David Simmons

Age: 43
Events: 10k, 12k, Half Marathon and Cross Country
Hometown: Seattle, WA
College competed for: Central Washington University

Personal Bests

5000m - 15:19 (2001)
10k - 33:09 (XC) (2001)
12k - 40:45 (2020)
10 mile - 54:48 (2020)
Half Marathon - 1:13:48 (2020)

Career Highlights

2001 MVP Cross Country, Central Washington University
2001 19th Place, NCAA Division 2 Regionals– 10K - 33:09
2017 Labor Day Half Marathon, 7th Place - 1:14:36
2018 Oiselle Tenacious Ten, 5th Place, 10k - 33:43
2018 Seahawks 12k, 2nd Place - 42:36
2018 Kirkland Half Marathon, 1st Place - 1:15:15
2019 PNTF XC Championships 6k in 21:04 3rd Place Masters
2019 XC Club Nationals - Lehigh, Pennsylvania, 36th (Master’s) 10k - 35:35
2020 Seattle Hot Chocolate 15K, 2nd Place - 52:27
2020 8 Mile Solo Time Trial, 43:56
2020 “Social Distance Relay 2,” 5.31 miles - 28:59
2020 CNW 12K SD Race, 3rd Place - 40:45
2020 Labor Day Half Marathon, 1st Place - 1:13:48
2020 CNW Lake Stevens 10 Mile, 5th Place - 54:48
2021 Evergreen Half Marathon (Solo), SRC 50/100 Challenge - 1:13:50

Volunteering

In addition to volunteering at local Cross Country and road races, David has enjoyed volunteering in the arts and environment, planting trees at Magnuson Park, building bike trails in the mountains above Issaquah, and helping young writers at Seattle’s Richard Hugo House.

About

Running is one of my favorite ways of being in the world. After years of tucking running far into the margins of work and adulting ambitions, I’ve finally acknowledged ways it has accompanied and nudged the meaningful goals in all areas of my life. If running is not quite ‘the meaning of life,’ it’s always quietly close to that center, enriching everything and being a lens into the natural world and human nature.

I interpret between Spanish-speaking humans and English and Medicalese-speaking doctors and providers in the Seattle area. Recently, I translated a book of Spanish-language poetry, published in 2021 by Nicaraguan-American Painter-Poet Victor Fuentes. Along with running, writing is my twin non-required passion, and I fully plan to publish my own tear and courage-inducing novel by the time I’m 70.

In 2019, I was encouraged to run my first XC season in 18 years. That fall, I competed for CNW in Lehigh, Pennsylvania, finishing 36th in the Master’s 10k. Quickly learning that the Club didn’t exist just to train elites, but help passionate runners at every level, I felt more a part of the family. Running on my own taught me discipline, confidence and explorative audacity. Getting back into club running is teaching me, in turn, so many things I couldn’t learn on my own. Athlete memoirs such as Chrissie Wellington’s ‘A Life Without Limits’ also reignited my love of running inspired me to put myself out there again.

Injuries have taught me that nurturing the body is as important as pushing it to its limits. Hip flexor trouble in 2018-19 was one comeback I wasn’t sure I could make. But by 2020 I was back, setting lifetime PR’s in every distance from 12K to Half Marathon. I’m incredibly grateful to all the people who’ve inspired me—and allowed me to witness their incredible stories, both in and outside of running.