Hello, my name's Spencer. I’m excited for the opportunity to introduce myself to anyone I haven’t yet met or have only been able to share a wave in passing!

My wife Emily and I live at 3200 W. Rivulet Pass along with our daughters Sloane (10) and Skylar (8), our son Jackson (4), and our dog Hank. We’ve been in our home since 2012 and feel very blessed to have raised our family here.

I grew up in Springfield attending Kickapoo High School and graduated in 2003 before committing to play basketball for the University of Missouri where I spent 2 years. After receiving a medical redshirt at Missouri due to an injury, I ultimately finished my final 3 years playing at Missouri State University. I was lucky to play alongside my brother Shane and many other local guys who played for MSU during that time.

At this point in my life, I view being an athlete a little differently than I did growing up where my sole focus was on competing and winning.

After college, I spent a period where I thought I didn’t need to physically push myself as much. I thought, “I’m not an athlete anymore, so why keep pushing myself in that way?” In 2017, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s, an autoimmune disease that makes it difficult to absorb nutrients from food. To be honest, I was pretty nervous as I had already lost over 30 lbs, and the more food I ate, the worse I felt. I had never heard of it, and it was a steep learning curve to get into remission. 

Once in remission, I began to have a completely different perspective on being an athlete. It allowed me to stop viewing being an athlete as something that is based only on skill and performance. Instead, I began focusing more on quality of life day to day, feeling better, and extending my health span to match my life span as closely as possible. 

In late 2021, my Crohn’s returned and I spent about a year being limited in what I was able to do and struggled to get back in good health. I had followed all the proper medical protocols but still wasn’t able to get fully over the hump. Over the years, I had done a few 5k events but nothing competitively. For some reason, an Ironman race kept popping in my head which was confusing to me, especially after a year of feeling as physically weak and vulnerable as I had ever felt. I remembered watching an Ironman championship race held in Hawaii on ESPN 2 for a few minutes when I was young and thinking, “That seems crazy, I wonder if I could do that? …” but never thought about it beyond that point.

After a couple of months of not being able to shake the feeling, I just thought, "Why not? Something has to change, and if I can stand at the starting line of an Ironman race a year from now, I’ll be as healthy as I’ve ever been." Whether I finished the race or not, I would've gotten what I was hoping for, which was to feel healthy again.

After the first three months, the training accomplished what I had hoped and it got me physically healthy again, but what I didn’t expect was the powerful mental changes and new perspectives I developed. Before I started training, the Crohn’s had made me overly fearful and sensitive to pain and discomfort. I found myself starting to live in a safety bubble, but at some point during the training, I began to realize it wasn't just pain. The pain was necessary for growth and becoming more resilient to handle the additional mileage in the coming weeks, but I also realized that the pain and frustration from my Crohn’s was just another form of growing and becoming more resilient… it just wasn’t the way I wanted to do it.

I’m thankful that even though the race is over I’m still able to hold that perspective to this day. That’s one example of how taking the leap of faith and doing something scary wasn’t at all what I expected, but it was what I needed.

I wanted to talk about this particular portion of my athletic career because I honestly feel like so many of you in the neighborhood played a role in helping me get to that starting line. Even when I looked like some crazy person out in the streets and you may have wondered, "What in the heck is that guy doing?", I could always feel the encouragement and support. Thank you to everyone for that… And don’t get me wrong, I still love to compete, it’s just mostly with myself these days. There's a saying in health & fitness that I like: “Concepts are few, but methods are many.”

At the end of the day, whatever specific goal someone sets, there’s usually a common theme to be happier, healthier, and build enough resiliency to handle whatever situation may come next. For what it’s worth, I believe no matter your age or experience level… if you find a method that gets you moving, you enjoy doing it, and you do it consistently… that’s what makes an athlete!