I’m a 56 year-old woman who lives, runs, bikes, and swims in Madison, Wisconsin.
Runner/duathlete/triathlete
I was never athletic growing up, spending more time on academics and computers than anything else. I didn’t participate in any sports in high school or college, other than the mandatory P.E. classes (and I took bowling for that in high school!). So it was as much a surprise to myself as to everyone else that in my mid-30’s I became a runner, then a triathlete & duathlete.
Not being active early in my life caused me to end up in my early 30’s quite overweight, and at my heaviest I weighed 230 pounds. When I finally got serious about losing weight and combined eating better and exercising, I lost 85 pounds over two years and found I loved being active.
Now I spend much of my free time training and racing, and there is nothing more fun than going on a long bike ride or run with my friends.
Geek
For the first 30 years of my life was pretty much a geek. I was introduced to computers in Junior High, and found I had a knack for working with them. During the next few years I taught myself to program Basic and 6502 assembly language, and decided I wanted to write computer games when I grew up. I’ve worked in games for 25+ years, but I’m not sure if I’ve grown up :).
I went to college at the University of Texas at Austin. After graduating in 1988 with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, I began writing commercial Macintosh games (Space Rogue, published by Origin Systems, was my first game). Over the years, I wrote quite a few Mac games (check my work page for a list). I wrote iPhone apps and games for my company, Maverick Software for several years, and was the Principal iOS engineer at Fetch Rewards for 5 years, responsible for creating their iOS app. I’m now retired.
Family
I met my spouse Suellen online in 1994, and we began to do our part to keep AT&T and American Airlines in business with a long distance relationship between Austin and Madison, Wisconsin. We were married in 1997, and Suellen moved to Austin. Suellen retired from being a professor of Library & Information Science in 2021, after teaching online for several universities (Univ of Alabam, Univ of Rhode Island, and more!) over the last several years.
Suellen was diagnosed with Cholangiocarcinoma in January 2022, and passed away November 1, 2022. She was the love of my life and I will always grieve her passing. Her obituary is here.
I have a grown step-son and step-daughter, Josh & Melanie, and two granddaughters, Maeve & Ellowyn (both Josh’s daughters).