ACTIVE TEAM MEMBERS

Chad Babcock
From Olathe, Kansas, Chad brings many years of competitive cross-country running and mountain biking to the team. Chad raced his first adventure race with David and Mike in 2002 and has been hooked ever since. Chad's easy progression from marathons to off-road multi-sport racing became apparent when his first event netted a gold medal. In 2006 Chad finished his first Ironman in Wisconsin with ease and is already looking forward to the next one. Chad recently participated in the Bonk Hard Chill winter adventure race, an event that led to his retirement, for the fourth time, from adventure racing. We expect to see Chad back on the adventure racing circuit within two months. Chad has an affinity for baked goods and a collection of athletic shoes unrivaled in the western hemisphere.

Bill Biehl
From Lenexa Kansas, once weighing in at two bucks and a quarter, now at a buck sixty five when in fighting shape, Bill has competed in multisport activites for the past seven years. Bill has managed to beat Kinner in every race except for the 2006 Shawnee Mission Park Triathlon where Bill went down in flames. He is a veteran Ironman with strong finishes in Florida and Louisville. You might recognize Bill from one of his numerous papers on bike aerodynamics such as, "Water Bottle Cages, Worth the Weight?" and "Micro-Angular Positioning for Aerodynamic Effectivness". Bill will make a return to Ironman in 2009 as he joins teammates Mike and Scott and takes a shot as his 10:30 finish goal at Ironman Arizona. Bill is honestly the nicest member of Team WMS and he has made more trips to the back of the pelaton to pull his teammates back to the pack than anyone we know.

Brenda Bolding
A triathlete since April of 2005 and currently residing in Olathe, KS, Brenda is relatively new to the multi-sport world. She completed her first Half-Ironman distance race at Steelhead last year and went on to put up an impressive finish at the Ironman World Championships in October. Brenda also joined Team WMS for her first attempt at a long-distance winter adventure race at the 2007 Bonk Hard Chill, an event that left her longing for the sunny shores of Kona yet more determined than ever to master the art of off-road, unsupported, long-distance racing.

Scott Kinner
From Shawnee, Kansas, Scott has been racing triathlon for over five years. Once overheard saying, "I'm only interested in half Iron distance racing, not full Iron distance", Scott turned in a strong finish in his first Ironman in 2006, then took close to an hour off that time at the Ironman European Championships in Frankfurt 2008. Scott will make a return to Ironman in 2009 as he joins teammates Mike and Bill and takes a shot as his 10:30 finish goal. Of the three disciplines, Scott is strongest at T1 and is the MacGyver of the group using his metal-working skills to fashion various race-related contraptions for our bikes. Scott has been working on his art skills lately and perfecting his custom bike-painting capabilities (look for it on future Team WMS bikes). He recently purchased a full-suspension mountain bike and plans to join the rest of the team on the adventure racing circuit, so look for the guy in the coon-skin hat.

Suzy Kinner
From Shawnee Kansas, Suzy is in her third year of multisport racing. She proudly wears a t-shirt stating "140.6 - child birth is still harder" and will find out the hard way as she has just registered for her first Ironman-distance race and will compete in the 2009 edition of Ford Ironman Arizona with Bill, Mike and Scott. Suzy recently completed the Chicago Marathon with Dave, Mike and Anita, and knocked out a PR of 4:30. In her spare time, when she's not opening her kitchen to feed and quench the thirsts of her Team WMS brethren as she's always generous to do, Suzy has been working on knitting the Team WMS race outfits for 2009. Don’t laugh, cable knit jerseys are back in style...

Barry Ogden
From Leawood, Kansas, Barry is the cycling powerhouse of Team WMS. Like David, Barry's first Iron-distance race landed him in the ICU but since then he has attacked the triathlon field with a vengeance to successfully complete nine more Iron-distance races and win numerous awards in shorter-distance events. Barry tackled both Ironman Germany and Ironman Louisville in 2008 and will be making a return appearance at Ironman Louisville in 2009 as well as racing in the inaugural Ironman Cozumel. Formerly known as "Soft Serve" by his teammates, Barry is now known as Titanium Man as a result of having a titanium plate installed on his collar bone after a nasty training accident while cycling earlier this fall. Within a day of coming down off of the narcotics trip Titanium Man was already talking about his next Ironman and taking a shot at Primal Quest, arguably the most difficult adventure race in the world. I want some of what's in his IV.

Mike Roberts
From Overland Park, Kansas, Mike has been a competitive endurance athlete for the last fourteen years. To ensure that he doesn't get bored or overly competent in any one sport, Mike likes to mix things up by competing in triathlons, adventure races, duathlons, marathons, bike races, off-road races, and just about any other event where he can get a bib and a timing chip. He has finished more than 100 races. Over the past five years, Mike has raced in five long adventure races (retiring like Chad after each one), four Ironmans, several marathons, and a bunch of shorter triathlon and other multisport races, with results ranging from age group podium, to mid-pack, to DNF.

In June, Mike completed the inaugural Ironman Kansas 70.3 triathlon, coming within a couple of spots of qualifying for the World Championships. Mike followed that effort up with a strong finish at the Ironman European Championship in Frankfurt, Germany, where he came within several hundred spots of qualifying for the World Championships. In October, Mike joined Dave at the Chicago Marathon to help raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and, in the process, managed to qualify for the Boston Marathon by 17 seconds. He celebrated the accomplishment by falling down. Next year Mike will join teammates Scott & Bill at the 2009 Ford Ironman Arizona. Although Bill and Scott have already set impressive personal goals of 10:30, Mike (previously known as Captain Sandbag) has gone big and one-upped their lofty goals by throwing down an impressive 9:59 prediction, which is 39 minutes faster than his previous Ironman PR**.(**reference email dated Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:45:16 -0500 GMT, from J. Michael Roberts, Esq., to Scott Kinner & William Biehl, Message-Id: 20081125004518.2D9051BA3B0@relay19.relay.sat.mlsrvr.com).

Anita Roberts
From Overland Park, Kansas, Anita brings more than 20 years of competitive running to the team. And yes, that's 20, as in 10 more years than her prestigious husband, Mike. Since her days as a high school cross country runner and a high school assistant coach, Anita has competed in more than 100 road races, including eight marathons capped off with a recent PR at the Olathe Marathon. She's also competed in triathlons since 1996. Although her high mileage running occupies much of her free time, Anita's short-term goal is to master the mountain bike so that she can start adventure racing.

Heather Schulze
From Lees Summit, Missouri, Heather began her racing career with 5Ks and marathons. She has now completed nine marathons with her favorite being Boston in 2007. She branched out into triathlons in 2006 and completed her first two Ironman races (France-Nice and the Redman iron-distance race) in 2007. While the plan had originally been to compete in Ironman Germany in 2008, she broke her foot during the Hospital Hill half-marathon a few weeks before race day. After a required 8 weeks off, she recently completed Ironman Arizona, setting an impressive PR in the process. When not training, Heather works as a physical therapist in Lee's Summit and Overland Park and spends time with her boyfriend, Brian, and their kitten, Kona.

David Shultz
From Leawood, Kansas, David is an active participant in triathlons, adventure racing, marathons, and a host of other endurance and adventure sports. David finished his first Ironman in September 2007 in Madison Wisconsin, exactly one year after collapsing from severe hyponatremia just four miles shy of the finish line at that same race in 2006. An adventure travel junkie at heart, David has been found trekking, biking, hiking, climbing, and paddling in various third-world locales. In 2004 he successfully scaled Tanzania's 19,341 foot Mt. Kilimanjaro while raising money for Rose Brooks Center in Kansas City and looks forward to his next high altitude adventure. 2008 saw David finish several races, ranging from half marathon, to half ironman, to a marathon PR at Chicago, where he and Mike raised money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Occasionally referred to as "Slab" by his team mates, David is the only member of Team WMS with the distinction of having broken ribs in both adventure racing and in the Ironman.

Steve Strickland
From Olathe, Kansas, Steve is also a new member to the illustrious ranks of Team WMS. Having completed numerous shorter-distance triathlons winning a number of overall and age-group awards Steve also decided to give long-distance racing a try in 2006 when he took on the Redman Triathlon since which time he has gone on to post impressive times at everything from sprint to half-Iron-distance triathlons. Steve's introduction to adventure racing came when he and David took on the Icy Ike, coming away with the gold medal in the men's division and was quickly sucked into the world of long-distance adventure racing a few weeks later he joined the team at the Bonk Hard Chill. Steve and his wife Nancy are expecting their first child so we expect to see Steve's skills on the bike, and at diaper-changing, flourish in 2009.