Favorite Skating Event:Athens to Atlanta. That 87 miles will challenge you, make you question your decisions and your abilities but then once you cross that finish line the feeling is absolutely amazing. The entire event has an awesome sense of community, camaraderie, and shared experience that really shows what the skating community is all about.

Awards/Competitive Wins: Silver Medal @ Bear Creek Inline and Quad Challenge 2019, 2017 Big Wheel Blading.com aggressive/distance challenge winner 2,548.50 miles, 5th in the combined event at NSIM 2019 (half+full marathon)

Most Memorable Incident:The list grows by the day but my solo century is still my choice. Skating 100 miles completely alone, unsupported, no one there except yourself to keep you going and then at times you don't even want to listen to that one part of you that says keep going when every other ounce of your being just wants to stop. You don't finish something like that without an amazing sense of accomplishment and empowerment.

What do you get from Skating: Basically fun, freedom, and fitness. No matter what kind of skating I am doing I have a smile on my face. In trick skating there is a freedom in being able to move and play with your body movements while on skates, controlling it and moving into the next trick or flow. With distance skating there is freedom in being able to say

I'm going to skate across this city or to the next town over and be able to make the distance but also use your skill set to get you there skating around all the challenges on the way. The freedom I find in speed is breaking the bonds of gravity and inertia, moving myself faster on my own two feet than I ever could in any other way. The fitness aspect is very important to me because it has been such a change in my life. I got way out of whack with my body and health for a few years and distance skating brought me back. It opened the door to fitness for me by putting my body in a better place to be able to even apply myself. Now fitness is one of the bigger aspects of my life, I feel the best I have in my entire life. I wish I was a better writer though because skating is so much more.

Would like to do this Year in Skating: More podium appearances! Skate a few more centuries, organize a night skate again, break 3,000 miles for the year. Be fast, go far.

Coolest Accomplishment: For me the fact that no matter at what stage or phase I was in life, no matter what, I remained a skater. It might not have always been front and center but I never stopped skating, always made time for it. I feel my skating has evolved with me as a person but it has always been there in some way. Since the day I started, skates have always been on my feet.

Other Sports/Hobbies you Enjoy: Trail running! Something I would have never thought I'd say, very nice contrast to skating too and gets your mind in the same kind of but different place. I love working out in my garage gym "The Muscle Sauna" ! I also enjoy cycling, have a nice commuter and a single speed. Photography has always been one of my biggest enjoyments in life and has always gone hand in hand with skating.

Favorite skating gadget/tool: Not actually skating but my Fitbit, I just love to geek out on numbers and data although I can get a little obsessive with it.

What do you enjoy about being a member of HCIC: Community and camaraderie, when I aggressive skated there was always a community feel but when I started this kind of skating I always felt I was in no man's land so when I found out about others it was very exciting. I enjoy being able to learn from everyone and see how diverse skaters are in our background, reasons for skating, drives in skating it can all be so varied but at the end of the day it's all skating. I just enjoy being around my people.

Mentors: While I don't have any direct mentors I feel there is something I can learn from every skater I meet. Steve and Bill in our club are the closest I've had to mentors, I'm still chasing those guys.

Helpful advice to other skaters/ Beginners: "If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward" - Martin Luther King.