Name: Craig Adams
Employment: Principal Mechanical Design Engineer at Raytheon Vision Systems in Goleta. I basically perform the mechanical engineering for packaging sensors into a variety of product lines and spend a heck of a lot time driving high powered computers to accomplish the task of design and analysis.
Family Life: Married to Diane for 7 years, and live in Buellton, along with our dog, Shelby. Nathan (my 24 year old stepson) is currently wrapping up his teaching credentials from Cal-Poly SLO.
My Hero: In general life, my father. In triathlon, I’ve always admired Scott Tinley with his ability to enjoy the sport at a pro level and maintain a relatively normal life.
Outside Interests: Long list – Before all else - Surfing, then there’s general road biking, mountain biking, scuba diving, kayaking, snow-boarding, sail-boarding, sailing, downhill skiing, XC skiing, snow shoeing, hiking, rock climbing, water skiing, fly fishing, archery, skeet, working on the house, working on the cars, photography, sitting on my dead butt watching movies or playing suduko, cooking, entertaining, and if I could afford it – flying.
Athletic Background: Nada, nil, none. I was the high school punching bag and it kept me clear of the jock groups. The most physical activity you’d see me doing was carrying a hunting rifle and hiking around the mountains of Northern Nevada looking for deer that seem to be extinct from that state. In college, I decided to start changing my ways and started some workout routines with a new found ambition to enter military service as an aviation officer. I eventually realized this ambition wasn’t realistic (after a huge recruitment success of “Top Gun”), but thoroughly enjoyed the fitness that I benefited from it.
Years in Triathlon: 22. Yep, when I got started, the big names were Scott Molina, Dave Scott, Mike Pigg, Paula Newby-Frasier an up-and-comer named Mark Allen, and some young kid named Lance Armstrong – I heard he’s gone places.
My best friend, Bob, said he was entering a triathlon (the Roadrunner at our college at UNLV) and I thought that may be a fun thing to try out. I was evidently hooked on the sport ever since, and found the training provided the additional benefit of being in shape to enjoy an entire host of the other activities I enjoy. Eventually moved to San Diego in order to pursue these activities and get involved with other people that enjoyed them as well.
1st Race - Las Vegas Roadrunner Triathlon - 1987
After getting stoked on the sport and a good three year jaunt in which I did every darned race in San Diego I could, I went through a burn out period and took a few years off. I ended moving to Tucson to basically follow work, and took some time to explore other desert activities, but eventually found myself back into competition and to my surprise found myself doing better. It turns out Tucson is really a great training ground. After a few of years of my second endeavor into the sport, I suffered my first injury from it – plantar fasciitis – little did I know how much that would be coming back. Needless to say, it’s been an on-off activity ever sense.
San Diego International Triathlon - 1990
Favorite Race and Why: Having lived in Las Vegas, San Diego, Tucson, and certainly here in Santa Barbara, I can provide a list of great races. And having just finished IM Wisconsin, there is still a bias towards that race. However, I must say that the 2005 Vineman Full was probably my favorite considering the terrain, the conditions, the low key venue, and the fact that I was on my best game at the time.
Also of worth a mention is one of the funnest race events at Rocky Point in Mexico where you can see the greatest bunch of party dog triathletes you’ll ever encounter.
This Year’s Goals: Recover from the rotator cuff surgery and keep rubber side down and enjoy recovery period for the later part of the year. Hopefully I can get over the Plantar Fasciitis and improve the running shape.
In 5 Years I Hope to: Have conquered a tough desert long course (St George and/or Silverman) and have qualified for Hawaii (this already seems to have taken half my life).
Latest Race - IM Wisconsin 2009
Worst Race and Why: Oh, there’s been a few disaster races, mainly in dry Arizona when the monsoons seem to strike precisely on race day and you find yourself working all three events at the same time ( running while pushing your bike through flood water) while trying to evade lightning. Or there’s the occasional open ocean race that has a huge swell hit that particular day - of course being a surfer, I actually like those, but they tend to get terminated before they’re over.
However the worst race of all, as most of our members know, was the SB-Tri 2008 when I came upon Barbara Warren on the downside of Gobenator. No further explanation needed.
Something Most People Don’t Know About Me: I REALLY enjoy drag racing and bass fishing.