Team Leadership
Phillip Buckley
Coach & Founder
Coach Phillip started running as a sophomore at Oakdale High School (CA) in the summer of 1981 after realizing his NFL (or at least NCAA) football career wasn't going to pan out. Went on to run for the Bulldogs of Fresno State University from 1984 - 1988 where racked up many sub-mediocre times in a variety of distances.
After college while pursuing career as a CPA, continued to train and race for pure love of the sport. From 1997 - 2004 had the pleasure of being an assistant high school cross country coach at Smoky Hill H.S. (with the amazing head coach Greg Weich) where we had success with many state champions, state record holders, a Foot Locker Champion and a 2nd Place team finish at the Inaugural Nike 2004 NXN Team Cross Country Championships.
From 2008 thru 2019, Phillip coached at Highlands Ranch Running Club and had great success. 2020 onward, DMR has been the major focus. He enjoys the unique challenges and successes this group brings to the table. Phillip still enjoys working with competitive non-DMR racers and even considers racing again himself.
Nora Erspamer
Athlete & Founder
Nora is from Chicago and was introduced to running while conditioning for high school soccer. She began to see glimpses of success and decided to focus solely on running. Her 4x800 team won state her senior year and she took that momentum into her collegiate career at North Central College (Naperville, IL), where she earned All-Conference and All-American honors in track and cross country.
Post-collegiately, she elevated herself to the half and full marathon distance. Moving from Chicago to Colorado January of 2019, Nora connected with Phillip Buckley, her current coach and DMR co-founder. Phillip and Nora identified that there are women training competitively in the area as individuals – with no structured team environment to leverage. Denver Metro Racing was founded to fill that gap. They are passionate about running and it is their goal to create an opportunity to connect, elevate and inspire the competitive women runners in the area.
