New York City is the epicenter of the devastation caused by COVID-19, and Paul Bamba, a former Marine who owns the Trifecta Strong gym in SoHo, is doing what he can to help out.
Bamba will be taking on an inspiring challenge where he will run 72 miles in 72 hours, starting April 10 at 8 pm, in an effort to raise $72,000 for COVID-19 relief in New York City. He was moved to do this by an old mentor, David Goggins, who previously ran 48 miles in 48 hours.
“Goggins was in the Navy Seals and I was in the Marine Corps and there is a competitive thing between which branch is better,” Bamba said. “I wanted to tack on an extra day to make it that much harder but then also it gives that much more time to raise more funds. If I am feeling good and raising the amount of money we are supposed to be raising I might continue.”
Proceeds will go to the Robin Hood Foundation, whose mission is to fight poverty in New York City. Robin Hood is helping New Yorkers during the pandemic by providing food and housing, and 100 percent of donations will go to the cause. Bamba’s fundraiser will benefit Robin Hood’s Forest network of charitable young professionals.
Before taking on this challenge, running was a regular activity that the fitness enthusiast would do every week, but not to this volume.
“I would run about 20 miles a week, about four or five miles a day,” Bamba said. “I have run the NYC Marathon before.”
Bamba’s route that he has mapped out will have him running in all five boroughs of New York City, and he will try to visit recognizable sites to make it easier for people to follow along as he documents his progress. He anticipates that each run will take him 30 minutes to one hour.
“I don’t plan to run fast on any of the segments because I know I am pushing it by doing what I am doing, so it is a nice consistent pace to stay on the timeline,” Bamba said.
Every four hours Bamba will be running in a new area of the city and will be transported from place to place by car. A bicyclist will follow in order obtain footage.
“I will have one camera guy, the car driver and myself,” Bamba said. “They are my brothers and I live with them. The idea of this entire thing is to stay within the confines of social distancing, which is why we did four miles, so I could get it done in an hour and be back inside.”
The gym founder and trainer will post to his Instagram story when he begins and ends each run, totaling 18 mini-vlogs. They will appear on @PriorityFitness and @BambaJuice.
Bamba will be begin at 23rd Street and 1st Avenue in Manhattan on April 10. His journey will subsequently take him to East River Park (midnight); the 9/11 Memorial (4 am); Staten Island’s Fort Wadsworth (8 am), where the NYC Marathon starts; Red Hook (noon); the Brooklyn Bridge (4 pm), and the West Side Highway (8 pm).
On April 12, he will start in Union Square at midnight and continue through Times Square (4 am), Central Park (8 am), Museum Mile (noon), Riverbank State Park (4 pm), and Yankee Stadium (8 pm).
At midnight on April 13, he will return to 23rd and 1st in Manhattan and then make his way to the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens at 4 am, followed by Grand Central Terminal at 8 am. At noon he will do his second-to-last segment on Roosevelt Island, and at 4:00 pm he will have his grand finale in the Bronx.
This last segment will be at the steep stairs in the Highbridge area of the Bronx where a scene in the Joker movie was filmed. He plans on doing the Joker Dance down the stairs if he has enough energy, or he might keep running.
“On the final run, Sheck Wes [a rapper from Manhattan] will join the Instagram Live, so we have stuff like that,” Bamba added. “Throughout these runs, we will have influencers joining me on Instagram Live to try to bring more awareness to it and raise funds as well.”
Coincidentally, Sheck Wes sang the hit “Mo Bamba” in 2017. Tahiry Jose, an actress who has appeared on Love & Hip Hop, and Dillon Danis, a mixed martial arts fighter, will also appear on Bamba’s vlogs.
The first option that people will have to donate will be the swipe up feature on Instagram or Facebook. Another option, besides going through Trifecta Strong, will be to donate to his company’s Venmo.
The Robin Hood Foundation provided a secure customized link for the donations at trifectastrong.com. There will also be a tool on the website to see how much has been raised as well as how many miles have been run by Bamba so far.
The owner of Trifecta Strong normally does his running in Central Park and on the Brooklyn Bridge, but he is looking forward to running in different places that he has not run in before.
Before the coronavirus pandemic he was training for the now-postponed Ring Master Championships (previously called Golden Gloves), a boxing competition scheduled for April 10 – the same date as his running challenge.
He has continued to train at home, keeping himself ready for New York’s biggest amateur boxing competition, in which he has already qualified for the quarterfinals. The championship match will take place at Madison Square Garden once the pandemic has cleared.
Donate to Paul Bamba’s fundraiser at https://trifectastrong.com/72in72/.
