Christine began her sports career as a competitive swimmer at age seven. She continued to swim through college at Arizona State earning All American Honors. Her father who was also a swimmer from Indiana University has competed in triathlons for the past 10 years. In 2006 she gave the sport of triathlon a try. On her dad’s old road bike she competed in the Accenture Chicago Triathlon as well as a super sprint in Chicago two weeks prior to prepare. She raced and placed in the top 10 in her age group and was immediately hooked. In 2007 she raced in five different triathlon races improving times drastically from the previous year. In 2008 she was awarded with two sponsorship opportunities. She raced in 9 triathlons during the season, yet again further improving her times. She completed her first Ironman 70.3 in July while qualifying for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship Race. She also raced elite at the Accenture Chicago Triathlon and placed in the top five spots for overall women qualifying for the Elite Championship wave for the US Open in Dallas. Christine was ranked 20th in her age group for USAT in 2008 which earns her All American Honors. She plans to race in even more triathlons in the 2009 season including Ironman Madison.

Fun Facts:  I attend at least 8 weddings per year.

Danny Ferreira
Boston, MA

In my third year running now, I've ramped up my racing with the addition of a couple of ultramarathons. I look forward to seeing just how far my body can take me.

Heather J. Catchpole
San Diego, CA

I was born in Ecuador and moved to Northern California. I moved to San Diego for graduate school.  
I have been active my entire life. I began swimming at a young age and continued with athletics through high school. In college I began doing triathlons and have continued to consistantly compete in triathlons and other events.
I work in Clinical Research and teach at a local college. I enjoy traveling and try to do that as much as I can.

Kyle Welch
San Francisco, CA

I swam in college and ran casually for many years.  After moving back from Japan in 1996 I decided to start exercising regularly to improve my health and general fitness.  I got back into swimming and running and began for the first time to ride a road bike.  Eventually a friend suggested I try doing a triathlon.  I signed up for the Wildflower half ironman in 1998 – which I did – and was hooked on the sport ever since!  Professionally I am employed at IBM as an engineering manager.

Fun Facts:  I speak Japanese.

Leanne Joy Langer
Portland, OR

I am a Pacific Northwest  gal - born and raised here. I have had the opportunity to live other places in the United States and Europe but chose to be here to raise my family. It isn't the weather  I love it is friends and family. I live in a town that is as close to Mayberry as one can get. My friends and I are the runners in this town. We are always out there waving or being waved at. Running make me better at the other things in my life. It connects  me- to people-to the places I go -to myself. I love it and I can't image life without being a runner. I have met some of the greatest people out there on the road and seen some of the most beautiful nature because I could get there by foot. Eating healthy and training makes me better at the rest of my life.


"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble” Helen Keller

Fun Facts:  Favorite food: one of each on the happy hour menu

Luke Priebe
San Francisco, CA

I played soccer, basketball, and swam in high school and always enjoyed athletics growing up.  Although I played a lot of sports, I was never a huge fan of running, but somehow in the summer before I went to college I caught the running bug.  Slowly I upped the mileage and had a room mate in college who was thinking about trying a triathlon, so we each entered our first sprint.  We'd would always talk about how big of a feat the Ironman was.  Five years later we were doing our first half Ironman and this year, eight years later,  I am training for my first Ironman.  I love the variety of triathlon training and would say I have to get my exercise fix in daily.  Aside from tri's, I have been married for a little under two years and am expecting a little girl in September.  Good thing the Ironman that I am doing is in August!  I just moved to Redwood City this last year and have loved the area.  The hills above 280, up Kings Mountain Road, Skyline, Old La Honda, and Page Mill are great to bike on. Also, parks like Huddart and Edgewood have made me spoiled for running trails.  I am very excited to sport my Bear Naked apparel in the events coming up this year!  It is such nice stuff... That about it...

Fun Facts:  I'm growing out my hair to donate for the 4th time

Neal Oseland
Denver, CO

This is a sports bio only. I was a man on a mission. The mission was to qualify for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. I had watched the old coverage of triathlon on Wide World of Sports in the late 80's and was fascinated by the struggle and joy I saw. I knew this was something I wanted to do yet I wasn't even sure what a triathlon really was all about. I thought it would be just a matter of entering a random race, qualifying, and going to Hawaii. Through this journey, I found that is the exact opposite of what it takes to get there. In the mid 90's I moved from Southern California to Colorado Springs, Colorado. There just weren't as many things to do here so I ended up taking up running (for all the wrong reasons...I'll talk about that some other day). I got hooked, did the marathon thing and decided to finally try this triathlon thing in 2000. I absolutely loved it. Forget that I couldn't swim. Forget that my bike weighed way too much for someone of my size. I was hooked on the competitive nature of it. I did a few that season before realizing it was way too expensive for my lifestyle. I backed off from it for the next 4 years. In 2004, I made the decision to sign up for Ironman Coeur d'Alene in 2005. I did some triathlons along the way, completed Ironman Coeur d'Alene and was now committed. The cost piece of triathlon prevented me from doing another one in 2006 but that just gave me an extra year to work on what needed work to qualify for Hawaii. I again entered Ironman Coeur d’Alene 2007. I did well, finishing in 10:31, but didn’t qualify. I did Silverman, an iron distance triathlon, just outside of Las Vegas in the fall of 2007. I did well overall. More importantly, I did well mentally which gave me the belief that I could do anything. I went into 2008 with an attitude. Not an attitude of cockiness but extreme confidence. 2008 would be my year. I did a couple of half Ironman races in 2008 that showed I could be in the running for that elusive qualifying spot. Ironman Arizona was where I would make the attempt. This would be the last one for a while due some upcoming life changing events so I had to get it done now. The race went perfect. I executed everything exactly as planned, went 9:31, and qualified for the World Championships. That’s where I am today. Now I’m training to be competitive with the best in the world in my age group. It’s a huge challenge but one that I relish. Stay tuned for that journey and beyond……..

Fun Facts:  I once served as security for Arnold Shwarzenegger

Nikole Jones
Miami, FL

Paul Dittman
New York, NY

A former Army Ranger from Rochester, NY.  Enjoy competing in all manner of outdoor endurance events.  With a strong swimming background and some bicycle road racing experience, I was drawn to triathlons.  When forced to run, greatly prefer trail running to the road.  Lucky to have a very understanding family, which allows me to spend many hours a week training.  I consider myself very lucky to be a member of Team Bear Naked, and love spreading the word!

Scott Ray
Miami, FL