Dena Evans joined runcoach in July, 2008 and has a wide range of experience working with athletes of all stripes- from youth to veteran division competitors, novice to international caliber athletes.
From 1999-2005, she served on the Stanford Track & Field/ Cross Country staff. Dena earned NCAA Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year honors in 2003 as Stanford won the NCAA Division I Championship. She was named Pac-10 Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2003-04, and West Regional Coach of the Year in 2004.
From 2006-08, she worked with the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative, helping to expand the after school fitness programs for elementary school aged girls to Mountain View, East Menlo Park, and Redwood City. She has also served both the Stanford Center on Ethics and the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession as a program coordinator.
Dena graduated from Stanford in 1996.
Kevin O’Brien is a resident of Fall River Mills, California (70 miles east of Redding), where he manages dispatch logistics and fertilizer billing for McArthur Farm Supply. Kevin grew up in Corning, California, before heading to Chico State University, where he graduated in 1999. Kevin has been married for nearly six years to his wife, Georgia (who coincidentally is Coach Dena’s first cousin), and has two young kids. One August day last year at a family gathering, Dena encouraged Kevin to try Focus-N-Fly as he and a few other family members where planning to attempt the Long Beach Half Marathon and he tended to do so much of his running alone in the small town where he resides.
Shaluinn grew up in southern California, where she has been running since she was 5 years old. As she puts it, she has been running longer than fellow FNF’er and recent “In the Hunt” blogger Brooke Wells has been alive! Shaluinn graduated from Louisville High School in 1996, where she helped the team to a Division IV state cross country state championship her senior year. Shaluinn attended and competed for Stanford, where she graduated in 2000 with a degree in American Studies. After several years at Google, where she currently is Product Marketing Manager for Google Apps, she took the 2008-09 school year to complete a Master’s degree in Management at the Stanford GSB’s Sloan program. Married to fellow Googler Ramsey Allington, Shaluinn lives in Palo Alto.
Greg is 46 years old, and with his wife, runs a commercial and residential fencing business in Cibolo, Texas (near San Antonio). Umsted has three kids, aged 10,8, and 6. After growing up near Tacoma, Washington and attending Fife High School, Greg moved to the Houston area before eventually settling in Cibolo. Greg hit a Boston qualifying time in January’s Chevron Houston Marathon, and then recently completed the 114th Boston Marathon in 3:26, his third effort ever over 26.2 miles.
A San Juan Capistrano resident, Steve is an accountant with Zaldivar, Sattar & Associates, LLC. Steve graduated from San Diego State, after a post-high school sojourn in Hawaii following a childhood in Garden Grove and San Jose.
Steve found Focus-N-Fly through his entry process for the Select Staffing Santa Barbara International Marathon. Having run in high school, he returned to running recently and ran his first marathon at the 2009 Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego. While his son and daughter, students at Dana Hills High School, are training for their fall cross country season, Steve will be gearing up for Santa Barbara.
Binoy grew up in Bhilai, India, before coming to the United States in 1990. He spent a year in the Bay Area before moving to Tampa, Florida for several years. When Oracle came calling in 1997, he returned to the Peninsula, where he has remained until now. Binoy joined Focus-N-Fly this spring, with a goal of training for his first marathon this October.
