Family Support and Dream Races
Although Dr. Miller and Dr. Daniero compete as individual athletes, they both cite their family’s support, which enables them to spend many hours training for the events they love. Dr. Miller is married to his high school girlfriend, Emily Privette, MD, a dermatologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and they have two children: Anderson, age 3, and Clifford, age 5 months. The family has lived in the Boston area since 2019, when Dr. Miller began a fellowship in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at Massachusetts Eye and Ear; they will relocate to North Carolina this July.
Explore This Issue
May 2021Dr. Miller calls the training he did in preparation for the Cozumel Ironman “a great journey, as you have to dedicate a minimum of 10 to 15 hours a week training, including two-and-a-half-hour runs and five-hour bike rides. You have to embrace the journey and not just the outcome.” He said that while he wants to compete in another Ironman in the future, right now he is focused on his family and work.
Dr. Miller, an undergraduate history major at the University of Pennsylvania, said he respects the storied history of the Kona Ironman, the first Ironman race that took place in Hawaii, starting in 1978. “Just qualifying for that race is quite the accomplishment,” he said. He had also hoped to run the Boston Marathon, the nation’s oldest marathon event, while living in Massachusetts, but the 2020 and 2021 live races were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Daniero is married to Amanda Daniero, a former special education teacher. Together they parent Sophia, age 14, Lucas, age 13, and Aubrey, age 8, and live in Charlottesville. “I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without my family’s support,” he said “They realize how much endurance running supports me and allows me to be a better husband and father. Just as my running has made me more focused on what I do for work, it has been the same for my focus on my relationships.”
His dream event is the Wasatch 100-mile run, held in Utah each year, or an Ironman triathlon. “What would sway me is if I start to have knee injuries,” he said. He has signed up for a 50-kilometer (31.2-mile) race this spring (the Grayson Highlands in Wilson, Va.) and a 50-mile race (the JFK 50 Mile in Boonsboro, Md.) for November. If his knees feel good, he said, he plans to sign up for the Wasatch 100 race in 2022.
Being aware of physical limits is something that concerns Dr. Miller too. “I ride in a full-face helmet, because I think my reconstructive surgeon would be quite upset with me if I ruined his work,” he said. “There’s a lot of hardware in my face, and I had two years of dental work as part of my facial reconstruction. All of my teeth are implants and crowns—I almost literally have a million-dollar smile.”