BRIAN HSIA, STREETS 101
Describe yourself in a one-sentence bio.
Chinese-American-born ultra/marathon running coach who is best known for running a marathon in every state + some US territories and working on Canadian Provinces and Mexico.
How did you start running?
I started as a sprinter (100m, 200m) in high school track and started running distance (small distances like 3 miles!) when living in the city. Kept challenging myself with the distances and only wanted to run one NYC marathon. Whoops!
What’s something we might not know about you?
In my senior superlative, I wrote, “Brian Hsia will be running his first NYC marathon and passing by the building that he had built”. The answer is sort of right! I accomplished the NYC Marathon and even worked for New York Road Runners for 9 years and also helped (as an architect) with 2 different projects along the NYC Marathon course. (1 a low-income housing building near the Pulaski Bridge & the other on the dreaded 5th avenue hill climb at El Museo)
Three biggest achievements in life?
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I won in my first 100-mile race. I thought it was a fluke, so did the race director when peeing next to him in the urinals after the race. No one was at the finish line!
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I am co-founders of the Alzheimer’s Association charity team for the NYC marathon, before there were no teams and now there are three! I still coach for one of the charity groups. In my time that I was coaching them, they had fundraised close to 2.5 million dollars in 6 years!
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I recently got engaged to Molly Anne Kreter at the finish line of the TCS NYC Marathon…but the covid times version.
Summer or Winter?
Summer – I hate the cold weather!