Eric Avila is originally from San Diego, CA. He was a successful high school runner, and won the 3200m at the California State Championships his senior year. After graduating high school, he began running at Northern Arizona University on a scholarship, but struggled academically, and returned home to San Diego. Eric stopped running, and worked for a real estate company doing manual labor for a few years. Eventually he started to feel envious of former competitors who were continuing to run, and he decided to enroll at Southern Oregon University where he would return to running in the NAIA.  With a renewed focus, Eric found success on the track again. He ran a number of breakout races, including a big personal best in the mile, where we ran a 3:56, breaking four minutes for the first time in front of a hometown crowd of family and friends.