Matt grew up outside of Washington DC with his mother, father, and four siblings. After getting degrees in computer science and mathematics from Virginia Tech (yes, he’s a nerd), he moved to Santa Barbara, California in 1992 for grad school at UCSB. He was hooked on the beauty and weather of Southern California, so he stayed for eleven years

During the spring of 2001, Matt noticed that he was sweating a lot at night and losing weight. He also had an infrequent sharp pain in his back. By summer, he was sweating so much that he kept a stack of shirts next to his bed so that he could change shirts multiple times during the night
One morning in November of 2001, Matt noticed that his feet were tingling (and not the good kind of tingling). He couldn’t walk it off, and within five days he couldn’t stand anymore. His brother, visiting from San Francisco, took him to a neurologist where, after an MRI, he was diagnosed with Stage IV Hodgkins disease. This disease had left his lymph system and had spread to his bone marrow, spleen, lungs, and liver. He couldn’t walk because a tumor was pressing against his spinal cord, causing paralysis
After surgery on his spine, Matt began an aggressive 12-week chemo treatment. He then had another 12 weeks of radiation on his torso and abdomen. He had to learn to walk again (starting with a walker and then moving up to a cane), but, amazingly, everything worked and he was considered cancer-free in May of 2002. That’s a lot of healing in six months
After moving from Santa Barbara to Colorado, Matt met Claire, the most wonderful woman in the world. They dated, moved to San Francisco, and eventually got married. Claire, an avid runner and superior athlete, also became Matt’s coach. After doing the inaugural Hike For Discovery through LLS, Matt and Claire competed in their first Team In Training triathlon in Maui in 2006.
In June of 2007, Matt celebrated his five year cancer-free anniversary by throwing a party, complete with celebratory banners, food, music, and even trophies for those who helped him through his treatment.
Since then, Matt has completed several other triathlons, including his first Wildflower Half Ironman (he tied with Claire!) and an Olympic distance triathlon in his hometown of Washington, DC. This year he looks forward to spending some time training with the TNT Iron Team so that he can better prepare for another Wildflower Half Ironman.