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Half Marathon|Relay|5K: April 3, 2027
Goblin Run 5K: October 31
Freedom Frosty 5K: December 5
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Sunday second service runs are my favorite of the week. After church I take off right from the car while oldest son stays and helps lead a second grade class during the second service. That hour is a total reset of the week. After weddings and work, ahead of the todos and tasks sits this run and it’s a beautiful reminder to be present and enjoy moments when they come.

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$“I just want to be able to run and play with my kids” That sentence came out of my mouth before I ever sat with this trainer at the beginning of a series of sessions that would change my life. I’ll back up. In the summer of 2017 I threw a few goldfish in the air on the beach with my 2 year old son and chased him as he chased a seagull. I stepped in a tiny hole in the sand as I pivoted and my knee gave out. Years of skiing, soccer, and lifting too heavy had made the joint unstable and when it went - it went all the way. A spiral fracture in the fibula head on top of multiple ligaments ruptured which left me absolutely fighting to stay positive. After weeks immobilized I had a gnarly surgery to try and fix everything. The doctor said I’d be better off getting it replaced altogether but I was too young for insurance to approve it. When I came out of surgery I had two different sentences said to me that left me in a dark spot in my head. The first was the post op appointment where the surgeon suggested that I might never really be able to “run” again. Keep in mind, I wasn’t a runner. I had never run more than 2 miles in a row but I did want to put on cleats and play soccer with my boys, to chase them in the back yard, to be an active and fit dad. The second was a PT telling me I needed to embrace pushing through some pain in order to get back as much mobility as I could. Both felt wrong. I couldn’t explain it. And then I connected with Dustin. He was learning some wild training techniques mapping neurological connections with recovering athletes. My nerve damage was pretty bad but he started helping me be able to trust the joint again. It was so slow. I couldn’t feel pressure, or sharp, or even impact on the joint but I could feel heat. It was a start. We never pushed through pain. We used pain as a guide, a positive signal that I was feeling anything at all. And then he asked me what I wanted. “I want to be able to run with my kids” That afternoon I took a few very imbalanced, very awkward steps. It wasn’t a jog or a shuffle but it wasn’t a walk. I was off of the cane, the crutches, the brace they said I’d need (cont. in comments)$

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