Hey y'all! This is Dave Marks's official Runnerspace profile. For those who don't know me I am currently a freshman (redshirt) at the University of Portland. I am 18 years young and I like to run. 

Early years: I played soccer all my life as did my entire family. There are 7 kids in my family (no, I'm not mormon) and we all played soccer. I have a twin and my older brothers are also twins. I like in Lake Oswego Oregon which a short drive into downtown P-Town. 

I started running in the 8th grade to stay in shape for soccer. I ran track and thought this was fun and decided to play soccer in the fall and run track in the spring. I went to Lakeridge High School. High school track came around and I got, how do I say it, destroyed by local heros: Kevin Elder, Ryan Waite, Brian Saxe, Ben Frisbee, Brandon Snook, and pretty much anyone else who I ran against. 

My coach say that I was decent at track and tried to convert me to cross country, but I said no and continued playing soccer. However, more of my friends joined cross country and I decided to help them out in a few races. One of which was the district meet where I placed 14th and our team placed 5th. 

Coming into track I felt a little more confident and had a break out season. PR'ing 1:01 over the course of the year in the 3k and 17 seconds in the 1500. However, at districts I placed 3rd in the 3k and did not qualify...until I got a call from my coach telling me that one of the guys dropped out and I would be filling in for him at state. 

When you have guys like Kenny Klotz, Issac Stoutenburg, Jerhomee Murray, Jake Keyser, and Eric Lnych...yea I'm going to be nervous. But I came out of that race running 10 seconds faster than my district time and placing 6th (8:50.84) From here my running career would change forever.

When the fall came around I told the soccer coach that I would not be playing soccer and my junior year of cross country would be my first official year of running. 

The entire year I was having good races, but never winning them and I was fine with that. Our team had been running well beating some good teams and we were ready for districts. The whole story of that race will be another story but to get the point. I was out-leaned by Riley Werner of Lake Oswego High School for the title, but I got back at him when our team placed 2nd in our district qualifying for state only 2 points ahead of Lake Oswego in the team title. This was the first time our school had gone to state in the last 22 years and I was proud to be leading that team. 

State...I blew it. I placed 79th and out team placed 11th. Lets just say I was ready for track. 

Track came around and I was running great until I rolled my ankle the day before a big invitational at Mt. Hood Community College. Two weeks later after the swelling had gone down and I started running again I ran a time which was top in the league so I was ready for districts. However, my immune system was not. 

The morning of districts I had a fever of 102 and a sinus infection. I ran to win, leading most of the race, but could not finish well and I got 4th. Now I knew it was time to step it up. 

My senior year was my going away season and I was not taking any prisoners. I had only not been 1st only twice before districts running a career best 15:50 earlier in the season. Districts was a wet and rainy day but I won the race however our team was a few points back from qualifying. State, I was not about to repeat of last year, and my teammate Alex Anderson were ready to go. I went out in the top group and stayed near the back the entire time finishing 12th and qualifying for Borderclash, which was my goal. Borderclash is another story. 

But my senior if track was what I was most looking forward to. I came out of the off season with pretty low mileage but was ready to race. The whole year I was focusing on the 3k, running some 1500's for speed work. First meet I ran a meet record 8:57. Next meet I ran a meet record 8:46. Next meet I ran in blizzard 8:54. Next meet I ran a 3:57 1500 at the Jesuit Twilight Relays. Next meet I ran a PR 8:43 winning districts. All of this has been leading up to state where I knew I would be facing off against Bryce Burgess, Brian Manning, Leo Castillo, and Jaocb Goertz. 

State will be another story, but It came down between a battle between me and Burgess where he pulled away from me in the last 150m. Best/Funnest/ Most Intesne race I have ever ran. I ran a 8:37.49 which was .15 off the school record. 

From high school came college where I decided to go to the University of Portland. I love the school, its close to my house (so I can do laundry) and the team is amazing! They are not only the 7th best in the nation but the greatest group of guys I have ever met. 

Now I'm here. Fighting off injury the last few months, but as a redshirt freshman I am ready to get healthy, stay healthy, and start serious training to get in shape. And of course eating vegan.