Bill McDermott is a thirty-five year running veteran and founder of the international running event World Run Day. After six years of pursuing a run-for-charity vision and “testing the waters,” he is motivated to bringing the concept global.
Bill was born in Alameda, California (October 31, 1955), and raised in a Roman Catholic family. He lived in various States growing up: California (Oakland, Garden Grove, Crestline), Michigan (Trenton), New York (Forest Hills, Huntington, Elmhurst, Long Beach), New Jersey (Kinnelon, Collingswood), Pennsylvania (Villanova, Bryn Mawr, Gladwyne, Strafford) and currently lives on Long Island. In Kinnelon, New Jersey, he co-captained the high school track and cross-country teams, and was named an All-Conference selection in 1973. Upon graduating college at Villanova University (1977), he continued his pursuit of running for fitness, and now enjoys competing on Long Island, the New York area, and other locations. He worked with marketing consultants to help produce materials on the runday.com web site and works directly with fighthunger.org in Rome, Italy.
Bill has won many age group awards for his running on Long Island, and has run several marathons (New York City, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Long Island, among others) with a PR of 2:58 in 2004. With two small children and a NYC career as a Project Manager in financial services, he finds late nights to be his most convenient time to run.
Like many runners, he has overcome injuries and pursued self-imposed goals towards fitness. And like many disciplined runners, he has never stopped running. “Where there's a will there's a way” he believes. Bill is also a firm believer that there is good in everyone, and that “we all get better with age.”