Data Engineering the PNW Race Scene.
Moving beyond the spreadsheet to architect a better athlete experience.
LA Tri Series
Circa 1987
Tinley Stache Era
From Apple IIe to Triathlon
My technical journey began in 1982 with an Apple IIe. My first program was a D&D Character Generator. I built it because rolling a Magic User by hand took too long. That early obsession with creating something led to a career building massive data platforms. My triathlon journey started shortly after in 1985 when I was recruited for a corporate relay swim leg for Avery Dennison.
That relay led me to swim on a number of relay teams organized by Terry Martin, I remember doing brick workouts with his group, while performing the swim leg alongside my triathlon relay teammates Dave Spangler and runner Tony Reyes. Dave rolled up on his companies Hooker Elite, the aerodynamic benchmark of the 1990s. Terry Martin inspired me, and I appreciated his generosity and his encouraging words. I've since finished three Ironmans and hundreds of local races, but given the choice, I'll take a local race every single time. It was never about the brand on the medal; it was about the community at the start line.
“I led the legendary Scott Tinley for exactly the length of Transition 1 and couple hundred yards on the bike at Ironman Canada 1993 before he flew past me on the bike. I exited the water in 11th place overall with a time of 51:00 flat. I was the third athlete on the course, and the local TV station followed me out of the water thinking I was a pro. Probably the Scott Tinley stache. To be honest, I am the most passed triathlete you will ever meet. I love the swim, but once I hit the road and run, I am basically just an average age-grouper amongst the rest of the field.”
The Analytics Vibe
In October 2025, I retired from Microsoft after 8 years as a Principal Analytics Engineer — the final chapter of a career that included launching FC Web at Washington Mutual (20,000+ monthly users across 2,400 branches), engineering multi-cloud spend platforms at Disney, and building Azure management tooling from the ground up at Microsoft. The common thread across all of it: clear at-a-glance visibility into complex data. That's the exact standard I brought to TRI NORTHWEST.
Paying it Forward: TRI NORTHWEST
For the first time ever, I built a site for myself instead of for clients or employers! For years I maintained a master Google Sheet of PNW events used by the Seattle Triathlon Group and other local athletes. I finally decided to ditch the spreadsheet and build something better for the community that has given me so much over the last four decades.
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