By Rich Chrampanis
RUMSON – Bobby Hoye had big plans for the end of his senior year at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School. The captain of the track team was excited to see what the Bulldogs could accomplish in the Shore Conference and beyond. Hoye had also committed to training for the Ironman triathlon in the summer. On April 26, he was scheduled to run in the New Jersey Marathon before the coronavirus postponed the event to November. It was the first big step in his Ironman preparations.
At a time when everything is being taken away from New Jersey high schools’ senior class, Hoye decided to turn a negative into an inspirational positive.
On the same day he was supposed to be on the starting line at Monmouth Park for his first training marathon, Hoye ran 26.2 miles in his bedroom on a treadmill and used the virtual marathon to raise money for Jersey Shore health care workers.
“I saw it as an opportunity to make a difference,” Hoye said. “I thought that maybe I could impact the lives of these health care workers who are the real heroes and I wanted to show them how much the Jersey Shore community supports them and what they’re doing.”
Running a marathon on a treadmill can be tedious and certainly lonely, but even during a quarantine Bobby wasn’t on this run alone. Fellow RFH senior Peyton Ming livestreamed the event and was virtually by his side the whole way. With a split-screen featuring Hoye on the treadmill in his home and Ming in his own bedroom on the microphone, along with a live chat and a real-time update of the money raised, supporters were able to follow along with Bobby’s run every step of the way.
“I am looking at five different screens,” Ming explained. “I’m looking on my laptop, my computer, I’m looking on my phone, editing the stream and making sure everything is running smoothly. If he’s running 26.2 miles, I better be able to entertain everybody. It’s a trade-off.”
Prior to stepping on the treadmill, Hoye and Ming had raised over $1,000 for Jersey Shore University Medical Center’s COVID-19 relief fund. As Hoye started clicking off the miles, the donations began rolling in. During mile 24, they hit the $5,000 goal and when Hoye crossed the virtual finish line at 5 hours and 21 minutes, the tote board topped $5,500.
“In miles 19 and 20 that’s when things were getting rough and my body was wearing down, Hoye said. “Peyton was there. He kept cheering me on. Everybody in the chat was so supportive. I couldn’t ask for a better support system to get me through the 26.2 miles. We had over 100 people donating big lots of money. It was all I could have asked for just a teenager going for a run on his treadmill.”
Hoye’s first source of inspiration was to run for the heroes on the front line of the pandemic but he was also thinking about the Bulldogs track team he was supposed to be leading.
“I wanted to set an example for those boys even though I couldn’t from our regular season because that is so messed up right now,” Hoye said. “I’ve been in some low points during the outbreak and I saw it as an opportunity for something that I can set my mind to get me into a brighter spot and hopefully elevate others who are dealing with this craziness too.”
In this era of social distancing, Hoye and Ming have shown that friendships can flourish. It was a fitting precursor to fall when the two friends will be thousands of miles apart, with Bobby set to attend Roanoke College in Virginia to focus on environmental studies and Peyton on his way to Chapman University in California. The duo has had their share of adventures in the past with a hike of the Appalachian trail as a highlight. Now, their tag-team effort to raise money for Jersey Shore health care workers will be something they will no doubt share as a lifetime memory.
“We proved from that livestream that these adventures won’t stop even if we’re on opposite sides of the country,” Ming said. “Thanks to all the health care workers that put in countless amounts of hours every single day in a circumstance like this. It really does prove that heroes don’t wear capes. With Bobby’s idea, it shows that anybody’s capable. We have the resources to do something about it.”
Bobby Hoye is still accepting donations for his marathon run at justgiving.com/fundraising/marathonfundraiser.
The article originally appeared in the April 30 – May 6, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
