Local runner picked for top honor
Local accountant and avid runner Tony Grossi has received one of the top awards in running and will be honored at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., this April.
Grossi, 57, was selected as the 2017 Road Runner of the Year in the Challenged Athlete category by the Road Runners Club of America.
“It really is amazing what he does with what he has to work with,” said fellow track club member Joe Dumas, who nominated Grossi for the award. “He’s not the type of person who seeks out recognition for himself, but he deserves it.”
The award recognized the Black Creek, Lookout Valley resident for his accomplishments in 2017, which included, as always, the New York and Boston marathons, along with the Chattanooga Marathon. He also ran the Houston Marathon in January 2018.
Winners in other categories were Shalane Flanagan, the 36-year-old who became the first American woman to win the New York City Marathon in 40 years; Katherine Switzer, the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon; and Olympic runners Galen Rupp and Abdi Abdirahman.
“It’s kind of weird to see your name in the same group of people,” Grossi said. “I don’t know how to describe it really. All I can say is we have some good writers in the Chattanooga Track Club who wrote my nomination.”
Grossi was born with fibular hemimelia, a disability that left him without a fibula, ligaments or a calf muscle in his right leg. The leg is three inches shorter than the left and fused to the ankle.
Despite the disability, Grossi runs four days a week, totaling approximately 20 miles. He regularly competes in local track club races — where he often places high in his age group against able-bodied runners — and runs three marathons, annually. He’s also a staple of weekend club runs.
“He’s a really intelligent guy,” Dumas said. “He’s just a fun person to talk to while you’re logging 10 or 20 or more miles.”
Grossi started running after college. He wasn’t active and got injured in a skiing accident. A doctor told him he needed to do something active, so he decided to run.
He hasn’t stopped. “I can’t imagine not running,” he said. “I still get a tremendous kick out of running. It’s getting harder as I get older … but I still get such a thrill out of running even though some days it’s hard to get out there.”