Jason Robinson(2)

Jason Robinson 

"The martial arts have helped with the mental aspects of both my career and sporting activities."

 

I was born in Lancing Michigan (USA) but left to continue growing up in the UK, Canada, Ireland, UK (again) and finally Singapore for High school. I returned to the UK to go attend Oxford Polytechnic where I earned an Honours Degree in Earth Sciences in 1989.

As my father is a professor in sports science I had a lot of exposure to athletics, gymnastics and team games. As a ten year old I even featured as a 'sports model' in a book on Mini Sports for children. When I was 15 years old I was chosen to play mid-field for the school first field hockey team and then when I was 16 picked to play full back for the school first rugby team. Both were significant to me as I was playing with and against 17 and 18 year olds! I also ran cross country and 1500m track for my school both in the UK and Singapore. At the same time I followed Karate and progressed as far as 1st Dan. At university I took up jujitsu and continued to run recreationally. The martial arts have helped with the mental aspects of both my career and sporting activities.

In 1990 I came to work in the Seismic segment of Schlumberger. Working in the field made slowed my athletic aspirations so I ran for fun whenever time allowed and took up sport rock climbing during my time off in France, which was home at the time. I never became really good but I enjoyed it immensely. When I left the field to work in Austin and later Houston (Texas) I began to race again, well actually my wife Pascale began to race and then talked me into doing the Houston Marathon in 1998. My best marathon time since then is 3 hours 1 minute and one of my best running achievements was 59 minutes for the "10 Miles for TX" in 1999. I was already dabbling in short distance triathlon and became interested in IronMan. My first IronMan was in Lake Placid in 1999, I finished in 11:19 and was ecstatic, it was exhilarating throughout the entire race as everyone was shouting support and even looking up my name in the race newspaper so they could shout it out! I was hooked. So the next race was IronMan California in 2000 where the experience of the previous race and all the years of training paid off. I finished in 10:36 with a 3:20 marathon which is as fast as my first ever Marathon. Then we had our first child and my sporting goals were pushed to the back burner for a while. Shortly after, my next move for Schlumberger took me to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Fortunately Malaysia also has an IronMan race, so I am preparing to participate soon - Jan 27th 2002! Training time is limited by work and family, so I wont be breaking any of my own records this time. I am saving that for the future!

Other interests include traveling to as many places as we can and sharing as many experiences as possible with our son. He has an inspiring capacity to observe and learn new things.