Published reference

Current movement · family sport · endurance archive

Athletics and Movement

Triathlon is an important chapter. It is not the current tense.

The current chapter

I am a soccer dad and a swim dad.

Most weeks, athletics looks less like a podium and more like practices, meets, games, carpools, gear, weather, meals, timing, and showing up. I am still a runner. I swim in pools and open water. I bike. I backcountry ski, snow camp, and camp in ordinary conditions and decidedly non-ordinary ones. I kayak flat water and whitewater.

Movement is not an old credential. It is part of family life, travel, judgment, and the way I keep myself useful.

Family sport

Soccer dad, swim dad, competitive meets, practices, bikes, running, and the logistics that make youth sport possible.

Endurance now

Running, cycling, pool swimming, open-water swimming, hiking, and active transportation.

Mountain and water

Backcountry skiing, snow camping, tent camping, flat-water kayaking, and whitewater kayaking.

A long relationship with movement

The mileage started early.

Three races, one childhood weekend

As a child, I once completed a biathlon, a triathlon, and a 10K in one Saturday-and-Sunday weekend. All three were morning races, and each was held at a different location.

25,000 miles before the license

I had more than 25,000 miles behind bicycle handlebars before I received my driver’s license, coincidentally on my seventeenth birthday.

Running before triathlon

I ran in high school and college. Distance training built the engine and made repetition, pacing, and uncomfortable conditions feel normal.

Before Team USA

The national record started in childhood.

These are firsthand biographical facts from my own athletic record. They belong before the later medals because they explain how unusual the competitive path already was.

4 crossings I swam from Alcatraz to San Francisco four times. The first crossing was at age fourteen.
15 years, 2 months I became the youngest person to qualify for the United States Triathlon Championships, beating the family mark set by my older brother Ted at fifteen years, nine months.
Before age 20 I traveled across most of the United States racing triathlons before my twentieth birthday.

Endurance before it became a résumé line

The Alcatraz crossings required cold-water judgment, pacing, navigation, and the ability to keep working when the destination looked farther away than it was. The championship qualification and national travel came from the same early pattern: training, transportation, logistics, family support, and a willingness to start unusually young.

Those experiences eventually led to Team USA, a national championship, All-American recognition, and team gold in Manchester. They also led to the present chapter: running, open-water swimming, family sport, backcountry travel, and practical endurance rather than nostalgia.

Read the expanded Building Blocks story →

Continue to 1993-96: Team USA, independence and Sigma Chi →

Randall Stone running the 2014 San Francisco Marathon in a blue campaign shirt and yellow cap
San Francisco Marathon, July 27, 2014. The photograph belongs to the continuing endurance record, not the beginning of it.

The archive chapter

Triathlon showed what the engine could do.

I represented Team USA in 1992 and 1993, became a United States Triathlon Series national champion in 1992, earned All-American recognition in 1993, and raced on the World Championship team that won team gold in Manchester, England, in August 1993.

I wore a yellow hat so family, teammates, and spectators could identify me across a course. Orange now performs the same job on water, snow, roads, radios, EUCs, and Team Stone gear.

The medals belong in the record. Movement belongs in the present tense.

Running in the current chapter

The endurance record continued after triathlon.

The 2014 San Francisco Marathon belongs between the old Team USA chapter and the present life of running, swimming, parenting, skiing, camping, and family sport.

Marathon runner wearing a blue Chico City Council campaign shirt and yellow cap
San Francisco Marathon, July 27, 2014. The campaign shirt turns a race photograph into a small piece of the political archive as well.

What endurance became

Family, community, and responsibility.

The competitive chapter eventually became Special Olympics service, running-club leadership, coaching, family swimming, youth soccer, active transportation, open-water swimming, and the routine discipline of helping other people get to the start line.

Backcountry skier moving through deep snow among snow-covered trees
Backcountry skiing in deep snow. Exact location and date remain to be cataloged.

Current endurance

Fitness is useful when it carries equipment uphill.

Running and swimming remain part of the athletic base. Backcountry skiing, snow camping, cycling, kayaking, and family movement are where endurance becomes practical rather than ceremonial.

Endurance events need infrastructure

Some race days are spent supporting the course.

Hydration, shade, setup, cleanup, volunteers, family logistics, and people willing to stand in a dry field are part of the endurance community too.

The exact event and date remain to be attached to the archive.

Volunteer taking a selfie beside a shaded hydration station in open country
Community support at an outdoor endurance event. Exact event, location, and date remain to be cataloged.