My name is David Adams and I was born and raised in the Bluffton/ Hilton Head Island area in South Carolina’s Low Country. I am a husband, father of two, full time firefighter and personal trainer/ running coach. I am grateful to be offered a blog spot on Palmetto Running Company and the Palmetto Running Clubs’ website. First I’d like to give a little background about me and my running career. In the future, I’ll talk about my current training and racing experiences, and wherever my mind travels!
I started competing at the age of 9 while also playing other sports. I qualified for USATF Nationals three times (1991, 1993 and 1994) with no structured training. I started running for Hilton Head High School in seventh grade and won my first of 9 State Championships as a 9th grader. I ran a US#1 time in the 3200 meters (8:57) as a high school senior. I’m the current 5k Cross Country State Record Holder in SC (14:37 in 1999). I was named SC Gatorade Athlete of the year and “Mr. Track” in 2000. I received a scholarship to run at Clemson University where I was a member of the Cross Country and Track & Field teams. During my sophomore year I battled achilles injuries and basically didn’t run for over 9 months. I returned to running as a junior but the passion just wasn’t there anymore and I eventually walked away from the sport. This hiatus from running extended for almost 10 years.
In 2012, 4 years after becoming a Full-Time Firefighter and after being recruited by a fellow firefighter, I slowly began running again. My wife was also pregnant with our first child, and I decided I didn’t want get too busy with kids and life to get in better shape. I had also started biking, thinking that would be a good supplement to getting my cardio back up to speed. About 5 months before our son was born, I had a biking accident that severely broke my collarbone, requiring surgery to put in a metal support plate. Once that injury had healed well enough, running took precedence, and soon I was running more consistently than I had in many years. In a short period of time my passion for the sport grew to heights that I could have never imagined. The growing interest in running and fitness in our area sparked my interest in competing again. This time around it would be much harder than it was when I was younger but I gained valuable experience in training a non runner to become competitive runner. Fast forward to now, I have 4 years of consistent training under my belt again, and I’m competing at a level I thought was no longer attainable.
