About Me

Me

My name is Brandon Wood and I am an opera singer living and working in NYC. I am married to Danielle Hermon Wood and we have two wonderful dogs, Annie and Bubba.

I grew up in Hampton, Virginia and was able to swim before I could walk. I competed in the United States Swimming club P.A.S.T. (Peninsula Area Swim Team), which was a year-round team, like the ones that produce Olympians and such! When I got to college however, my school, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), did not have a swim team. It was in college after years of swimming six days a week, often twice a day that I took a break. What started as a break from swimming, turned into a break from working out much at all.

My wife Danielle and Bubba

After college I was an apprentice artist at Virginia Opera. This position required a lot of time in a car while touring around the state, and as a result, I found myself gaining WAAAY too much weight. So, I made a decision to get in shape. The most convenient and low maintenance way to do that being running. Now, I am in NO way a natural runner and every step until the past year or so, was taken with much reluctance. I began running and lifting and the weight began coming off. After that point, including when I left Virginia Opera, I would vary my workouts between running, swimming and lifting.

Me and Annie

In September of 2003, I moved to New York City to continue to pursue my career. I continued the rotating workouts, often times falling into months at a time of just swimming, because it is after all, my first love. Then in 2007, I purchased my brother-in-law’s mountain bike. I began riding it on trails near my apartment in Inwood Hill Park in Northern Manhattan.Then one day I heard about the West side Greenway, a paved cycling/walking/running path that goes from Dyckman Street and runs the entire length of the West side of Manhattan winding up in Battery Park (and beyond). So, I started treating my mountain bike as a road bike, and riding the 15 miles down the West side every chance I got.

In the spring of 2008, it was time for me to make the jump to a real road bike. So, while singing with Virginia Opera, I purchased a 2007 Felt Z90 road bike. I began riding constantly. It was also around that time that Brandon’s Marathon began.

I made the decision one day that I wanted to run the New York City Marathon. So, I entered the lottery. It was around the same time also, that I began putting some things together: I swim, I have a great bike, I can run! Hey, I should do a triathlon. So, while waiting to hear about the NYC Marathon, I began training for my first triathlon, which would be the Redondo Beach Triathlon, in Los Angeles (I won’t go into too much detail here because there are many posts about it).

That June came the news that I would not be running the New York City Marathon in 2008. So, I entered my fallback race which was the Suntrust Richmond Marathon in Richmond, Virginia. About 4 days before that race (which, by this time, I had dragged my wife into also) there was a death in our family and the funeral was the day before the race in upstate New York. So, Richmond was out. Then, our 2nd fallback came into the picture. The Shamrock Marathon took place on March 22, 2009 and sometime after noon, my wife and I both became marathoners.

This blog and podcast, is here to chronicle my triumphs, trials and tribulations as I work toward all kinds of races. The biggest race I am aiming toward in 2009 is Ironman Wisconsin, which takes place in Madison, Wisconsin on September 23, 2009. Check back often!