A one-time experience jumping over hay bales on a flat cross country course inspired the Stanford twins, Garrett (left) and Jacob (right), to develop a series of cross country video games. (Contributed image)
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Twins Garrett and Jacob Stanford are distance runners who competed at La Costa Canyon HS in San Diego 
County and are now at Brigham Young University.
Garrett won the San Diego Section 1600m title last spring with Jacob placing second. Jacob won the 2018 SDS Division 2 XC title with Garrett placing second.
Throughout their prep running career at LCC, the twins were rarely more than a place apart. Over their last three years at the Carlsbad school, they placed no lower than fourth in the SDS Final in cross country and, in 2018, helped LCC to a San Diego Section Division 2 XC title, a runner-up finish at State and a berth in the 22-team field at NXN.
The Stanford twins are accomplished runners, no doubt. They are also video game nerds. Not in the traditional sense as just players, but also as developers.
In the course of an interview with MileSplitCA before the start of the 2018 cross country season, the twins had mentioned that they were developing a video game. Jump ahead to today where their creation -- a cross country video game series called Hay Bales -- has seen an uptick of users since the stay-at-home mandate in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the pandemic hit, the Stanfords were out of the country serving a church mission. Garrett was in Argentina. Jacob was in Chile. They are both now safely home in Carlsbad.
We caught up with Garrett Stanford for this Q&A to learn more about the Hay Bales video game series.