Rob Geremia

​About Rob

 

I grew up in Rhode Island watching Golden Girls and performing puppet shows. I lived in various towns in Rhode Island, but I consider South Kingstown my home. It was there I ran cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track for all four years of high school. I struggled with my identity as a gay teen, but I eventually came out in college. I put the running on hiatus as I began my internships. I moved to Washington DC in 2003 after graduation. I chose DC because I wanted to teach in an urban high school and my childhood friend needed a roommate for her rent control apartment. Over the next four years I gained about 30 pounds. I just felt gross. My friend Ted Socha and I decided to join DCFR in 2008.  After that, I felt the stars finally aligned: gays, running, and drinking, all in one.

 

 

 

 

​Questions

 

You were interviewed for our upcoming film on the club’s 30th anniversary. What reflections did that experience evoke? It made me realize that just before joining I had been heading down an interesting path toward alcoholism. And then I thought - there is a better way of interacting with gay individuals than at a bar.

 

It was more for health reasons you joined? At first the motivation was physical and mental well-being. But I then realized it was a chance to meet people and develop friendships. I definitely consider the Front Runners as my family now.

 

When did you first hear about us? Back in 2004 but I didn’t join because I was afraid to go by myself and because I’d not been running for a few years and didn’t want to be in last place. Then my friend Ted decided to come with me. We went on the coldest January run ever, on a Thursday night, and right away I felt very comfortable.

 

What do you feel about the club’s generational mix and who are you most drawn to? I love it. It’s so hysterical when some of the more senior members rag on the younger ones. I’m always drawn to Barry [Kropf] because he lets me let it all out and I don’t really let my feelings out to a lot of people. He listens, he has life experience, and he offers a wise and often witty response. Talking to them makes me realize that what I’m going through is just a blip on the radar of the grand scheme of life.

 

Being both runner and running coach, how do the two differ? Coaching makes me more conscious of things I should do when running: stretching, warm up, cool down. It’s amazing – the kids that I coach always listen to me. When I tell them ‘pass on the hill’ they do it. I think, gosh, they’re so much stronger than me because if I was them I wouldn’t pass people on the hill!

 

Do students ask you about being gay? They never ask but I think there’s an underlying assumption that I am. I wish I could tell the kids but how do you work that into a conversation? They’ve asked questions like ‘are there gay teachers in this school’ and I’ve said ‘of course there are.’ I’ve always wanted to wait until I had a partner and say ‘this is my partner.’ And I have a boyfriend now so we’ll see how that’s going to align. Also, since 2010 I’ve been a sponsor of the Gay Straight Alliance at my school so if they ask this year I’ll probably tell them.

 

So no one has ever asked? There was this one student who once asked me as I left school one day. He wanted to make an issue out of it, so I just turned it around and asked ‘why would that matter?’

 

Do gay issues ever come up teaching history? We did a lesson for Harvey Milk Day. The students were fascinated to learn that gays and lesbians in the 1970s could lose their jobs and be denied housing. We tried to do a lesson on Uganda’s anti-homosexual bill but the administration put the nix on it because of the negative, violent images around it. We’d just done the Rwandan genocide and had gotten some flack from parents for showing images of that. Also, when I taught ancient Greece, we looked at Spartans and their practice of pederasty.

 

What’s your favorite period to teach?  U.S. history from 1945 to the present. American history has always been presented as this grand consensus narrative about Americans expanding the scope of freedom. But if you ask any gay or African-American person, they’ll have a different answer and so I like that contested, debate part of it.

  

You say Golden Girls played a special part in your life. Why so? It was on a Saturday night, a time when my mom and dad were home. They, my sister and I would watch it together. We would all laugh. What made it great was that it appealed to a broad audience for different reasons.

 

Which Golden Girl are you? All of them are part of me. I’m definitely Rose the naïve one in some situations, I’m the wiseass Sophia in others - sometimes I’m Dorothy the realist…and every gay man is a Blanche.

 

What’s your favorite thing about Front Runners? The people.

 

And your least favorite? The people.

 

You once told me that dating other Front Runners was a bad idea. Do you still think so? I’ve never per se dated a DC Front Runner. I can see why it could be awkward if the relationship ends and the two people want to still continue going to the runs. But I’d do it.

 

What is your motto in life? Live it up, bitch!

 

Interview by Brian Beary, Design by Marcel Acosta

August 2011