Father’s Day Words of Wisdom: ‘Be Like Bob’ (Bar Talk With Eric Bartosz)

With June here, Father’s Day is on the horizon. Speaking on behalf of fellow dads, if you’re wondering what the perfect gift would be for yourself, one ideal option would be the secret to living a long, happy life to enjoy family and friends, and still be able to run and exercise multiple times a week when we’re 90, and while we’re at it, let‘s add perfect health and no prescriptions to the wish list.

I know that’s a tall order, but I want to introduce you to my new friend Bob Pyle, a man living that life who shared some very interesting words of wisdom I’m happy to pass along.

Who exactly is Bob, you ask? Let me provide some context. Memorial Day weekend, I was the Co-Organizer of the Coop 5K, which some local readers likely ran or walked. At the award ceremony, when I was announcing the age group wins, I did a double-take when I saw the ‘70 and over’ 2nd place winner, listed as 90 years old, finishing with an impressive 38:45. (For any non-runners, the fast translation is Bob ran the 3.1 miles at a pace of around 12 minutes per mile, which is faster than many runners 50 years younger.)

I had a chance to speak with Bob briefly at the race, but as someone who has a deep interest in health and wellness, I had a lot more questions to ask and Bob generously agreed to schedule an interview where I could attempt to learn some of the secrets of his longevity, continued perfect health and ability to thrive at an age where the vast majority of people have retired from running, never mind are still winning races.

So, I sat down with Robert “Bob” Pyle and spent a generous chunk of time picking his brain. The headline: he’s 90 years old, has been retired one year longer than he worked (35 years as a pressman at the Morning Call), has been married for 65 years, has three kids, five granddaughters and three great-granddaughters, takes zero prescription medications, has a resting heart rate of 40 beats per minute, and has run roughly every other day since the day after he retired at age 55. He weighs 123 pounds, holds a 16-minute plank every morning and has compiled a list of 500 personal life rules over the years. (Which is a book waiting to be published, in my opinion.)

What follows are the five biggest takeaways I pulled from our conversation. Call them the Be Like Bob rules. They’re free, none of them require a subscription or a wearable, and every one of them is available to you starting tomorrow morning.

Be Like Bob #1: Make Discomfort Your Daily Companion

Bob’s life philosophy can be summed up in one line he delivered to me without hesitation: “Eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like and do what you’d rather not.” He told me his goal in life has been to become the most disciplined person in the world, and at 90, perhaps he is. Every morning, he stretches for two hours and holds a 16-minute plank. (Read that one again: 16-minute plank. If you have never done a plank, try doing one for two minutes today.) The point isn’t the plank itself. The point is that doing something hard, on purpose, every single day, is what helps build the mental muscle that gets you through the other 23 hours and 44 minutes of life. As Bob put it: “People who refuse to leave their comfort zone usually end up being very uncomfortable.”

Be Like Bob #2: Protect Your Sleep Like It’s a National Treasure

Bob is in bed at 11 p.m. and up eight hours later, and he has been on that schedule for decades. No Oura ring, no Whoop, no sleep app, no biohacks. Just constancy, every day of the week, going back longer than most of us have been alive. As I’ve written before in this column, chronic short sleep is one of the leading silent drivers of premature death. The World Health Organization classifies night-shift work as a probable carcinogen for a reason. Bob isn’t trying to optimize his REM score. He’s just been showing up to the same bedtime for 50-plus years, and that consistency is king when it comes to optimizing our sleep hygiene.

Be Like Bob #3: Eat Simply, Eat Once, Skip the Bar

I asked Bob to walk me through his diet, and he didn’t think twice. He eats one meal a day, at 3 p.m. sharp. That meal is an omelet, salmon, dates, avocados, vegetables, fruit, sourdough bread with blueberries, a banana, walnuts and two glasses of milk. (He said he may have forgotten something, but he’s razor sharp, so I doubt he forgets much.) He also quit drinking alcohol at age 35 and hasn’t touched a drop since. Whether you’re sold on one meal a day or not isn’t really the point. The bigger lesson is that he eats the same nutrient-dense foods, avoids anything processed, steers clear of added sugars and stays on the same schedule, in the same window, day after day, year after year. There’s no Tuesday cheat day or Friday happy hours, and also worth noting, no feeling of sacrifice or going without. Bob is perfectly content with that daily regimen.

Be Like Bob #4: Pick One Thing and Stay With It for 35 Years

The day after Bob retired at age 55, he laced up and ran his first race. He’s now run roughly every other day for the past 35 years, almost entirely uninterrupted. (Fellow runners may wonder, as I did, what his go-to shoe is, and it’s always been New Balance.) When an IT band injury flared three weeks before this year’s Coop 5K, the conventional wisdom was six weeks of rest. Bob stretched multiple times a day, ignored the timeline and showed up at the starting line anyway. (He took second in his age group, in case you forgot.) The lesson here isn’t “run a 5K at 90.” It’s that picking one thing you’ll do consistently, super consistently, especially on the days you don’t feel like it, for decades, is worth more than any program, app or coach you’ll ever pay for.

Be Like Bob #5: Own Your Reactions

Bob has 500 rules of life he’s collected over a lifetime, and while he has these documented on paper, he also has many committed to memory and reviews them daily. One he shared with me is certainly ‘pull-quote’ worthy: “Become someone who is unshakable, proactive and at peace, no matter what challenges come your way. Even if you encounter someone difficult, treat them based on who you are, not on who they are.”  As someone who leads Emotional Intelligence training certifications, I can say with certainty Bob has hit gold with that mindset. In an era where many of us let one rude email or social media comment section ruin an entire afternoon, Bob has spent 90 years building the internal architecture to let it bounce off. That’s not luck, it’s daily, deliberate intention, and as always, drills build the skills. And if you need a backup quote for the times you’re tempted to cut a corner on something important, think about this one: “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

So back to that Father’s Day wish list. Consider the gift Bob has been giving himself every single day for decades: discipline, sleep, simple food, consistent movement, and a quiet, unshakable mind. None of it costs a dime, and all of it compounds daily.

When I asked Bob at the end if he had any final wisdom for the younger readers, he thought about it for a beat and said, “I think I said it.” He definitely did, and the gift to ourselves would be to listen

Happy Father’s Day to all, and thank you, Bob, you’re an inspiration. We all look forward to seeing you at the 2027 Coop 5k!