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Executive: Will Robinson, 37, and Katie Robinson, 31, newlyweds
Fitness passion: Long distance races, marathons, triathlons
Career: Will Robinson is a principal with Blalock Walters in Bradenton. Katie Robinson is a personal trainer and a nanny.
First date: The Robinsons met during a bike training session at the Legacy Trail in Sarasota in 2010. Katie Robinson was already an accomplished athlete when they met. She had competed in triathlons and at least five marathons, and was on the track and field team at the University of Rhode Island, where she was a pole-vaulter. Says Will Robinson: “I figured if I was going to get to know her more, I had to get into training.”
Gym rat: Will Robinson says he was more of a gym rat before he met his future wife. He lifted weights a few times a week. “I was in good shape,” he says, “but not in that kind of riding or running shape.” Robinson nonetheless brought some of his own long-distance bona fides to the relationship. For instance, he had already completed two 50-mile ultramarathons, albeit when he was a decade younger.
Bragging rights: The Robinsons each ran the Boston Marathon in April 2011. Katie Robinson beat her husband by six minutes. “I haven't beaten him (in a race) since,” says Katie Robinson. “But I will always have that.” More than a year later the couple remains driven by competition. “I'm always telling myself it's just for fun,” Katie Robinson says. “But when the gun goes off, I can't control myself.”
Tough guy: Will Robinson ran in the Rock 'n' Roll Nashville Marathon in April — a week before the couple's wedding day. The race was going fine, recalls Robinson, until mile 20. That's when cramps came. “I was actually close to dropping out of the race,” Robinson says. He took some salt tablets and he made it, wearily, to the finish line.
Tough girl: Katie Robinson has her share of wild competition stories, too. She once ran in a five-person overnight relay race from Miami to Key West, a 207-mile jaunt called the Ragnar Race. She was responsible for a 38-mile leg of the run. She also competed in two Ironman 70.3 half-triathlons this year. One was a qualifying event in Augusta, Ga., and after that, she did the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas. She plans to compete in an Ironman 70.3 event in St. Croix next May.
Different strokes: Will Robinson uses training runs and rides to think through cases he's working on. He sometimes even brings a pen so he can write down the theme of an oral argument on his hand while he runs so he doesn't forget the idea. Katie Robinson's training runs and rides, however, are more social. “I don't go out to lunch with my friends,” she says. “I go for runs. That's how we catch up.”
Something sweet: Both Robinsons eschew fad diets and instead try to eat in moderation. They also avoid carbs and sugars whenever possible. Will Robinson's weakness is specific: a vanilla milkshake from the Shake Pit on Manatee Avenue West in Bradenton. Katie Robinson's weakness, on the other hand, is general: anything sweet. “I could eat the icing off three pieces of cake,” she says. “I love sweets. And I don't have very good self control.”
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