Meet Rod.

I’m a professional ultrarunner for HOKA and Neversecond, which means I spend most of my time running absurd distances through the mountains, consuming alarming amounts of gels, and calling it a career. Dreams do come true.

I grew up in the East Bay Area in Moraga, CA and started running at Campolindo High School because ultimately, I wasn’t tall enough for basketball. While I was never a standout, I fell in love with the simple sport and really the camaraderie and grind that came with training in those four years.

I went to UC Santa Barbara for college where I dabbled in road marathons my first two years before I got extremely bored doing solo tempos and joined the triathlon club my junior year and dove headfirst into the world of endurance sports. Something about bonking every weekend hours away from home with your best friends made those two years some of the best of my life.

For a while, Ironman was my world before burnout from hours in a swimming pool set in. Entering the real world, I stumbled back into running—this time on the trails and in the mountains around Santa Barbara. In 2019, I left Santa Barbara for San Francisco, entered the glamorous world of healthtech (read: too many Slack notifications), and started running before and after work in Golden Gate Park like a proper unhinged person, with the weekly $60 weekend Uber ride to Mill Valley for a 30 mile run around Mt. Tam. Trying to balance city life in my early 20s and early morning trail missions really started to take its toll on me.

Then the pandemic hit, and the world paused just long enough for me to flee the city and move to Mammoth Lakes, CA. A deep love for dirt, vert, and irrational goals made it necessary, and remote work made it all possible.  That lifestyle change gave me the space and freedom to fully commit to trail running—and it's been the most fulfilling chapter of my journey yet.

Now I live in the mountains, chase summits, and pretend that 100-mile races are a normal adult hobby. It’s all going great.