Rob Heppenstall

Birth Date: February 28, 1997

Hometown: Hamilton, ON

College: Wake Forest University

1500m: 3:35.17

Mile: 3:55.15

Joined ATC Elite: 2023

Top Accomplishments

· Silver Medalist, 2023 Pan American Games 1500m

· 2-time Canadian National Champion outdoors (800m, 2021; 1500m, 2022)

· 2-time Canadian National Champion indoors (800m and 1500m, 2024)

· 3^rd, NCAA Indoor Championships, 800m (2018, 2019)

· 7-time All-American, 800m

Atlanta Track Club Staff Role

Warehouse Coordinator

Road to Atlanta Track Club Elite

A four-time Ontario provincial champion (400m as a freshman before moving up to 800m) for St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School in Hamilton, Rob was also coached independently by the highly respected Phil Steel to two World Junior Championships. He went on to become a 7-time All-American at Wake Forest, twice finishing on the NCAA Indoor Championships podium at 800m and - as a freshman - setting school, ACC championships and Canadian Junior indoors records when he ran 1:47.35. After losing his senior outdoor season to injury, Rob competed for District Track Club in Washington, D.C. in 2021. In November 2023, just two days after returning from Chile with a Pan Am silver medal, Rob packed up his car and headed toward Georgia to start his career with Atlanta Track Club Elite.

Pressing Start

Rob didn't start running track until ninth grade and kept playing football and basketball until he qualified for the World Junior Championships the summer after his junior year. That's when he realized he had what it took to compete at the next level and decided to focus on running fast as a senior so he could be best situated to compete at the collegiate level.

Hitting Pause

Despite battling plantar fasciitis during his senior indoor season at Wake Forest in 2019, Rob was "super fit" and finished third at NCAAs. But he kept trying to train through the injury, and before long a torn plantar ended his collegiate career - Rob was on crutches for two months and didn't run a step for about 10. "I'd been on a huge trajectory and that injury just blew the stock a little bit," he says. "So, I had to build back up. It took a few years to get there."

Fast Forward

In February 2021, Rob joined the District Track Club in Washington, D.C. There, he trained alongside NCAA Division II champion Thomas Staines, the son of Gary Staines and Linda Keough, both 1988 Olympians for Great Britain. When they left D.C. at the end of the year, Tom invited Rob to stay with him and his parents in Colorado Springs to train. "They were amazing," he says, giving him a chance to train at altitude. Among his training partners was distance Olympian Eilish McColgan, of Scotland. "It was inspiring to see how she trains from day to day and her professionalism and dedication towards wanting to be the best athlete she can be," he told Canadian Running magazine.

Highlight Reel

While a "free agent" in Colorado, Rob was named to the Canadian team for the 2023 Pan American Games, from which he brought home a silver medal at 1500m. While preparing for Pan Ams, he began talking with Atlanta Track Club about joining its Elite team when he returned. "Everybody I talked to had the same opinion about Tommy [Nohilly, the team's coach]. Everyone respected him. That was a big thing. Then in the last year, since I came here, I've learned more about the Club and where it wants to go, how it wants to make Atlanta healthier and more of a community through running. You can save a lot of lives through helping people be healthy, and that sense of purpose is appealing."

Quick: Name the Canadian Capital …

"We know a lot about the states, but I don't think it's the other way around," says Rob. "A lot of Canadians know random state capitals or facts of U.S. history. We grew up learning about the states. When I ask people what the capital of Canada is, I get some crazy answers, like Ontario. I accept Toronto; that's a good guess. But we all know what the capital of the U.S. is. A lot of Americans don't realize that we have big cities that are just like America. They know it's cold; I feel like they think we ride to school on polar bears. But me, thinking of people in Scandinavia, I think they live in igloos because I've never been there and don't know. It's sort of the same mentality: it's cold up there and that's about it."

… and Then The Flags of Every Country

Bored one summer, Rob started playing a game called Quiz Up, which includes a quiz on naming the flags of countries around the world. "I kept playing and kept playing and it got to the point where I realized hey, I'm not getting many of these wrong anymore." It was fun while it lasted, but "the thing is, there's only so many countries, and once you know all the flags, you know them." Asked how old he was during his flag phase, he replies: "Old enough for it to be embarrassing. 18 or 19. The flags are a first date 'fun fact' about myself. It usually works. Either that or it goes completely the other way."

In the ATL

One of the things Rob likes most about Atlanta? "I come from a place of diversity, and those places appeal to me. Atlanta is an 11 out of 10 for diversity. And I like how it's a healthy balance: not so big that it's overstimulating but not so small that nothing is happening."

How He Knows When He's Ready to Race

"I feel like the goal is to be ready to race any time of the year. The best in the world are always ready to race. If you truly believe in the work you're putting in every day, you'll always be ready in some form. At this level we're all physically in similar shape, so it comes down to the mental aspect. You're ready to race when you believe in your coach and you believe in the system, when you believe in your teammates and your teammates believe in you. When you get that connective wire of everybody believing in you, that in turn makes you believe in yourself. It's going to be hard to beat a person who believes."