About Dave Criswell
In July of 2009 I competed in Ironman Lake Placid. The race is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run. I finished the race in 2006 but this year I was pulled off the course by paramedics after collapsing from dehydration at mile 21 of the marathon. I'm not sharing this to boast or look tough but rather to demonstrate my commitment to completing a goal when I find something that inspires me. What inspires me?
Family
I'm a husband, father, son, brother, uncle, cousin and friend (I think of my friends as family)
Running
What was once a necessary evil to play team sports has become a physical necessity. I now have an inherent need to run and experienced enough emotionally powerful experiences while running to believe that running can be spiritual at times. That feeling has been enhanced since moving to Colorado and experiencing the beautiful trails the state has to offer.
Bikes
As a kid I have such vivid memories of riding my bike. Since that time it has meant freedom, a way to compete, a way to stay healthy, a way to spend time with friends and a way to get from here to there.
Endurance sports
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go" - T.S. Eliot
"Seek the edge, where magic happens" - Scott Jurek
Since completing my first triathlon in 2002 I've been enjoying the journey and challenge of seeing how far my body will go. My race resume includes 5 Ks, half-marathons, marathons, trail races, bike races, half-Ironman distance and Ironman distance triathlons. Next on the list is an ultra-marathon.
Nutrition and the environment
Yes, I think the two are related. I'm a vegetarian and have developed a reputation in my circle of influence as someone who they can ask their nutrion questions. I'm not a nutritionist by any stretch but my strong belief that nutrition is the fourth discipline in long distance triathlon and is critical to success in endurance sports has led to my constant intake of information on the subject through books, blogs and podcasts.
Marketing and Social Media
The lessons learned during my experience with endurance sports have spilled over into every other area of my life including my passion for marketing and social media. I feel very fortunate after having been a customer of theirs for several years, to now have the opportunity to intersect my personal passion of endurance sports with my professional passion of marketing at TrainingPeaks. I have also been blogging about my triathlon and endurance sports experiences for several years.
Besides this blog, the Direct Capital Blog and the Montague Folding Bike blog, my writing and other work and has been featured in a few other places (my high school teacher would definitely be surprised!):
- Business.com Answers
- Hubspot Blog
- The Franchise King Blog
- The Flame - Official magazine for the National Franchisee Association, Burger King Franchisees association
I've also presented to small businesses on how to leverage social media.
My full professional resume can be found on LinkedIn.
Some of my favorite projects have included:
- Marketing systems analysis and development
- Marketing automation systems
- Social media strategy development and implementation
- Blogging
- Website development and design
Experience with the Following Tools
- Social Networks
- Facebook (including analytics, social graph tools and custom tabs)
- MySpace
- Ning
- FriendFeed
- Ning
- Content Management Systems/Blog Platforms
- Wordpress
- Blogger
- Squarespace
- ModX
- Hubspot
- Posterous
- Tumblr
- Squidoo
- Weebly
- Social Network Clients
- Hootsuite
- Seesmic
- Google Tools
- Analytics
- Webmaster Tools
- Adwords
- Adsense
- Feedburner
- Reader/Alerts
- Website Optimizer
- Monitoring
- BackType
- Social Mention
- Bookmarking/Curation
- Delicious
- StumbleUpon
- Digg
- Technorati
- Flickr
- Distribution
- Ping.fm
- SlideShare.net
- Twitterfeed
- TweetSpinner
- Video
- YouTube
- uStream
- Vimeo
- PR
- Help A Reporter Out (HARO)
- PRWeb.com
- PR.com
- CRM Systems
- Salesforce
- SalesLogix
- Solve360
- E-mail Marketing
- Constant Contact
- Marketo
- Silverpop
- Presentations
- GoToMeeting
- DimDim
- BrightTalk
- LiveMeeting
- E-Commerce
- eBay Stores
- Yahoo Stores
- Survey
- Survey Monkey
- Zoomerang