at the prospect.  Ben and I discussed my goal marathon time, what I thought I could run in terms of miles per week and my weekly schedule. We both have very busy schedules and Ben was able to provide a workout schedule that I could maintain with my schedule and still spend time with my wife and two daughters. We talked or texted regularly throughout the training and made changes to the training schedule as was needed. I ran my first marathon on 03DEC2017 in Sacramento.  My goal was to run 2:59 which I beat by two minutes. This got me a great seed for Boston. Now Ben is coaching me up for Boston. He has been sending me workouts in 4-5 week ‘mesocycles’ and we stay in touch throughout. We have both set high goals for Boston Marathon, but I am confident I will be as ready as I can be by following Coach Ben’s training schedule.