I graduated from West Point in 2015 and served eight years as an Army officer, leaving active duty as a captain in June 2023. For that entire stretch my fitness was measured by somebody else on a fixed schedule — record APFTs, Ranger School, Special Forces Assessment and Selection, a national obstacle-course title. There was always a standard and always a number.
After I separated, the testing stopped. Business school, pickleball, an apartment gym; two and a half years went by without a single structured mile. Nothing dramatic happened — the scoreboard simply went away, which is the ordinary way a former athlete loses an engine he spent a decade building.
I started training seriously again in January 2026. A month later I ran my first HYROX in Miami: 1:12:43, 161st of 1,463 in the Men's Open, on no structured run training in two and a half years.
The splits were the useful part. My transitions ranked in the top 11.8% of the field. My running ranked in the top 20.1%, and it was the only reason I finished outside the top fifty. One test told me precisely which quality to work on.
That result is what this year is built on. I'm racing HYROX Tampa in October, the Miami Marathon in January, and IRONMAN Jacksonville in May 2027 — the first marathon and the first full-distance triathlon of my life. For the first time as an adult I'm training with a coach and a testing protocol, and every number goes up publicly whether it flatters me or not, the sessions that go badly included.
The plans and the benchmark come from the same place. The five-test benchmark I use to find my own weak link is free, because knowing which number is holding you back is the part that actually changes your training. If you were fit at 24 and you're wondering what's still available at 33, that's who I'm documenting this for.
2011–15
United States Military Academy at West Point
Class of 2015. Two-time captain of the Military Skills Competition team, representing the Academy internationally in marksmanship, obstacle courses, land navigation, swimming and running.
2013
World's Toughest Mudder — 2nd Place Team
75 miles of obstacles in 24 hours at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. Four West Point classmates racing as the Four Horsemen. The same four returned in fall 2014, at Lake Las Vegas, Nevada, for a top-5 team finish.
2015
BattleFrog College Championship — National Champion
Sixteen university teams, seeded on qualifying time, racing a five-leg relay across obstacle, carry and rig events. West Point entered as the number one seed with the fastest qualifying time and won the final against Ole Miss — the first national title in the series, broadcast on ESPN2 and ESPNU.
Army
Ranger School · SFAS · 8 years, Captain
Ranger School graduate. Special Forces Assessment & Selection graduate. Scored 300+ on every APFT taken at West Point and in the Army. Left active duty in June 2023.
2022–
CrossFit Level 1 Trainer
Certified October 2022. Group and functional fitness coach and athlete in West End, NC. Passionate about CrossFit since watching the CrossFit Games on ESPN in summer 2010.
2023–25
UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA · Blue Cup, twice
Class of 2025. Led North Carolina's MBA program past Duke's for the Blue Cup in back-to-back years, ending a losing streak that had run more than a decade. Pickleball, soccer, basketball, flag football, swimming, touch rugby, ultimate, beach volleyball — and captain of the CrossFit and weightlifting squad.
2025
Physical 50 — two-time runner-up
Two second-place finishes at KOR Sarasota's Physical 50, against fifty of the region's fittest athletes across disciplines.
2026
First HYROX — 1:12:43
Miami, Men's Open. 161st of 1,463, 53rd in the 30–34 age group. Full split analysis →
