"In This Great Future You Can't Forget Your Past"

When I look back on my collegiate running career at Michigan the word that comes to mind is tumultuous.  My first 3 years were injury riddled and marked by more failure than success.  Thankfully, as the Michigan program transitioned to coach Alex Gibby, I went through my own transformation.  With coach Gibby's help I returned to relevancy during my final 2 years of college.  With a final push in a Michigan singlet I resurrected my career and capped it off with a Big 10 title, an NCAA runner-up finish, and an Olympic Trials steeplechase final effort. Thanks to these performances it was an easy choice to continue running. 

Now it was time to decided where to continue running.  I could move back to my first love, New Jersey, but staying focused there is like being a kid in a candy store. So I took coach Gibby up on his offer for me to train under him in Ann Arbor.  This was not an easy choice seeing as I had never really felt at home at Michigan.  That being said, coach Gibby and I were really clicking and so I stayed and had a pretty good year on the professional circuit doing road and cross country races. During track I battled through injury to salvage an 8th place at USA's in the 3k steeple. In the end it was clear to me I had to find a happier home with more support and structure.

I decided to give a call to coach Robert Gary and coach Chris Neal to see if they were interested in having me be a part of Furman Elite.  After coming on a visit and hearing about all the great aspects of being a part of the group I was sold.  Now here I am living along side some supreme talent from across the country, and globe.  Furman Elite feels like the home I have been looking for all these years.  Being a post-collegiate runner is hard, but having people around me that are in the same situation has so many advantages.  I am confident we will all succeed here and that I will be happy for the long term.  I have great teammates, an insightful and motivated coach, as well as the support to live and train without a "real job."

I wouldn't have gotten this far without so many people believing what I am doing is meaningful.  And now I have Furman Elite to thank for this next phase in my career, one that will be lengen...wait for it....dary!

-Craig