Eva was born and raised in the mountains near Salzburg, Austria. She retains a love of the mountains to this day. High schools in Austria, like most of Europe, do not have interscholastic school sports. Instead they have a club-based sports system. Eva was an alpine ski racer in her school days. Upon meeting her husband Mike while he was stationed in Italy, and moving to the U.S., she picked up running and became an outstanding road racer. 

Eva was an assistant XC and track coach at the United States Military Academy - West Point, from 2000 to 2002.

When they moved to Colorado, Eva coached the Pentathletes on the US Olympic Team at the Olympic Training Center. It was in Colorado Springs that Eva started trail running and ski mountaineering and quickly became a top-level competitor. While Eva can still occasionally be convinced to enter a trail or skimo race, which she typically crushes, she runs or skis daily for the joy and bliss of being in nature.

Shortly after moving to Breckenridge, Eva and Mike founded the Summit Distance Project for area youth runners. Eva has coached the Summit Middle School XC and track distance teams for several years with outstanding results. In 2020, Eva began coaching the Summit High School nordic team and they have already won a state championship.

Eva loves coaching youth runners. She had a remarkable ability to inspire youth runners and instill confidence while they learn to train hard and love running.

Mike was an unremarkable high school and collegiate athlete who nevertheless greatly enjoyed endurance sports. He gradually improved, earning a few results such as 1997 USAT Amateur Triathlete and Duathlete of the Year (Age-Group Duathlon World Champion and Triathlon National Champion), five second-place age-group finishes at Ironman Hawaii (but never first), 6-time consecutive Armed Forces Triathlon Champion, 2013 Xterra National Champion, 2014 Ski Mountaineering North American Master’s Champion, and 2015 and 2018 Breckenridge Epic 6-day mountain bike master’s champion. 

Mike earned a Master’s in Exercise Physiology, taught Physical Education at West Point and commanded the US Army World Class Athlete Program (Olympic training program). After retiring from the Army he worked at Carmichael Training Systems as the director of coaching where he selected, trained and supervised the coaching staff.

Mike coached the Palmer Ridge High School XC team for one season and the Air Academy track team for two seasons. Both programs were fortunate to win state championships and had three individual state champions during his coaching tenure there. He coached over 10 athletes who received scholarships to D1 and D2 colleges.

The Hagen family moved to Breckenridge in 2018, upon which Mike coached the SMS XC Team for three years. Eva and Mike started the Summit Distance Program to provide free summer coaching to area junior and high school runners. 

Mike feels very fortunate to have begun coaching the SHS XC and Track distance runners in the Fall of 2021.