Amby Burfoot

Background

Amby Burfoot grew up in Groton, Connecticut, where he started running at Fitch Senior High School.

Education

Wesleyan University.

Career

After retiring from competition, he became a running journalist and author Burfoot was the top editor (editor-in-chief) at Runner’s World for many years and both writes for Runner’s World and serves as editor-at-large. In the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan in December 1968, Burfoot ran a personal best time of 2:14:28.8, which was one second from the American marathon record at the time.

At its peak, Burfoot"s training often included high mileage weeks of 100-140 miles done at a relatively slow pace.

Burfoot was a vegetarian during his peak training years although this lifestyle had less to do with training than with what he felt was an ethical course of action. As of 2015, he had run the Manchester Road Race 53 times in a row besting the streak of Charlie "Doc" Robbins.

All results regarding marathon, unless stated otherwise

In 1978, Burfoot joined Bob Anderson as East Coast editor for Anderson"s publication, Runner"s World magazine. In 1985, when Runner"s World was bought by Rodale Press and moved from Mountain View, California, to Emmaus, Pennsylvania, he was named the executive editors

In 1992, Runner"s World published Burfoot"s article, "White Men Can"t Run," about the dominance of African athletes and athletes of African descent in professional athletics.

The article was later republished in The Best American Sports Writing.

Achievements

• All results regarding marathon, unless stated otherwise.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Principles of Running: Practical Lessons from My First 100,000 Miles by Amby Burfoot (2003-04-05)