Beyond The Lab Coat: The Biker

The lab coat or scrubs they wear do not define who they are.

Many SBH physicians have special passions, talents, and accomplishments that exist outside the hospital. As you’ll read here, these extracurricular interests are as wide ranging and diverse as the hospital itself.

The Biker

Last summer, Dr. Robert Karpinos, an anesthesiologist and SBH’s director of perioperative services, left his home in northern New Jersey with his 19-year-old daughter Rebecca on the backseat of his Honda Gold Wing motorcycle for a three-week adventure that took them to America’s 48 contiguous states. The 10,000-mile odyssey, which saw them average about 500 miles a day, was relatively uneventful, save for the minor inconvenience of having the bike break down in South Dakota on the return ride home.

“It was great spending uninterrupted time with my daughter, exploring, and doing something we both love to do,” says Dr. Karpinos.

Dr. Karpinos rides daily to work– “I ride if it’s 40 degrees or warmer and dry when I leave the house; if it rains during the day, that’s the cost of doing business” – and spends most weekends biking either on racetracks, winding roads or riding the open highway.

The trip last summer was not his first endurance endeavor. Several years ago he and a friend competed in the Iron Butt Association’s 50CC, which challenges bikers to cross the country in under 50 hours (requiring them to collect seawater from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans). He traveled the 3,000 miles in 47 hours, stopping only to nap in Oklahoma (although he admits that both he and his friend had some hallucinatory moments when traveling through the desert).

 

He’s looking forward to riding in the association’s Ultimate Coast to Coast to Coast Insanity Challenge. That journey goes from Key West, Fla., to Dead Horse, Alaska, within 30 days.

Steve Clark