Driven by distance: How marathon goals changed Shaun Rose's life

By: Jean Chatzky, Founder & CEO of HerMoney Media

Shaun Rose, 47, never thought he’d be the type to run a marathon — and neither, he admits, did anyone else. “It was very highly unlikely,” laughs Rose, who lives with his wife and two teenage daughters in Long Beach, New York. “Nobody thought I would be doing this.” That includes the colleagues he works with as managing partner of Hudson Street Hospitality that owns three full-service bars and restaurants and four pizzerias in New York City.

Rose has gone from being an unlikely marathoner to completing seven marathons in locations around the world. This year, he’ll add number eight when he runs with Team Citizens in the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon. While he’s quick to downplay his athletic abilities, Rose says becoming an avid marathoner has changed his life for the better. “More than anything, it’s [given me a] kind of mental strength that I can apply to everything I’m doing in business,” he says. He also fully believes that if he can do this, anyone can.

Punching toward a new goal

Two things happened in 2018 that quickly changed Rose’s life: First, he started boxing to get in shape. “I needed to lose weight,” he says. “Plus, it was really, really helpful in combating stress.” To maintain momentum and inspiration — and to provide himself with the sort of accountability he suspected he’d need — he registered for a charity boxing event.

Then, as he was training for the big fight, a close friend Rolan “Rocky” Shnayder — a mortgage banker at Citizens, where Rose is a business banking customer — was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Rose saw an opportunity to turn terrible news into something positive, so he threw himself into fundraising to support Rocky’s fight against the disease. He raised an impressive $75,000 (and lost an impressive 50 pounds).

On the day of the fight, he entered the ring with Rocky, whose strength and determination Rose still admires, watching from the sidelines. “He had been going through some treatments and he was in bad shape,” says Rose. “I didn’t know if he was going to be able to make it to the fight. He actually did end up coming... his wife said it was one of the highlights of his life.”

Enter, the marathon

As Rocky’s health continued to decline, Rose felt he needed to do something else after the fight to continue to support his friend. He applied to run the 2019 TCS NYC Marathon on a team made up of supporters of Project Purple, an organization seeking a cure for pancreatic cancer.

Rose waited, hoping he would be accepted and be able to run in support of his friend. What happened next was, as Rose describes, something out of a “made-for-TV” movie.

“I woke up and got the email saying that I was accepted,” shares Rose. “The same morning, I found out that Rocky passed away.” Alongside Rocky’s college roommate, Rose went on to complete the marathon in Rocky’s memory, with his family and friends cheering him on along the race route.

Positive ripple effect

After his first NYC marathon, Rose trained for and ran three more. Then, he decided it was time to kick things up a notch. “I decided I was going to try and run all six world major marathons by the time I was 50,” says Rose. So far, he’s checked London, Chicago, Tokyo and New York City off his list. While he’s conquered the New York City Marathon before, this year will mark his first time with Team Citizens — a way to represent his businesses as a Citizens business banking customer and yet again, pay tribute to his friend Rocky, a former Citizens employee.

As he continued to set fitness goals, Rose experienced a series of positive ripple effects, especially on the professional side of things. One of them? Improved mental strength. “More than anything, that’s what’s helped me on the business level. The kind of mental strength that I have that I can apply to everything I’m doing in business.”

He’s also been able to use the idea of goals to challenge his employees, noting that he was never taught how much more successful a person can be when they set goals. “I always say, it’s hard to map the course if you don’t know what the destination is,” Rose notes. Particularly with the younger members of his team, it’s been an effective strategy. “I try to give them goals because I think it’s very important. It’s a great way for them to get where they need to go to maximize their potential,” Rose says.

Once a goal-getter, always a goal-getter

And what’s next for Rose? You guessed it, another goal. As he continues to work toward his big goal of all six world major marathons by the time he turns the big 5-0, he’s focused on Berlin and Boston. “Then, because I’m a glutton for punishment, I think I'm going to try for my 50th to do all of them in one year,” he shares, noting by that time, they’ll likely have added a seventh-world major marathon in Sydney, Australia.

Bottom line: What started as a desire to pay tribute to his friend has turned into what will likely be a lifetime of goal setting for Rose, which in turn has changed his perspective on life, and its challenges, for the better, too. As Rose puts it, one of the best parts of running marathons is getting a front-row seat to the “best of humankind.”

“In a world that's so crazy right now, it's nice to see that. You’re just out there and you're getting so much love from these people. It’s super amazing, and that pulls you through.”