I played basketball on two Coast Guard regional travel teams, eventually starting for the Coast Guard Headquarters team. Many of our players had played in college and our coaches were old-school ballers themselves. It was a blast of a time and also a privilege to travel to different military bases for tournaments. My teammates came from basketball programs including Kentucky, Temple, and Auburn. The maturity, camaraderie, and competitiveness of those guys was a great lesson and I value the memories of our battles, both in practice and in games. During this fifteen year window I consistently coached and played basketball, and kept only a small commitment to running and other fitness programs. I did read some of the classic running books a few times each during this time - it just wasn’t my main goal.

• As a “Pro” coach, these circumstances have served me well. There has never been a need, or desire, to “follow the rules,” I quickly went on a study of the history of our sport and allowed that material to influence me equally with the science of our sport.

In 2010, I met Mike Mena and became his assistant coach for the SoCal Roadrunners - a youth USATF track and cross country program in San Diego. Mike was in his coaching prime, and I was fortunate to witness how a coach builds a winning program - we won 4 USATF Junior Olympics National Championships in XC and about five other podium finishes. Our sister team in Los Angeles was managed by Mike Leong (SoCal Roadrunners LA). The two Mikes absolutely dominated the youth and freshman national running scene and their example and education advanced my coaching career along quickly. The SoCal runners went on to win CIF (California HS) Championships, NXN, place at Footlocker Nationals, and run for schools such as Oregon, Colorado, Stanford, Georgetown, Cornell, and Texas. During that period, my house in San Diego was less than a mile from the Olympic Training Center - we were able to work with local Olympic medalists and learn from some accomplished coaches. That 2-year coaching experience changed my outlook and opportunities quickly.

• I also learned a valuable lesson: great running coaches are spread out between the HS, collegiate, and Pro ranks. I remember specifically a college coach in a Northwestern city disparaging USATF JO competitors and coaches at a confernce. The irony was, our USATF JO team could have beaten his D2 collegiate program - no joke! The 2 Mikes were GREAT coaches and I appreciate that experience.

I left San Diego and returned to my coaching roots in NJ to become the senior Drill Instructor for the Coast Guard Boot Camp, leading out team of 150 - 900+ people. As a XC coach in NJ, we returned to USATF Nationals two more times and I led a good portion of fitness classes at the Coast Guard Training Center. No national championships earned, but I knew I had a good approach from my experienced gained in San Diego.

• Personally, at age 39-40, I went form a 2:00 half marathon to 1:25, in an 18 month window. BTW… that 1:25 was under-inflated, and scheduled a few hours in advance - I had just come off my 1st 70 mile week in Portland, with a long run 12 hours before the HM…. I was running for fitness and my kids, not really for times:) My ability was likely a few minutes faster (insert the fishing lies and gold mining stories here)….

In 2015, I was selected for an NCAA coaching internship at the University of Pennsylvania. I retired from the Coast Guard and was able to spend about 24 - 30 hours per week at Penn for 13 months. During that time, the team:

• Qualified for NCAAs in XC,

• Tommy Awad set the Ivy League record in the Mile (3:57),

• Chris Hatler was an emerging junior (later clocked a 3:58 Mile),

• Sam Mattis rocketed the 2nd longest discus throw in NCAA history,

• Our team won the NCAA 4 x Mile at the Penn Relays,

• Nia Akins was a freshman when I left Penn and she eventually ran 2:00.7 as a senior - the 2nd fastest NCAA Indoor Women’s 800m time ever!

• On the sprints side, Calvary Rogers set the school record in the 200m and excelled in the 100m as well.

• I worked with both men’s and women’s long sprints / middle distance programs. It was a great experience to be surrounded by a squad of guys who could run 1:48-1:54 in the 800 and gals that could run 2:07-2:15.

While at Penn, I obtained my sprint and distance certifications from USATF and USTFCCCA - where I first met Scott Christensen (see below). At Penn, I took volumes of training notes, researched a ton of Ivy League track historical information, and immersed myself in plenty of books and running resources.

Needless to say, Penn was one of the best schools in the country for my internship and my family loved Philadelphia. The entire coaching staff was great and I learned so much from the athletes, trainers, and athletic department staff on a daily basis - very thankful. The Penn experience helped to fill in a lot of blanks for about 10 years worth of questions that I had. I’m also very grateful that I was able to work on the sprints side; that position helped shore up my biggest gaps in technical knowledge and I now use it daily to develop general athleticism for distance runners.

My 2nd season at Penn brought some interview opportunities for some decent universities. It was my formulaic Hallmark movie moment in my life… I was 42+ years old, five kids - and rejected the next natural NCAA coaching progression - and decided to jump (as Steve Harvey has famously said), toward the abyss of professional coaching. It was important to me to show my kids what real professional risk looked like - even if my awesome wife wanted to murder me: Very few connections, not an impressive resume, no sponsorship or significant income source - just a clear vision of the next step toward… what would become, CTC.

After Penn, I headed west to Colorado to establish a professional running team - my family had spent near-annual trips to the state to train and vacation: We knew we wanted to spend a few years in Colorado while the kids were still at home.

• We moved to Granby, CO and established ELEV8 Endurance in 2017. Scott Christensen (Lead Endurance educator for USATF and USTFCCCA) and Alan Culpepper (NCAA Champion and 2-time Olympian) became the first members of our Board of Advisors and helped me to develop the business strategy for the Pro team.

• By mid-2018, the team expensively became the Colorado Track Club (CTC), with a goal of sponsoring the first pro athlete by 2020. [I was now about $50K in the hole]… it was only going to get worse!

In 2019, CTC moved to Colorado Springs, and we had our first profitable year as a business. Yes… three years to finally turn a profit (I get an “F” in business acumen and an “A” in stubbornness). I began coaching Fedra Luna Sambran of Argentina in September. In mid 2020 I was introduced to Samson Matua and I began coaching his brother Titus in Kenya. By early 2021 our Kenyan team took off and we had about 7 men and women in our camp in Iten. The initial camp included Francis (who went from to 1:47 in the 800 to 1:45 within two seasons), Paul (who went from 3:43 in the 1500 (at altitude) to 3:38+ within two seasons), and Fridah who had significant improvement in every event from 400m - 30K (56, 2:00.4, 4:18 for 1600m, 15:27, and 31:47 for her primary races).

College: I’ve got a bachelor’s degree in Education, a graduate degree in Divinity, graduated from the US Army’s Sergeants Major Academy (10 month school for Military Science), and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (certified Federal LE Officer). I had a great career in the U.S. Coast Guard and benefited from working with countless great examples of intelligent and competent co-workers / leaders.

My wife Carol and I have been married for 28+ years and we have five kids. Our family enjoys skiing and downhill mountain biking. We have a daughter in the U.S. Army, two sons who served in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps, another son is a professional downhill bicycle racer with USA Cycling, and our youngest is a superb drummer and teaches lessons.

Admittedly, we may crash and burn at any moment now (I know that feeling too well), but CTC is still progressing at the moment!

You can reach me via email at: Rob@ColoradoTrackClub.com