Derek was born in Laramie, Wyoming on a very snowy day on November 10, 1971. His parents, Terence and Jo, were high school sweethearts from a small town in North Texas.  Because his parents are both teachers, Derek and his older brother Jason lived in various places... Paris, France, Bozeman, Montana (where he learned to ski and play soccer, and also ran his first mile race at age 8), Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but mostly in York, Nebraska (where football is king). 

Derek played all the sports while growing up, dreaming of being a professional football player. However, his size made him too small to play football.  Therefore, running, soccer, and wrestling became his way of life. After football, of course, Derek's first love was soccer.  Running was on the back burner until his senior year of high school.

In 1987, his parents finally settled in beautiful Malibu, California at Pepperdine University, where he learned how to surf and finished his final three years of high school.  Derek ran at Agoura High School under Coach Bill Duley with American record holder Deena Drossin (now Deena Kastor) and the 1989 High School National Cross Country Champion Bryan Dameworth (who is now his best friend).  After two years at Agoura, Derek transferred and graduated from Camarillo High School in 1990.  His team, under the leadership of Mike Smith, was the #1 ranked Cross Country team in the nation, Derek being the second guy on the team.  He won CIF in the mile, running a time 4:13, and was offered full ride scholarships to many different universities. 

Derek decided to attend Lubbock Christian University in Lubbock, Texas in order to further his knowledge of the Bible and to run with some of the best Kenyan runners in the world.  He wanted to learn from the best.  Under Coach Darrell Price, he earned 14 All-American honors in running and 4 National Team Championships, and was one of two American runners on the team for 4 straight years.  Derek scored in every cross country race over that period, and by his senior year at Lubbock, he was 4th in Cross Country National Championships (with one Ethiopian and two Kenyan teammates in front of him), the Indoor 3-mile National Champion, and the Outdoor 3,000-meter Steeplechase National Champion. 

After graduating with a B.S. degree in Biology, Derek concentrated the next 5 years on his professional running career, competing in both the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Trials in the 3,000-meter Steeplechase (the toughest single event in Track and Field).  Derek trained over the years in Alamosa, Colorado and at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California under famed Coach Joe Vigil.  His training partners included Deena Kastor, Meb Keflezigi, Dan Browne, and Bryan Dameworth.  Also during this time, Derek became an LA Country Fire Department Ocean Lifeguard in Malibu, so that he could get paid to surf.  With his EMT skills, he was able to work at Mammoth Mountain as a ski patroller for two winters, so that he could get paid to ski. 

After dealing with persistent injuries in 1999 and 2000 (right before the Trials), Derek walked off the track in Sacramento and decided to retire his track spikes.  He took two years off, then commenced his triathlon career. He began training in January 2003 and raced in his first Age Group race three months later.