1996 Cross Country at Western Oregon State College

This would end up being my last season running cross country. I joined the team just 10 days after returning home from Japan, where I spent two years as a missionary and didn't train a lick. After the season had finished, my coach told me that when he first met me he thought I was too fat to run competively; and while this was probably true, I lost 30 pounds within 6 weeks and was the number 5 runner on the varsity team. Not that our team was any good, but I'll always be proud for having run on a varsity college cross country team.

I injured my hip flexor in the off-season, and that made it all the more easier to not run track the next spring. And since I transferred to Utah State the next year, I didn't even bother trying out for the team--I might have had an outside chance of slipping in, but it was unlikely and I was more interested in focussing on my studies and future career.