DWRunning Tenure:

Joined in July 2015

PRs:

400m: 0:56, 800m: 2:06, 1600m: 4:43, 5k: 17:40, 4M: 23:41, 8k: 30:48, 10k: 39:12, 10M: 1:07:10, Half Marathon: 1:22:30, Marathon: 2:58:39

Social Handles:

IG: wbiancucci

Long-Term Running Goals:

BQ and run Boston in the marathon. Beat each of my HS track PRs, and continue improving my times from 5k to marathon. I have plenty of work to do.

Most Memorable Race:

Running NYC marathon with Aquiles tendinitis on my right foot. It hurt like hell especially after mile 23, but I had been trying to run it since 2012 and an injured Achilles wasn't about to stop me from finally running the big apple. I ran sub 3:30 somehow even though that was only my 4th run after running Chicago in 3:04 (10-min PR) two weeks prior. Needless to say my foot was swollen after and I didn't run for a month after that, but it was worth it. The crowd energy was incredible. Hope to re-run it injury-free some day.

Fun Facts:

I'm a polyglot (fluent in Spanish, Italian, and Portugues), and I'm distantly related to Lionel Messi, yes the famous Argentinian soccer player. He has two first cousins on his mother's side with the last name Biancucchi (misspelled) but we all come from a small town in Italy called Frosinone. No, I haven't actually met him. He's difficult to reach as you can imagine.
I have lived in 3 countries outside of the US (Venezuela, Italy, Brazil) and visited about 30. I have family scattered across the world in the aforementioned countries in addition to France and China.
I once ran into Bastian Swansteiger (famous German soccer player, World Cup/European Champion) while on a morning run in Lincoln Park. He let me take a selfie with him. I went from watching him and his team on TV winning the World Cup and playing FIFA with this him on my team to literally running into him while running! I also had dinner close to Willem DeFoe, Spiderman's green Goblin, at local trattoria while visiting Rome. This was also super random, and I did not ask for a photo.

Track or Trails?:

Track

Morning or Afternoon?:

Morning

Solo or With Friends?:

I enjoy both. I prefer doing speedwork and running long runs with friends, but don't mind doing easy runs on my own

Summer or Winter?:

Fall, Spring, Summer, Winter. In that order

Bolded PRs are PRs run while training with DWRunning.