Steve Bulena

Big Blue Adventure Ambassador

I was born in 1977 in San Luis Obispo and started playing organized sports of soccer and baseball at the age of 6 and shifted to a focus of competitive soccer teams starting at the age of 8 through Junior College.  In my teens I was selected to the Olympic Development Program from my efforts in our club team after moving from the San Luis Obispo area in grade school. I played Varsity soccer as a starter all 4 years while attending College Park High School in Pleasant Hill, California.   After graduating from College Park in 1995, I attended Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill where I played two years of soccer making All Conference (at Los Medanos Junior College). Following graduating from DVC I transferred to Hayward State where I received a Bachelor of Science in Geography in 1999.  Convinced there was more to life than selling fitness equipment (job that put me through college) I took an entry level job with Placer County and moved to Truckee in 2000. That “temporary move” was later solidified when I purchased a home in Truckee in 2004, which helped to add another hobby of home repairs to the then list of fly fishing, and snowboarding and later mountain biking.  At the ripe old age of 40 I found myself continuing my career with Placer County as a Supervising Planer, but was suffering from the side effects of a desk job and needed to get back into that soccer shape. Never having been a runner (aside from punishment during my early years for cutting up in practice) I thought that would be an “easy” thing to pick up. After several humbling experiences it became a challenge I had to overcome.  Last year (my first year of running) I ran the Giants 5k, a 10K in Reno, the Squaw Valley Half Marathon, Truckee Marathon, the Great Trail Race, and a 50k pub run. I continued this train rolling in 2018 with the Napa Valley Marathon, a few half marathons, the Marlette 50K Trail Run, the Truckee Marathon Relay (and now relay course record holder), the Great Trail Race, and now training for the California International Marathon.

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