what happened

hey, i’m rob

This part of my story starts in 2015.

That year was shaping up to be a breakout year for my business and me. My business, a boutique creative agency, was on track to grow double digits for the third year in a row.

I took up triathlon. I wasn’t a swimmer, cyclist, or runner. I’ve always wanted to push myself, so I went looking for a physical challenge to find my edge.

And let’s be honest, it kept me sexy, sane, and out of trouble.

I joined a group of fellow triathletes in the Golden Gate Triathlon Club and we were training together for what was to be my first IRONMAN 70.3 in Santa Cruz.

my injury

Then September 5, 2015 — the weekend prior to the race — on a routine training ride, things took a drastic turn. I lost control of my bike on an infamous patch of downhill switchbacks, crossed the oncoming lane, and went over the side of a hill.

At first, we thought I had just a broken collar bone and I’d be back in a month.

Turns out I had a broken collar bone, several cracked ribs, a 70% collapsed lung, and worst of all an L1 burst fracture in the lumbar spine. The very next day the doctors performed a spinal fusion. The accident left me paralyzed in a wheelchair without any feeling or control of my legs.

Officially, I am a T10 Complete ASIA Score A paraplegic.

the rally | paratriathlon

After watching my friends race that half IRONMAN the following weekend, I set a goal to race in Santa Cruz the next year, albeit a little differently than I originally envisioned. I began swimming and handcycling as part of my rehab.

With the help of my tribe, who over-funded my crowdfunding in less than a month, I bought the handcycle and racing wheelchair I needed for the bike and run legs of a triathlon. I was also supported by Urban Barrels, ROKA, and the Challenged Athletes Foundation.

I raced three triathlons inside that first year — Oakland, Santa Cruz, and Malibu. Promise kept.

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the why | to continue to inspire

Once that season was over and I had time to sit still, the thoughts and feelings of being stuck in a wheelchair started to set in. The holidays were rough emotionally, though many around me probably didn’t realize how tough it was.

But I realized two things out of that period.

One was that the hole of despair is natural and inescapable to experience and feel.

The other is that you have a choice as to how long you want to wallow in that hole.

Because the truth is, it will always be there for you and be ready to swallow you. But if you first make the choice to not wallow; the courage, the gumption, the energy to get out and do something else will always be ready for you too. And the people, the resources, the encouragement are there if you believe they’re out there for you.

That’s true whether you’re wrestling with physical injury or just life and whatever it’s throwing at you.

So my campaign was never really about racing paratriathlon.

It was to build a story. A story of comeback starting less than one year after a devastating and life-changing injury.

A story that proves life is something you choose to create, not something you are a victim to.

Everything after this is that story getting tested.

the world championships

I did my first half IRONMAN in Oceanside, California, in 2018. Check that box.

The box didn’t stay checked. The distance got its hooks in me and I wanted to see how far up I could go.

In 2019 I raced the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships in Nice, France.

In 2020, as we know everything was cancelled globally.

In 2021, I punched my ticket to Kona — the full distance, the biggest stage in the sport, and the big hairy audacious goal I’d set back in year two of this wheelchair life.

Then the second COVID variant pushed the race, and then canclled it again. It took two more years before I actually got to the start line.

I raced Kona in October 2022 and I didn’t finish.

So my revenge was IRONMAN California the following year in 2023 — the full 140.6, in pouring rain, and I finished first.

I figured that was the end of it. Then in 2024 they announced the 70.3 World Championships for Taupō, New Zealand.

New Zealand was already a bucket list item — the country, the people, that legendary race. So much for being done. I qualified at IRONMAN 70.3 Eagleman and finished fourth in the world.

I was also the fastest American, and second from last. Both are true.

It took ten years.

what next?

These days I race marathons in the racing wheelchair — eleven fulls and nine halves so far, including Boston in April of 2026 and New York this November.

I coach adaptive athletes. I work with Dare2tri and Angel City Sports, which means I now get to be the person on the other end of the phone that somebody was for me in 2015. That’s the part nobody warns you is the best part.

I still run babaLucas Creative. I speak — including a TEDx stage. In 2025 my alma mater gave me their Wave of Resilience Award, which was strange and lovely, mostly because they honored the why and not just the medals.

Pain is not optional. Ask my neuropathic nerves at 3am. The equipment breaks, the cutoffs are real, and some days that hole from the first winter is right there waiting.

Getting out of it is still a choice. It’s one you get to make again every single morning.

So stay tuned. There’s more to come and more to create.

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