Ryon Lane grew up in the woods of Southern Oregon and has been a competitive distance runner since high school. He’s competed in hundreds of races and has likely run tens of thousands of miles since falling in love with running. Since moving to Los Angeles in 2006, Ryon has participated in various long distance races in the area, and his current favorite is the 25K Bulldog Run, which takes place in late August every year in the Santa Monica Mountains, although this year he will be running the 50K Bulldog Run (an ultramarathon). He has never raced in a formal marathon before, but he has run naked on multiple occasions.

After graduating from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ryon spent a few years working as a ‘techie’ in cramped cubicles around the Puget Sound (and spent weekends climbing the beautiful Northern Cascade Mountains). Not satisfied with his career, and with hopes of finding a deeper job satisfaction that he witnessed in many friends, he decided to go back to school in 2001. During his second year of law school at Seattle University, Ryon realized that he could segue a law degree into a career as a television and film producer. He immersed himself in the Seattle film community, started his own production company while still in school, and worked with various directors to produce short films and commercials.

Ryon has since worked in various capacities for many entertainment companies including CAA, Innovative Artists, Intermedia Film, Lionsgate, and IMAGEN Films, with which he is currently developing multiple feature films, documentaries and television concepts. Ryon’s goal as a producer is to “create film, television and other media that not only entertains, but informs and enables…and if I’m lucky…makes the world a better place too.”

Ryon has a ten-year-old daughter named Isabella who still lives in Seattle, and the rest of his family still calls Oregon home. He resides in Santa Monica with a crazy Bengal cat named Kima, considers most of his neighbors to be his friends, and feels like part of a small community for the first time since leaving Oregon more than a decade ago. Ryon walks or rides a skateboard to work every day, hopes eventually to live a completely sustainable lifestyle, and never wants to grow up.

 

Till Schenk was raised in a remote mountain town in the heart of Germany’s Black Forest, where from an early age he participated in gymnastics, tennis and running. Even before he could sing a Bierlied (a beer garden song for you non-German speakers), Till was already racing in local mountain races, and he later competed in various races throughout his formative years.  

Although as a young adult Till succumbed to the party scene and even became a chain cigarette smoker (a pack a day!), he spontaneously decided one day that he needed to start running again.  What’s more, Till even decided that he would take running to the next level by competing in his first marathon.  He completed the Berlin Marathon in 2001 only three months after having quit cigarettes. Addicted instead to the feeling of crossing the finish line, Till went on to run several more marathons.  

Since racing in his first Olympic triathlon in 2005 and many thereafter, Till now however claims that he has “finalized the transition from runner to triathlete."  His favorite training grounds in Southern California are the Santa Monica Mountains, Will Rogers State Park, and the Pacific Ocean.

 

After graduating from hospitality school with a degree from the German Chamber of Commerce, Till worked for The Four Seasons and Regent Hotels in several cities including Berlin and New York.  However, also not satisfied with his career, he decided to move to California for a fresh, new start.  Having relocated to Santa Monica, Till has discovered what he had missed for the past 8 years while living in some of the biggest cities in the world: Mother Nature.

 

In California, Till has participated in developing several endurance and triathlon-related projects and most recently launched an international endurance and multi-sports networking web page, TRINITED.com. The goal of Trinited, according to Till, is to “spread the spirit of endurance and multi-sport athletics.”  He currently appears as a writer on the site’s blog, conducts exclusive interviews, and will be hosting video presentations with some of the world’s most prestigious endurance athletes and triathletes. With the help of his brother Lutz, Till also founded a Germany-based sports marketing company with international operations called TLS Sports Marketing.

Till has two brothers and a sister.  While he still maintains a residence in Freiburg, Germany, he spends most of the year in the Santa Monica area where he has built strong connections to the endurance sports and media worlds.  Till enjoys gymnastic cross training at the Santa Monica Beach and uses his skateboard and bike as transportation wherever possible.