I have always been a fan of those who buck the trends, and so I always find it fascinating and awesome when someone refuses the seductive world of Facebook. So if you are looking to be this new East Nasty of Week’s friend, you are going to have to do it the old fashion way. Say hello to our good buddy Jon Damratoski.

To say that Jon is an international kind of guy is a bit of an understatement. He was born in Madrid, Spain, and spent a good amount of his childhood moving around various parts of Europe and the United States. His elementary years were spent in Belgium and Germany, but by the time he got to middle school his family moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In his early years Jon competed in the sport of power lifting, and basically held off on any other type of physical activity until after college.

Jon attended UNC Charlotte, where he graduated with a M.I.S. degree in 2002. His college experience was not the most atypical, in that most of his classes were held in the night time. He ended up getting a pretty bad back injury in the gym one day, and was forced to rethink his “gym-rat” attitude to fitness. Right after college he moved to Washington D.C. for work, and it was there that Jon discovered the beauty that is running. He loved to run the routes around the Potomac River, and soon enough he began running in 5K, 10K, and half marathon races.

Jon made his way to Nashville in 2007, looking for a change of pace from the hustle and bustle of our nation’s capital. He started running with East Nasty in around 2009, and has never looked back. Training with our group for the half this year got Jon to put up a time of 1:31:09, which by the way is not even his PR! He has also become a member of the ever-growing East Nasty Cycling Group, with the hopes to compete in triathlons in the future.

As for work these days, Jon is in the computer security business. He is constantly looking at what is new in technology and how to protect the rights and information of those who hire his services.

Two final notes about this new ENOW: The first is that Jon had surgery on his back recently and will be out of commission in running for a little while, so it is our duty to give him a nice shout out in the comments below. Second, the East Nasty Ragnar team is looking for a couple of extra runners, so if you are interested, be sure to get in touch with Jon soon.

Rod