David Roche grew up on a tree farm in Crumpton, Maryland, and played football in school at over 200 pounds. He picked up running at Columbia University and stuck with it through graduate school at Duke, where he earned a master's in environmental science and a law degree with honors. He worked as a staff attorney specializing in ocean governance before transitioning to full-time coaching. With his wife Megan Roche, MD, he co-founded SWAP Running (Some Work, All Play), a coaching service built around the idea that athletic development should be fun. They co-host the "Some Work, All Play" podcast, co-authored the book "The Happy Runner," and coach a roster of elite athletes. Roche's own competitive history goes back to 2012, when he won the USATF 10K Trail Championship and later earned the 2014 USATF Sub-Ultra Trail Runner of the Year award. His shift to 100-mile racing came late. In August 2024, at 36, he ran his first-ever 100-miler at the Leadville Trail 100 and broke Matt Carpenter's 19-year-old course record with a 15:26:34 finish. In 2025, after a DNF at Western States, he returned to Leadville and broke his own record with 15:12:30.