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I grew up in a very
small town in northwest Ohio. Jim Jurcevich's high
school is actually in my school's conference, one
town to the west. He was a senior when I was an
eighth grader, and as a multi-time state champ he
was my hero growing up…just don't tell him I said
that. I'm the oldest of 4 kids, all of us runners.
I've experienced some success with running for as
long as I've been doing it. In 7th grade I ran a
4:48 1600 in my conference meet. At 16, I was the
15-16 USATF Junior Olympic national cross country
champion. I ran 9:30 in the 3200 as a sophomore. I
was the 1998 Div. III cross country state champion,
then I got hurt my senior track season.
Because of my grades and my running, Princeton
recruited and accepted me. I experienced only
minimal success there, as I never figured out the
best way for me to train for longer distances. I did
have a few decent races, running 8:57,
14:40, and 30:27 and graduated with a degree in
Economics.
The next year I took
pre-med classes at OSU and trained with the
Buckeyes. After that, I began working at Riverside's
outpatient Pharmacy and training on my own to pick
up some petty cash at surrounding road races. At the
5 miler in Worthington in 2004, I met Jim for the
first time.
After the Cap City Half in 2005 I signed on with the
CRC and shortly thereafter began training with
Jim. Over the next year Jim molded me into the CRC
marathon man I am today, posting times of 2:15 at
Austin and 2:17 at Chicago. Now I am a medical
student at Wright State University, trying to
balance my studies and running. I try to make it
back to Columbus periodically to hang with my CRC
brethren because if I stay away too long I start to
get the shakes.
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High School: