Born in 1927, Phil grew up in the Inwood Section of Manhattan and subsequently lived in Blauvelt NY, Tulsa OK, and Clearwater Fl. He was educated at Princeton, Fordham and NYU. At midlife he attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard. He holds an MBA degree in Corporate Finance and was a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the States of New York and Oklahoma. He served with military and was commissioned at the Armored School at Fort Knox in 1945.Phil is the father of five children, has ten grandchildren and five grand dogs. The mother of his children, Eleanor Johnsen is deceased. He married a second time to Lynn Smith, a Louisvillian businesswoman.Early in his career he was employed by the FBI and Arthur Andersen & Company. He retired in 1983 from Cities Service Company, a large oil company, where he served as an Executive Officer and Corporate Controller. He taught at three colleges, served on the Board's of Directors of a number of non-profit companies, and did consulting work with Tescot, an organization of retired executives that serviced non-profit and government entities.

Born in 1927, Phil grew up in the Inwood Section of Manhattan and subsequently lived in Blauvelt NY, Tulsa OK, and Clearwater Fl. He was educated at Princeton, Fordham and NYU. At midlife he attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard. He holds an MBA degree in Corporate Finance and was a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the States of New York and Oklahoma. He served with military and was commissioned at the Armored School at Fort Knox in 1945.Phil is the father of five children, has ten grandchildren and five grand dogs. The mother of his children, Eleanor Johnsen is deceased. He married a second time to Lynn Smith, a Louisvillian businesswoman.Early in his career he was employed by the FBI and Arthur Andersen & Company. He retired in 1983 from Cities Service Company, a large oil company, where he served as an Executive Officer and Corporate Controller. He taught at three colleges, served on the Board's of Directors of a number of non-profit companies, and did consulting work with Tescot, an organization of retired executives that serviced non-profit and government entities.

Joey McNeal is a Philly kid through and through. With a wild mop of curly hair and an uncommon thirst for competition, Mac is known to keep his car trunk full of sports equipment, ready for any pickup game. But McNeal's true passion is running. Joey Mac is the fastest guy in town, but a slate of injuries stopped him short of greatness at what would have been the peak of his career. Now, about to turn thirty, McNeal starts to wonder What if? What if he put everything he had into training? What if he had a great coach? What if he could run faster than he ever had before? What if he could silence a lingering unfulfilled dream? But McNeal has two jobs, little time or money, and only the support of his closest friends. Even they don't know that Mac secretly dreams of competing on the highest athletic stage: the Olympics. Phil Reilly's debut faithfully depicts a runner's life in Philadelphia--from Kelly Drive to Pennypack Park to the icy winter streets of the Northeast--as McNeal gives his running career one more shot. This searing pursuit reveals the sacrifices that passions require and the limits that are made to be broken.