The 35 Fittest People in Tech

Years ago, few people conflated technical prowess with physical fitness. The archetypical techie of the early 90s, for instance, was Dennis Nedry, the portly computer programmer in Jurassic Park played by Wayne Knight, a.k.a. Seinfeld's Newman. In real life, tech titans like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs would never be mistaken for underwear models.

Twenty years later, though the image of the Red Bull-fueled, pizza-consuming, pencil-necked techie lives on, it's balanced by another strain: The tech Master of the Universe who is not only proficient in Objective-C, but can run a sub-3:30 marathon as well and regularly bikes hundreds of miles over the weekend.

Though endurance sports have grown overall in recent years, the idea of running to the point of physical exhaustion seems to hold a special appeal to Silicon Valley types. John F. Murray, a sports psychologist, says that anyone who engages in such activity in their off time is usually "very competitive and very compulsive." Such personalities may not be unique to the tech industry -- you can find a fair share in high finance as well -- but tech, with its culture of long hours and creative autonomy seems suited for the kind of guy who regularly runs races of 50 miles or more.

The following list demonstrates that the tech world is full of people who are not content to rule the virtual world, but want to make an impact on the physical one as well.

1. Jason Shen

Shen, the cofounder of startup Ridejoy, completed the San Francisco Marathon this year. He also competed nationally in gymnastics from ages 11 to 21 and made the Junior National Team in 2005 and was part of the gymnastics team at Stanford University. Shen blogs about his athletic endeavors (and other stuff) at jasonshen.com

Click here to view this gallery.

Image courtesy of Linkedin

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/35-fittest-people-tech-155056220.html

jewel san francisco earthquake san francisco earthquake terminator salvation terminator salvation deron williams jarhead