According to the dominant men's middle distance runner in southern Virginia, Rob Hinkle, "A fractured collarbone and separated shoulder from a mountain biking accident in March of 1998 made me take running more seriously, because I could not afford to fall on my shoulder again." He grew up in Hampton, New Hampshire and ran track at Winnacunnet High School. The former New Hampshire state high school 1981 and 1982 800m & 1000m champion ran cross-country and track for Bowdoin College his freshman year, then decided to concentrate on academics and pursue other outdoor sports.

After graduating summa cum laude from Bowdoin College in 1986 with a degree in Chemistry, he entered the Doctoral program in Chemistry at the University of Utah. With a 33:12 10K and a 16:30 5K, he entered the 1988 St. George Marathon in Utah. With a respectable 2:49:32 after hitting The Wall hard, he took another break from running and started mountain biking and raced competitively. Rock climbing, skiing, and off-road motorcycle riding also became his hobbies as he finished his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1993. His expertise is exploiting the extremely reactive nature of the carbon-iodine bond in hypervalent iodine compounds.

He then moved to California for a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, Irvine that was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The research focused on attempting to synthesize a very large molecule that affects growth hormone levels. In 1996, he accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the College of William and Mary. He teaches second semester organic chemistry, two lab courses, and a Master's level course in organic synthesis.

"I kept running mainly to clear my head and manage the stresses of being a college professor. Besides being a teacher, I am a research mentor, obtain external funding, and publish research results." In the fall of 1988, he usually ran high 16:00's & low 17:00's for a 5K. Then another unexpected occurrence had an impact on his relationship with running, "In October of '98 I entered a 5K race where a rabbit took the first mile out really fast, and I did not want him to get too far ahead. In the second mile a runner pushed me faster than I wanted to go. I pulled away after the second mile and kept pushing, resulting in a minute PR of 15:40."

With the help of fifty mile organized training weeks with the Colonial Road Runners, who train on the athletic field adjacent to his office at William and Mary, he ran several PR's in 1999. Among those are: 5K (15:07, Keep Newport News Beautiful), 8K (24:47, Shamrock Sportsfest), 10K (31:25, Elizabeth River Run), and ran 1:13:25 at the Colonial Half-Marathon in his first race at that distance. His times earned him the eighth spot overall in the open division for 1999 by the Washington Running Report. In 2000, he will be competing in the sub-masters category.