Overly humble beginnings
Athletics early in my life
The only thing that gave me even a sliver of confidence was
athletics. In elementary school, my
father put me and my brother on a ski team at a small local ski “valley” not
far from where we lived. From fourth to
eighth grade, we spent our winter weekends racing mostly in Wisconsin. I attribute much of my leg strength I have today
to my ski racing days.
 |
| Credit to Ed Epperson for photo |
Also introduced in my elementary years, I played football
starting with flag in fourth grade, and then tackle fifth grade all the way to
graduating from high school. I started
as center (I told you I was chubby) from fourth grade to freshmen year of high
school. I finally started to thin out
after my freshmen year, and soon I wasn’t as big as the other linemen anymore. Although I wasn’t as big, I was still ranked
top three in squat among the team thanks to my ski racing days. However, I struggled to get my bench press
up. Furthermore, I wasn’t fast compared
to other non-linemen positions on the team who were more naturally athletic. Thereafter my freshmen year I was never
strong enough, big enough, or fast enough to be a starter again.
Even though I didn’t start, I still enjoyed staying athletic
and being on a team so I stayed on. I’m
glad I did because I went on to learn an invaluable lesson from the football coaching
staff. They forever instilled in me that
the body can be pushed far past the limits of the mind. As an endurance athlete, this mindset is the strongest
trait one can possess. Very happy to
have been taught that before entering the realm of endurance racing years
later.
Finding my confidence
After high school, I stayed athletic with various athletic
endeavors including power lifting and running short road races. While pursuing my under-graduate degree in
Springfield, IL; I found the most athletic success racing short (sprint) triathlons
in the surrounding area. As a college
aged tri-athlete, I raced road triathlons on a 1999 Trek 6500zx mountain bike I
lovingly called the green machine. It seems fitting that I started on a Trek,
and now will be proudly racing a Trek for Honey Stinger-Bontrager. I bought the green machine brand new in high school from money I saved from
being a lifeguard. It wasn’t the best
bike for road triathlons, but it still allowed me to discover my strength as a
rider.
 |
| A later iteration of the green machine |
Also during this time, I found success academically as I was
close to graduating college with honors (cum
laude). Finally, being held back early
in my education would no longer matter.
I should note that if my parents hadn’t made the decision to hold me
back in first grade, I most likely would never have graduated from college. Regardless, not having the notion of feeling behind loom over me anymore was a huge
relief. As a result, my self-esteem slowly
started to build.
I wasn’t bursting with confidence, but I had enough to not
be completely saddled with shyness anymore.
Around that time, I was introduced to a young flight attendant based in
Chicago. Her name was Megan, and I knew
the second I met her I wanted to marry her.
I had no idea how drastically she would forever change my life.
Discovering my passion for mountain biking
After graduating college in 2006, I moved back to my home
town of Rock Island, IL and was introduced to a small mountain biking club
called FORC (Friends of Off Road Cycling). They had just opened a new trail system
not far from where I lived, Sunderbruch Park. From the time I first rode
singletrack, I instantly fell in love with mountain biking. Around the same time, I found success in the
corporate world and landed a job in my field of study. Good thing too, because I needed the money
for all the beers and bikes.
It wasn’t the love for mountain biking alone that drew me so
close to riding trails. I also fell in
love with a bunch of dirty, beer drinking folks that were the mountains bikers
of FORC. As you can image, being
painfully shy most your life doesn’t serve well for having many friends. Then transitioning from being shy to never
shutting up — well, that can produce a lot of awkwardness. This
small community accepted me with all that awkwardness anyway. To this day, I still consider many in FORC as
family — you know who you are, and I love you all. You were, and still are a driving force in my
love for mountain biking.
 |
| Credit to Rebecca "Bexter" Kloos Bernard for photo |
I soon found myself mountain biking every day with my
friends and spending my weekends building/maintaining trails in the local area. After many crashes from pushing my limits far
past my abilities, I quickly became a decent mountain biker. In April of 2008, I entered my first XC
mountain bike race. I won that race, and went on to winning the whole I-74 Race Series in the Novice class
that year.
Endurance racing – my true calling
After winning the I-74
Race Series, I was hooked on competitive mountain bike racing. The next year, I moved up to the Sport class
and I took the same approach to training as always. Simply train more and harder than the
competition. You would think that would
work, but what I discovered was that racers who were more naturally athletic
kicked my ass regardless how much I trained.
That is until I raced with the same racers during my first endurance
race in Wisconsin. I finally beat my competition,
and by a good margin! I discovered that
day that when it comes to endurance racing there are no shortcuts, not even for
the most naturally athletic. Thereupon,
my true calling in endurance mountain bike racing was found!
 |
Pursuing greatness
Through success on and off the bike, after many years of
feeling inadequate, I finally conquered the low self-esteem that plagued me
most of my life. This burst in my
confidence helped me make the toughest decision of my life. The love of my life was now a flight
attendant based in Denver, CO, and there was no easy way for me to join her.
With a tremendous amount of love and support from my now
wife, Megan, I quit my well-paying job in the Quad Cities to move to Colorado
in Fall of 2009. Other than having two
job interviews lined up, I made the move without certainty of my future. Luckily, one of the two companies I
interviewed with hired me. I took a
sufficient pay cut in an area with a higher cost of living, but I was in
Colorado.
Side note: I went on
to work my way up at that company, and landed a job with a competitor years
later. With that new job, I reclaimed
the salary I lost when I moved, and more importantly it allowed me to work
remotely. Thus, allowing me to become a
digital nomad! But that’s a whole other blog.
After taking the leap of faith and moving to Colorado and
having a woman by my side that inspired me to pursue greatness, I felt I could
achieve anything. Once in Colorado, I
decided to take my newfound love of endurance mountain bike racing a step
further. I dreamt a dream so massive and
crazy that to this day I can’t recall how I got the idea into my mind. My lifelong pursuit suddenly became about one
thing — becoming a pro level endurance mountain bike racer.
 |
Dreams are paved with rough roads
As with everything in life, things didn’t fall right in
place in my endurance mountain bike racing career. My first year of racing in Colorado, I DNF’ed
(Did Not Finish) two out of the five races I entered. The ones I did complete, my placement was
deep in the back. This didn’t deter me
in the least bit though. After spending
a lifetime of feeling like a failure, I knew how to endure defeat regardless of
how much was thrown at me. Let me tell
you, there was A LOT of defeat thrown at me.
The second year went much smoother, and by the third year I
won my first race in the 30-39 age group; which is essentially Cat 1 in the
Colorado endurance scene. My fourth year
I landed on the podium a couple more times in 30-39, and was top ten for
several races.
 |
In my fifth year of endurance racing I decided to move up to
the pro/open class. Although I didn’t
feel ready, I knew that if I was ever going to compete in the pro class I
needed to race at that level. For this reason, I made the move up and never looked
back.
For all the nitty
gritty details of my biking career, see my MTB Resume.
To be pro
Even though I entered the pro/open class in 2014, I never
truly felt pro. For a long time, it was my belief that to
call myself a pro I needed to
consistently be on the podium. Admittedly, I have yet to reach this accomplishment. Although top placement is critical, it took
me a long time to realize that there is a lot more to being pro.
An accomplishment to embrace
My acceptance onto Honey Stinger-Bontrager Off Road team
finally solidifies my place as a pro
mountain bike endurance athlete. It’s
hard to believe that a chubby, painfully shy kid with no self-esteem could
achieve such an honor — or is it? As the
saying goes, it takes pressure to create
a diamond. Perhaps having low
self-esteem was my own personal pressure in
life. It could have easily broken
me. Instead, somehow, I turned it into
something beautiful — a lifelong pursuit as an athlete. I could not be happier with how my life
turned out, and I’m especially happy with my new team. #StingorBeeStung
 |
Special Thanks
Special thanks to my father, John Collier (1950-2014), for
encouraging a chubby kid to try out sports for more than just a day. You supported me wholeheartedly when I did
pursue them and were my greatest fan.
I’m sorry you weren’t in this world to see this accomplishment. More regretful, I’m sorry you never met your
grandson Nolan. At least in your last
months with us we were able to tell you that little Nolan was on his way. I know that gave you some peace before
leaving us all. Without a doubt, you
would be as proud of him as you were of me —because I know I sure am.
