Katelyn grew up playing basketball, and was very successful. She played 4 years on the varsity team in high school and received many honors. These included 2nd team All WHL, 3years 1st team CMAC, 1st team Fresno Bee all Valley, McDonald’s All American Nominee, and was a Bani’ Brith Nominee. She received an Athletic/Academic scholarship to Notre Dame De Namur, before returning to Fresno to continue her education in Kinesiology at Fresno State.

Her main responsibilities as Pinnacle Training Systems Operations Director are maintaining accounts, planning and organization of programs, and assists with the half marathon and triathlon group programs. She also teaches our weekly yoga classes!

Katelyn plans to complete her degree in Kinesiology and continue her education with graduate degrees, perhaps even a doctoral degree. She says that she would like to be a university professor as well as continue to work with endurance athletes or may apply to a doctorate program in physical therapy.

Katelyn is very active and plans to do a half marathon in the near future as well as a warrior dash event. “I hope to keep training and working with athletes as well as work with those who want to incorporate a healthy and active lifestyle.” She also currently coaches basketball and wants to continue being a part of a basketball program.

What’s her advice for maintaining a healthy lifestyle? “Find something you enjoy and are passionate about. [Do] that you do for yourself and don’t ever sacrifice it for anything! Strong mind equals a strong body.”

As previously stated, we couldn’t be happier to have Katelyn and she tells us that “I couldn’t be happier being in an atmosphere of people who want an active lifestyle and work hard for purely the betterment of life!”

Come out to Run Club or yoga and meet Katelyn soon!

Lisa was always very active throughout childhood. Beginning in middle school, she began playing volleyball year round, with both school and club teams. Volleyball was always a passion for her, and she considered many colleges to become a student-athlete. However, she decided during her Senior Year in high school to stay in Fresno to study Athletic Training at Fresno State. After a year of student training, she found that she enjoyed the field of exercise physiology much more, and continued on to receive both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Kinesiology, Exercise Science. During that time, she coached several volleyball teams and worked as a substitute teacher in local high schools.

Lisa and her husband Jordan at Disneyland after completing the 2011 Disneyland Half Marathon together

During grad school, Lisa enjoyed teaching and held a position as a Teaching Associate and then a Lecturer in the Kinesiology Department at Fresno State while working on her Doctorate in Education. She graduated in May 2011 with her Ed.D. Her emphasis in study and research was health promotion programs, and she continues work in that area today.

Also during grad school, she became acquainted with Felicia Gomez (owner of PTS) and was invited to begin teaching Pinnacle Nutrition for Weight Loss in 2009. Since then, Lisa has grown into many more roles within the company, including ½ marathon training and organizing the corporate wellness programs. She states that what she enjoys most about working with Pinnacle is “building relationships with people who are working towards a goal – I feel like I live vicariously through every athlete who crosses a finish line or makes their weight loss goal.”

Lisa, her husband Jordan, and her 2012 So Cal Tough Mudder Team of PTS friends

Although an athlete in her younger years, Lisa never considered herself a runner of any sort. In fact when asked how she got into running, she replies “because it was a challenge – I was (and really still am) a terrible runner, it doesn’t come natural to me. However, I have reached many goals within the last several years that I’m quite proud of and to tell you the truth, the feeling after each and every run is very rewarding. I got hooked.” In addition, “I love the friendships I’ve developed and running partners I’ve met through the last few years. I have had the joy of running races with people and traveling with friends to events.” She says one of the most challenging and fun events that she recently participated in was the Tough Mudder event in Temecula. “We had an 11 person team, and ALL of us were associated with Pinnacle somehow – both employees and clients!”

Lisa plans to continue working with Pinnacle in a variety of roles, as well as continue teaching in the Kinesiology Department at Fresno State. Her advice for runners? “Just keep going. Persistence is key. Sometimes when I’m really tired, I rely on a saying from Dean Karnazes that says – “run when you can, walk if you have to, and crawl if you must.” Or the Beastie Boys song that has the line “You can’t, you won’t and you don’t stop.” It’s all about forward progress. Those are pretty cool lessons for life too!”

Kevin’s athletic background does not actually include competitive running. In fact, he grew up playing soccer at various levels. He was very successful though and played for all-star teams, club, and school teams. He describes his times playing soccer fun, but “once I started college I didn’t have a team to play for anymore.” While playing soccer, running was just conditioning. “I started to run on my own just to stay in shape and got really into it.” After completion of his first half marathon, he crossed the finish line and “just went home without even looking at the standings.” Later, when he looked at the results online he was shocked and excited – he had taken third in his age group!

After his successful first half marathon, he set a goal to run a marathon and hoped to finish in less than 3 hours 15 minutes. As Head Trainer for Pinnacle in 2010, he followed the Pinnacle training program. He was able to complete his first marathon in 3 hours 3 minutes and 41 seconds. He placed third in his age group, 17th overall, and qualified for the Boston Marathon. He also recently competed in the first annual Pinnacle Pup Run. He finished second place with his dog, Cookie, in 30 minutes 50 seconds on the 5 mile course.

Although a successful runner, Kevin also excels in school. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Fresno State in 2011 with a Bachelor’s in Kinesiology/Exercise Science. Currently, he is working on his Master’s Degree in Exercise Science at Fresno State.

Kevin became involved with Pinnacle 2 years ago when he was still an undergraduate. He was looking for a summer job and heard about an opportunity to work with runners training for the Two Cities Marathon and Half. “I thought that would be a perfect fit for me so I talked with Felicia about it and ever since then I have been working for Pinnacle.”
Kevin’s main responsibilities at Pinnacle are to make sure that the running and triathlon groups work smoothly. “I keep in touch with all the athletes to let them know what is going on with their programs and answer any questions that they may have. I also lead the group runs.” He also provides amazing support on race day. During the Two Cities marathon, he ran 21 miles, all with various Pinnacle athletes, all with a full backpack of other’s running gear!

Kevin’s future plans include getting accepted into a Ph.D. program to continue his education after he finishes his Master’s Degree. He is interested in Biomechanics and would like to be a professor at a university so he can continue to teach and conduct research.

Kevin watching for PTS runners to help in the November 2011 Two Cities Marathon

When asked what advice he would give runners, he replies, “Some advice I would like to give to runners is that you should keep track of short term and long term goals. I like to keep lists so I can cross off my completed goals. Accomplishing short term goals on the path to larger, future goals keeps you excited. Everyone has different levels of challenges they want to complete but regardless of your abilities you can achieve big things if you take it a step at a time.”

We’re very lucky to have such a talented and hard working person leading our training programs this Spring! Stay tuned for next month, while we continue to feature our fabulous PTS staff members.

Over the next few months, we will be showcasing several Pinnacle Training Systems staff members in our Featured Athlete section. To kick off this series, we start with our owner and CEO, Felicia (Greer) Gomez, Ph.D.

Felicia was born in Canada, but grew up in Nigeria, West Africa. Her parents were missionaries, and they were there until she was 12 years old. During that time, she developed a true passion for running. She joined a “3-4-5 club,” and in 3 months, ran/walked 500 kilometers with a couple friends. This is the time she says that she “truly fell in love with it.”

When her family moved back to Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, she joined cross country and played other sports like soccer and basketball. She considered her cross country coach as her “second dad” and he furthered her love and commitment to the sport. She ran competitively through junior high, high school and college. During graduate school, she bought a mountain bike for transportation, and began riding as a way to cross train because she was injured frequently with running. During the next three years, as she incorporated more cycling into her schedule, her running improved too. She stayed healthy and did speed work with her cross training, and recorded her best 5k and 10k times (17:22, 36.23, respectively).

In her mid-20’s she was invited to ride with some friends who all owned road bikes. On her mountain bike, she found that “she could hang” pretty well with the road cyclists and thought she may have some talent in that sport. Following that, she started doing duathlons at the encouragement of her friends (with her mountain bike). During her first duathlon, she was tied for first at the end of the first run, and during the bike, everyone passed her. She ended up second that day because she had to catch up again on the second leg of the run. So, for her next duathlon, she borrowed a friend’s road bike.

In her second duathlon, she qualified for the World Championships. She did not go that time, because she was completing her Ph.D. in Exercise Metabolism and Nutrition. However, over the next several years, she qualified and participated in several World Championships. In 1999, she placed 3rd in her age group, and 7th overall and in 2000, she placed 4th in her age group and was 12th overall. In 2000, she was anticipating a top 5 finish, but “bonked” during the race, and says that “was her own lesson in nutrition for athletes!”

In 2002, she moved to Fresno to take a job as a Professor in the Kinesiology Department at Fresno State. Her cycling kept improving and by 2003, she was on a “quasi” professional team. In 2004, she was invited to join her first professional team, Webcor Builders. She rode with Webcor for 3 years before riding for Aaron’s for 2 years. During 2005 and 2008 she participated in the World Championships for cycling.

In 2008, she participated in the Olympic trials in Canada. On her last chance to qualify for the team, she suffered a mechanical failure on her bike (the seat slipped down too far) but was named as an alternate for the team. She “retired” shortly after (but still continues to be highly competitive in local races!)

While racing for Webcor, she met Max Testa, MD,  who ran the High Performance Testing Center at UC Davis. He was her coach at the time, and coached several other elite athletes. When she saw his laboratory, she had her first idea for Pinnacle Training Systems. She thought that the Central Valley was ready for a high-caliber training company who worked with endurance athletes and recreational athletes alike. Felicia is also uniquely qualified to begin such a company since she has both the tactical and theoretical knowledge. She was already coaching several people, and so expanded into group programs, classes and nutrition courses.

She states one of her greatest joys is seeing people of all walks of life, backgrounds, shapes and sizes accomplish things they never thought possible. Whether its weight loss, running a first marathon or seeing personal records set, sharing in their accomplishments has taken the place of competition for her.

When asked what her greatest accomplishment has been, it’s actually not a prize, race or PR time. When Felicia and Gus became adoptive parents, during the first 6 weeks they were home she made a commitment to work out for 45 minutes, 6 days a week. She accomplished her goal, and because of that experience has a new found passion to work with women and mothers. She believes her greatest message to women is that “you have to take care of yourself, even when you’re stressed out and everything feels like it is chaos.” Two years later, she sees how active and healthy her children are, and how much her lifestyle has impacted how her children think and act too.

She would like to thank her husband, Gus, for being so supportive of her PTS dream. He also works with Pinnacle as a coach and helps out with other aspects as well.

So stayed tuned to “The System” to learn more about our amazing Pinnacle Training Systems staff members!

Laura grew up in Ventura County and went to college at Cal Poly SLO. Following college, she moved to Fresno to pursue her career in veterinary pharmaceutical sales. Although she does love her job, it can often times be high pressure and stressful. She also balances her career with family. She has two daughters, 9-year old Kait and 2-year old Serafina. Kait is a very bright, GATE student and a great runner in her own right! Serafina is described by Laura as “very much like me. She is a dare-devil and very self assured.” She has been married to her husband, Patrick, for 4 years and is very supportive of Laura’s running and brings the kids to almost every race to cheer her on at the finish line.

Laura started running in high school. Laura states that “I did cross country and track and loved it. I continued running in college and even started a running club at my apartment complex. After having Kait, her dad and I split up, so as a single parent working and trying to run it was very difficult. I couldn’t afford a fancy BOB stroller and running took a backseat.” Laura started running again when her and Patrick were engaged and tried to continue to run while pregnant with Serafina. However, she was unable to run comfortably after long, so began running again when she was a year old. She states that she began running again to lose the baby weight “I gained over 60 pounds while pregnant!” And, by the way, “so far, 50 are gone!”

Laura came to be a part of the Pinnacle family in June of 2011 at the start of our Two Cities half-marathon program. She has several friends who are also Pinnacle athletes (shout out to Kathie Reid and Robyn Nearn) and they agreed that she would enjoy it. Robyn (who is an amazingly successful athlete) told her what she wanted to hear when she told her that Pinnacle pushed her farther than she could have imagined, and that’s exactly what Laura wanted!

Throughout the half-marathon training, Laura participated in many other races. As previously mentioned, she completed 14 races in 2011, 10 road and 4 trail races, with 7 of the 14 being half marathons. When asked why she competes in so many races, she replied “I am very competitive. I love the support from the sidelines, the feel of pushing myself to do better and a year ago I had 2 medals. Now I have a large space in my office filled with cool medals. When I get up in the morning and see all that I have accomplished in a year (not only smaller jeans…) I am even more motivated to do more! I have also run about 1/3 of these races with friends from high school or college. Running with friends keeps us connected and it’s hard to describe that to a non-runner.”

For 2012, she is contemplating a couple full marathons and some longer trail races. Another Pinnacle athlete has her interested in triathlons, so that may be in the works as well! Her next race will likely be the L.A. half marathon this month. Besides running, she is an avid horse back rider, and owns 3 horses. She often rides on the weekends after her long runs. In addition, she participates in spin and yoga classes.

Her advice for novice runners? “Go to a running store and buy good shoes for starters-get fitted and get some non-chafing running attire. Also, if you can, find a buddy. That is where Pinnacle is so fun, the trainers running with you! I had so much fun chatting the trainers’ ears off!” She also says that you need to take an interest in your families nutrition and don’t be afraid to try new things. On the night before her first trail race, a friend backed out, but she decided to go anyway. She showed up, and was “hooked for life!”

Laura has been an absolute pleasure to work with. Her positive attitude and love of the sport are infectious! She shares “I had a blast this year and training with Pinnacle. I can’t wait to do it all again… but faster!!!” We can’t wait to share in her future successes!