Growing up in northern Connecticut I never thought I was a runner, in fact I wasn’t. Running was a means to end. Playing sports was important but I was never a gifted athlete. I was a good athlete never great. When I turned 25 something changed in me. I was out of college working a dead end job, out of shape and out of control. Just to give you an idea of how out of shape, my nick name was El Nino (short for El Nino Del Gorda), the fat kid, TFK, the list went on and on. I wasn’t really that fat but, was far from the shape I was in when I was playing sports in college.

I decided that year that I was going to run the New York marathon. I had never run anything more than three miles in a row before. 14 weeks later I finished it. I realized at that point the importance of goal setting. I also realized that it doesn’t take talent to run a marathon it takes discipline and determination.

Fast forward a few years and several marathons later I realized that I could be good at this. I was not blessed with great speed but I was willing to work and in order to get good at marathoning Remember, you don’t need talent; you need the ability to out train whomever you are running against.

Like many runners, injury took me out of the game just as I was peaking in speed, running 70-80 miles a week a sub three hour marathon no longer in the cards. Later, I moved to Colorado with my wife and I trained at high altitudes for some adventure races of over a hundred miles. I always asked myself, “oh Rob aren’t you a runner? Wouldn’t you like to run this race?” And of course, I accepted my own challenge each time. But unfortunately, nagging injuries would enable me to train half heatedly and somehow I managed to gut these races out.

As time went on, more and more I told myself I wasn’t a runner. And then it happened….I lost my passion for training. My discipline and focused were no more and it showed in my race times. But I never gave up.

Fast forward a few years, I started to get my passion back. I registered for marathons all over the United States: New York, Alaska, Colorado, and Utah. In 2007, I ran three hardcore trail races in one month including the MidMountain marathon the third hardest marathon in the world. Part of the triple trail challenge (1 of 45 people crazy enough to attempt it). Now that I am over 40 training at Shoreline Crossfit, my fitness career goes on. I have found a new passion for training and have regained my discipline once again.

Currently I live in Madison, I’m a regional VP for a large investment company, and share my life with my beautiful wife Jessica and our three children Aidan 7, Carrig almost 2, and Evelyn of 9 months. With all this being said, I’ve learned that any success in life or any failure for that matter can be found in the presence or absence of discipline.

Rob’s Credentials:
CrossFit Level 1 Certification
CrossFit Endurance Certification