Bobby, a Queens resident and father of two lives an abnormal life for most, but normal to him and his family.
For the past four years, his life has been posted on social media and YouTube, documenting the everyday life of himself and his family. It may appear to be bizarre watching people talk in front of a camera in public, but that’s his normal.
Bobby can frequently be found at Tuesday night workouts working on his tempo and the occasional Saturday long run. He likes to think of himself as an encouraging teammate who takes the time to greet, meet and encourage others to be a little greater. This so much, that Bobby has been known to slow and/or stop mid race to help or encourage other Whippets who may have needed a little extra influencing through the race (Most recently stopping just before the NYC Marathon finish to help Whippets who had stopped to walk and puke cross and finish the marathon on a positive note).
Bobby joined the team late January 2016 with the hopes he could become a stronger long distance runner beyond 13.1 miles and connect with people who share this strange obsession for running like he had. Bobby has ran a total of ten marathons and plans to finish 2017 by running his final marathon in his home state, on the same course he grew up on- Steamtown Marathon in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
He is a Level 1 USATF coach, further studying coaching techniques, performance training and developments with the United States Sports Academy while waiting to certify for Level 2 and 3 Coaching in hopes to move west and become a collegiate and USA grade coach. Although Bobby studies the always evolving runners nutrition, he openly admits he has a terrible addiction to chicken nuggets and pizza.
Bobby holds a very deep connection with the NYRR UAE Healthy Kidney 10K, because he lost his father at a young age to kidney failure. This run being so deeply influenced by the National Kidney Foundation, he and his family make sure that date is clear every year to support the cause.
Bobby’s early running life consisted of six amazing years of high school cross country with 3 district titles and 1 PIAA state title, but his heart has always belonged in Track & Field; thus where his issues with long distances lie. Bobby ran six years of high school track, tallying up numerous invitational, district and state medals running consistent 00:47.0 400m times.
What was once a dream, became a fast nightmare when Bobby couldn’t meet academic grades to maintain his collegiate scholarships and was forced to sideline a running career. Walking away from Track & Field for a century, joining the Whippets has boosted Bobby’s confidence and gotten him back into track so fiercely, he’s training to meet the standard to compete in the USATF Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Header photo by Ben Ko
