Flags
Countries
Continents
Robert Bishton is the founding board member who managed the task of having a singlet and badges designed and produced for our club. He ran his first marathon in October 2004 at age 54 and finished in 3:56. Several years prior he had made another of many resolutions to lose weight. This time he started off with daily 5-mile (8km) walks that morphed in walk-jogs and finally running. Over an eight month period he lost 60lbs. (27kg) and was running on a treadmill to maintain the loss. He use to watch the New York City marathon on TV every year, and when his walks changed into runs, he began to fantasize running the NYC marathon. He didn't gradually work his way up to the distance with 5 or 10-K's, or even a half marathon.
Since 2006, Robert has been widely known as Cowboy. That came about when he went to Phoenix, Arizona, to run a marathon that finished on the university campus where he was graduated in 1972. Robert went to a student supplies store to buy a hat to shade his face during the race and ended up buying a cowboy hat with a patch of the university's mascot on the front and during the marathon he heard so many spectators encouraging him on with shouts of, "Go cowboy," he realized cheering spectators were a perfect substitute for family members who couldn't travel with him.
A list of noteworthy accomplishments include: a) He is a 6X-50 States and Seven Continents finisher. As a Globetrotter, he earned his 50 Countries badge at the Victoria Falls Marathon, Zimbabwe, in June 2015. (see above photo) b) He has run sub-4 hour marathons in all 50-States and in Washington DC. He is only the second known runner to complete this achievement after passing age 60. c) At the age of 61, he completed the Savage Seven, a 7-marathons in 7-days event run that year on a 400 meter track and two of the finishes were sub-4:00. The following weekend he ran two additional sub-4's. So, during that 15-day span, he ran 9-marathons, of which four were under 4:00. During his 18 years of running over 430 marathons, he has completed over 150 of them with sub-4:00 times and garnered well over 100 Top 3 age-group awards. d) He had a streak going in which he ran at least one marathon every month for 14.3 years and that streak was broken in 2020 with the mass cancellations of events by Covid.
Robert's globetrotting started in 2008 when one of his brothers suggested that he set a goal to run marathons in all the countries they had lived in or visited while his father was a diplomat with the Foreign Service. He was born in Ireland and another brother was born in Thailand, and all of his four siblings and father thought this was a great idea because Robert could see if their homes were still there, visit remembered sites, etc., and report back to the family. There were well over a dozen countries on this list and when his father passed away in 2011, Robert was just three shy of reaching the goal. He had promised his father that he would finish the list and did so when he ran Bangkok, Thailand (2012), Jakarta, Indonesia (2013), and Da Nang, Vietnam (2014).
- Member since February 14, 2014
- Full Member
- Male
- Myers Beach, FL,
United States
- 5 Flags
- 7 Continents Completed
- 50 Countries Completed
- Club Role: Merchandise Manager
- Also a member of:
7 Continents Completed: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America
50 Countries Completed: last updated December 4, 2015 @ 12:00 am
Antarctica
Argentina
Australia
Bahamas
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Cambodia
Canada
Cayman Islands
Chile
Curacao
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
Egypt
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Italy
Jamaica
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
Morocco
Netherlands
Norway
Panama
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Singapore
Slovakia
Spain
Suriname
Sweden
Switzerland
Thailand
Trinidad and Tobago
Ukraine
United States
Vietnam
Virgin Islands, U.S.
Zimbabwe