User:Walkerjallen/sandbox

Jim (James Allen) Walker (born April 15, 1955 in Hamilton, MT) is an American Sport Physiologist and distance running coach. He graduated from Missoula (MT) Sentinel High School in June of 1973 and participated in multiple sports including football, basketball, cross country, and track & field. In 1971 he was the United States Amateur Athletic Union track & field national champion and record-holder at the 3-mile distance. He then attended the University of Utah on a track/cross country scholarship from 1973-1975. Following a significant injury he left the Utah program and returned to Montana where he worked in the logging industry and spent time on the Montana Rodeo Association circuit as a team roper. In 1980 he resumed his distance running career, entering and winning his first marathon in Salmon, Idaho. That fall he enrolled at Montana State University (Bozeman), graduating with Honors from the College of Education (K-12) in June of 1982. Walker then accepted a running shoe sponsorship agreement with Converse to continue his competitive career.

On August 15, 1982 Walker married Karen Arfmann of Salmon, ID and they began their life together in Phoenix, AZ. Walker continued to represent the Converse West Track & Field Club until the fall of 1988, travelling extensively to compete and qualifying for the US Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984 with a time of 2:18:17 at the 1984 Phoenix Marathon. He completed his Master of Science degree in Exercise Science from Arizona State University that same year and accepted admittance into the Exercise & Sport Science (ESS) doctoral program at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT. At Utah he worked as a graduate research assistant in the ESS Department as well as a graduate assistant track & cross country coach for the Athletic Department.

Following completion of his PhD studies at Utah in 1993 he was hired, first as a consultant, and ultimately as Director of Sport Science at The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital in Murray, UT.

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