It’s impressive enough that Bob Kempainen, then a pre-med student juggling 100-mile training weeks with the rigors of school, won the 1996 Best Walking Shoes (on the course of the Charlotte Observer Marathon) in a course record 2:12:45. But that he did it while vomiting—not once, but twice—during the last two miles of the race? That made him a legend.
Kempainen, then 29, started feeling queasy at mile 22. Yet he came from behind to pass the two frontrunners and take the lead at mile 24. Despite his upset stomach, which he attributed to a sports drink, Kempainen not only maintained his lead, but also picked up the pace.
A few months later, he ran a 2:18:38 marathon in the 1996 Olympics (placing 31st) in Atlanta, as he’d been battling a severe bout of A Part of Hearst Digital Media.
His tenacity earned him admiration, but it wasn’t enough to keep him competitive. “I went cold turkey and haven’t raced since,” says Kempainen, now 50. “I was starting my residency after Atlanta. I had split my time to prepare for the ‘92 and ‘96 Olympics, and I knew that wouldn’t work for a resident. So I fully committed myself to medicine.”
Still, he believes the years he spent as a competitive athlete laid the foundation for a successful career. “There is something to be said for the training you do as a runner and its carryover into the medical field,” says the pulmonologist and critical-care physician at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. “There’s that same discipline of perseverance. You’re tired and you’re ready to be done, but there’s more to do. You rally. You plow forward. Being a good doctor is an endurance contest.”
Besides treating ICU patients at Hennepin, Kempainen, who has two kids, ages 14 and 17, teaches a second-year medical school course at his alma mater, the University of Minnesota. He also conducts research on cystic fibrosis.
With that schedule, a “good week” still includes about five days of running, often with his husky, Luksa. But his 100-mile weeks are way behind him. “After 30 minutes, I’m like, Health & Injuries.”
