Meet the Masters Ace Who Sells Gear to Paul McCartney

Barbara Gubbins, 56, the matriarch of the First Family of Long Island running, is set to defend her age 55-59 title in the NYC Half on March 20. After two outstanding winter races, both in Central Park, plus some hearty distance work during a recent Cayman Islands vacation, Gubbins says she feels ready to again run 7:00 mile pace or better for 13.1 miles. “The half marathon is my sweet spot,” she says.

At last year’s NYC Half, Gubbins ran 1:31:11, an average of 6:58 per mile, to win her division by 4 minutes. This January, Gubbins ran 41:19 in the New York Road Runners Joe Kleinerman 10K, and in February she ran 26:47 in the club’s Gridiron 4-miler—both times dominating her age-group.

Gubbins, who lives in Southampton on the Island’s eastern tip, known as the South Fork, says that some adventurous track intervals—such as 200-meter repeats in 38—last summer set up her for a solid racing campaign in the months to come. On Grand Cayman Island, Gubbins, who typically trains 35 miles a week, bolstered her fitness with runs of 10 miles a day and now feels she might have a sub-1:30 half marathon in her.

A top runner since college, Gubbins attributes her longevity to a carefully crafted balance in work, running and family. Esteemed as much for being a women’s pioneer in the running business as she’s been on the roads, Gubbins, together with her family members, owns four running shops called Running Ahead in the Hamptons. The stores, the hub of Hamptons running, have seen the likes of Steven Spielberg, Jerry Seinfeld and Paul McCartney pass through their doors on summer days.

Wait, Paul McCartney’s a runner? So far, no Gubbins’ staffer has had the thrill of fitting the McCartney feet into a pair of trainers. “He comes in and buys a bunch of navy blue baseball caps with no logos on them,” Gubbins says. “We respect that he doesn’t want any attention. No selfies allowed.”

Balancing Act Spurs Longevity

Gubbins works year-around, putting in at least 50 hours a week during the high season from Memorial Day to Labor Day. She’s learned to cut out serious racing over the summer. “I’m on my feet all day,” she says.

Over the years, Gubbins has made other accommodations. She won’t run marathons—“I hate those 18-mile training runs”—except to serve as a Barbara Gubbins’ Lifetime PRs pacer, with her daughter, Megan, a Manhattan attorney, for a 3:30 group. She avoids steep hills, saying, “I’m not a strength runner.” She doesn’t care for heat—even with water bottles in her fuel belt, Gubbins suffered on those humid Grand Cayman runs. Despite her summer intervals, Gubbins says, she’s no miler either. “I lack turnover.”  

For a mid-50s runner lacking speed, strength and endurance, Gubbins, has done pretty well for herself. “Consistency,” she says to explain her masters success. “I don’t feel like I’ve lost anything over the years.”

Gubbins avoids injury with another concession. “If something hurts, I take three days off right away and use an elliptical machine,” she says. “In the old days, if something hurt I would run through it.”

Gubbins saw how a relentless approach affected her husband, Justin, a Long Island running legend who started doing marathons in high school. Justin went on to captain the Georgetown track and cross-country teams, run a 2:20 marathon and place as high as 14th at Boston. In 1975, he earned a place in running history by winning the John J. Kelley 12-Mile Race in New London, Connecticut, in 100-degree heat by 5 minutes over a cast of New England luminaries that included John Vitale, Amby Burfoot and Johnny Kelley himself.

While Justin, 64, a retired teacher and coach, went on to win a number of marathons on Long Island, “he always overdid it,” says Barbara. “Too many miles, 120 a week.” Justin manages two of the family’s running shops but no longer runs. “His knees are shot,” says Barbara.

An Open and Masters Ace

Gubbins was an early Title IX beneficiary who played several sports in high school in the mid 1970s after the federal law giving girls and women equal opportunity in education took hold. She started running in college, at James Madison University in Virginia, hitting 34:30 for 10,000 meters. She continued competition after transferring to Adelphi University on Long Island, and then finishing college as an All-American at Stony Brook, graduating in 1985 with a nursing degree.

By then married, Gubbins went on to run for the Warren Street club, based in Jersey City but with a regional roster. On the burgeoning running circuit, she won the 1994 Midland Run 15K in New Jersey and placed seventh against a national-class field in the 1991 New Haven 20K. She ran one serious marathon, Cleveland in 1996, in 3:04.

Once in the masters ranks, Gubbins picked up age-group victories all over the map, including one at a race site known for its torturous ascent: Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. Despite saying, “I really like cross country but not the hills,” Gubbins prevailed on Cemetery Hill at the 2006 U.S. cross country championships. She won the 45-49 division 8K by 29 seconds in 31:40.

Gubbins now derives her greatest running pleasure with her kids. When Megan was at Tulane University Law School, Gubbins went to New Orleans to run the Rock ’n’ Roll Mardi Gras Half Marathon with her. Gubbins, then 51, ran 1:26:16, her best race since turning 50, she says. In April, she and Megan are running Rock ’n’ Roll Nashville—Megan in the marathon, Barbara in the half.

Gubbins also does some training with her son, Geary, 28, who ran at Duke University and now owns one of the family’s running shops. Geary’s faster pace takes Gubbins down to 7:15 to 7:30 per mile, in effect a tempo run.

The family business has given Gubbins dual prominence. She has been inducted into the Independent Running Retailers Hall of Fame. She’s received the Nike “Just Do It” Award for women’s business leadership. She’s been named the Old Montauk Athletic Club Athlete of the Year. In 2004, New Balance sent Barbara and Justin to the Athens Olympics as a reward for their prowess in selling the company’s goods. Barbara had been to Athens months earlier after winning a trip from a Greek-sponsored Long Island race in which she was women’s champion. In Athens, she ran a 10K race on the final section of the Olympic marathon course.

“It was all downhill,” she says.
 

Marc Bloom

Marc Bloom’s high school cross-country rankings have played an influential role in the sport for more than 20 years and led to the creation of many major events, including Nike Cross Nationals and the Great American Cross Country Festival. He published his cross-country journal, Harrier, for more than two decades.