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| Start of the 2018 Boston Marathon with wind, cold, and rain. Was someone trying to tell me something? |
It’s hard not to note the “Bad Jokes Will Ferrell Told Me During the Boston Marathon” or “Trials, and Miles, and Beaucoup Tribulations of Running With My Wife.”
If you need an engaging, down-to-earth speaker at your event, you can contact me at: amburf@gmail.com
My Articles: I’ve written thousands of running articles since I joined Runner’s World in 1978. You can find many of them here at https://www.runnersworld.com/search/?q=%22amby%20burfoot%22
You can also find a lot of my articles for various publications, including Podium Runner and the Washington Post, at MuckRuck.com/amby-burfoot.
ARTICLES
Lessons Learned in 50 Years of Running After Winning the Boston Marathon in 1968
Marathon Training on 3 Days a Week
Marathon Training of a World Best Coach
Simple Secrets of Lifetime Running (Celebrating My 50th Consecutive Manchester Race on Thanksgiving Day)
My Story: Here's my story, rather long at this point, as I've crossed over my 73rd birthday (August, 2019).
I was born at the University of Virginia hospital on August 19, 1946, the same day President Bill Clinton was born in Hope, Arkansas. That makes me an uber-boomer, and not much more.
I grew up in Mystic CT, where my father was the first director of what became the Mystic YMCA. A fanatic baseball and basketball player in my youth, I switched to cross-country in high school when it became apparent I lacked the speed and power for other sports.
My cross-country coach at Fitch was John J. Kelley, 1957 Boston Marathon winner and two-time USA Olympic Marathon runner. Luckiest thing that ever happened to me. Kelley taught me little about running, except what I inferred from his example. He taught me everything about the rest of life: art, literature, organic gardening, politics, corporate excesses, love of animals, kindness, friendship. The list goes on and on. My senior year at Fitch High in Groton CT, I won the State 2-mile championship by an inch with a time of 9:39.
In four years at Wesleyan University in Middletown CT, I ran with Jeff Galloway and Bill Rodgers, and against Frank Shorter at nearby Yale. Beat em all. These were my obsessive years, and my successful ones. I ran 8:45 for an indoor 2-mile, and twice placed 6th in the NCAA University Division Cross-Country Championships against all the big guys, mainly the untouchable Gerry Lindgren.
In April, 1968, my senior year at Wesleyan, I won the Boston Marathon on a warm day in 2:22:17. Eight months later, in Japan, I ran 2:14:29--my personal best in the marathon.
I served in the Peace Corps in El Salvador, Central America, in the early 1970s, and began editorial work on my return in 1974. In 1978, Runner's World hired me as East Coast Editor. Seven years later, Runner's World moved to Rodale Press in Pennsylvania, and I was named Executive Editor. I spent 25 years at RW before retiring in 2012.
I have written a handful of books, including the ones featured on this website at Autographed Books.
At 73, I'm still running strong and healthy, but slow. I have completed 57 consecutive Manchester Road Races on Thanksgiving Day, and also finished the Boston Marathon in 2018 on the 50th anniversary of my win in 1968.
I now live in Mystic CT, where I grew up, and run many of the same training routes that I was covering in the 1960s. Only they take 50 percent longer.
I am married to Cristina Negron, and have two adult children, Daniel and Laura, and two beautiful cats.
Here are a couple of short videos from the 2018 Boston Marathon. The first shows my group finishing. I'm the guy in all black who walked backwards to applaud others:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PpPip4l_UM
This one shows an interview I gave a local TV station moments after finishing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G-bvRCxK3g