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ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

November 4, 2011

Amby Burfoot

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

RICHARD FINN: This is one of my favorite parts of the week, being a former journalist, I've always had a soft spot for the writers and the journalists and the broadcasters in our business. I don't think we could do anything that we've been able to do in any sport but especially here at New York Road Runners and the marathon without the support, the encouragement, and the coverage, both pro and con sometimes of the journalists, and we thought that this was the appropriate way for us to honor and salute and celebrate the journalists in our sport. It is my pleasure now to turn this over to our chairman of the board, George Hirsch who has a pretty good background in the journalism business himself. George.
GEORGE HIRSCH: Thank you so much, Richard. This one's a real pleasure for me. I started running in 1968, and back then, the Manchester Road Race was the second most important running event in the United States, second only to the Boston Marathon.
Let me ask you, who has heard of someone who has ever won nine times in a major road race whose name isn't Grete? Well, Amby Burfoot won the Manchester Road Race nine times. And that year, 1968, he also won the Boston Marathon.
Runners back then were a smaller, but very passionate group of people. I remember after Amby won the 1968 Boston Marathon, a close friend of mine named his cat Amby. Amby was running in New England in those days when New England was the mecca of all running. On the roads, cross country, and Frank Shorter told me that the measure, the standard by which every runner measured himself back then was Amby Burfoot.
But we're really not here to talk about Amby as an elite runner today, although elite he was, he missed the American record in the marathon by one second. But today we're here to talk about Amby as a journalist and an editor. And I'd like to think that really good editors and good runners have something in common, and that is that they stay a few steps ahead.
For an editor, it means that you've got to spot the trends before others do. The emerging personalities, the breakthrough in the sport of the science, and that was Amby.
Early on, he saw that the hardcore runners like himself and his college roommate Bill Rogers were really morphing into something, a huge movement that was about health and fitness, and losing weight and reducing stress, and meeting the opposite sex. Amby saw that, and he was able to infuse that into the pages of Runner's World Magazine.
You may know that Amby's the one who created the whole concept of the pace groups. You've seen them in so many marathons. The people that get together, and guided there to run five hours or four and a half, and Amby staked himself out as the leader of the four-hour pace group. And marathon after marathon I saw hoards of smiling runners, Amby in the middle, cheering them on at 3:58, 3:59 on the clock, and he'd bring this entourage across the finish line, making their day, their year, I'm sure.
One thing you probably know is that in publishing, the editor/publisher relationship, that partnership is really the heart and soul of any publication. I would like to tell you, and you correct me if I'm wrong, Amby, in 20 years of working together, I never ever remembered a negative word between us. That just says an awful lot about this gentleman.
So here he is, going as strong as ever. He's still the editor at large of Runner's World. He whispered to me the other day the idea of the new book that he's going to be writing, and in two weeks, Amby Burfoot will be running his 49th consecutive Manchester Road Race.
So all I have to say to any of you, if you have a cat to name, you could do a lot worse than Amby. The great Amby Burfoot.
AMBY BURFOOT: Well, by my measure, I've been doing this thing that I do, whatever it is, for about 33 years, so I do have a few things I'd like to say this morning, mainly thank yous. I could not be more honored, thrilled and privileged to be receiving an award journalistic or otherwise, and one with George's name on it, so this is a very, very special day for me.
Those of you who know me a little bit realize that I had the great good fortune early in my life as an adolescent to be mentored by a former Boston Marathon winner named John J. Kelly, who was a great running instructor, and a great life instructor. It is perhaps less well known, at least I haven't said it to a whole lot of people, that I had that kind of good fortune twice in my life. Because later, in my magazine publishing career, I was mentored by George for 20 years as he just said. And I have never met anyone more passionate, energetic, and especially laser-focused than George. I think that was the real secret of Runner's World getting to the incredible success that it is now.
On the very first day that we began working together, and this is a verbatim quote, George said to me, Amby, we're going to work really hard. We're going to put out a great magazine, and we're going to have a lot of fun doing it. And he continued. If we do those three things, the business side of the equation will take care of itself entirely.
He was totally right for 20 years at Runner's World it was like that. We talked daily on the phone. It was always energizing and exciting and laser-focused on what needed to be done.
The best part of it is that we're still great friends, talk constantly, and I think we're still having fun last time I checked, George.
I've been fortunate in so many other ways, of course. My entire publishing career, really, I've worked for this modest-sized enterprise in Emmaus, Pennsylvania where I know many of you have never been, the Rodale family. And they have had the great wisdom to nurture Runner's World as they nurture so many other things, particularly by allowing it to remain a special-interest magazine that it really was from the beginning, and should always, always be.
The last eight years I've been extremely lucky to work with editor in chief David Willey who has given me the opportunity to rediscover that my first love in magazine journalism is the writing, the storytelling, the authoring of the stories. That's what I've been doing, and it's been a tremendous period for me.
There are a group of my colleagues here this morning, and for all of us, our colleagues are incredibly important. Mine at Runner's World, this group, and previous groups, have been deeply passionate about the sport of running, and just as passionate about being business, and activity, and creativity of magazine making. I go into the office every day and we work together in a collegial sense, and all of us, I'd like to believe, raise the tide for everybody else in the office.
I can truly, truly say, and I don't know how many people can say that, that I have never, ever had a morning when I didn't wake up and look forward to going into the office for the work, the colleagues, my bosses, the whole piece.
My wife, Christina, could not be here this morning because her mother is quite ill in a Philadelphia hospital. I miss her greatly. She's the balance in my life. You know, she's the one who laughs out loud at me the most over my obsessive tendencies, keeps me in average order more or less, makes me go to an endless procession of dance lessons with her -- and I've never, ever won an award in one of those dance contests that they have. But she does keep me balanced, she does keep me going, and I miss her a lot this morning, but she is where she needs to be.
I wanted to finish by saying one last important thing, and George alluded to this, I believe the real heroes in this sport and in magazine making are really millions of mostly nameless, middle-of-the-pack runners who are out there every day and every weekend improving their own lives and increasingly working for improving, raising funds for the lives of other people. These everyday runners help us spread the gospel of running and fitness, and the notion that we can take control of our own health, our own lives, and improve our health at a time when the nation and the world certainly needs that.
I've been so, so lucky during my career to have just a step ahead of those mid-packers, some incredible elite runners and they go by first names. I'm thinking of Frank, and Bill, and Joanie, and Grete -- and I could say Grete nine times this morning, but I probably won't. I see a Catherine just in front of me. She's one of them. There was also a Catherine with an extra syllable in her name. I can't name them all, but Alberto, and Alison, and oh, in the 90's, Haile, and Paul and Herrmann, and since then Paula, and the new record holders in the marathon, and Dina and Meb, of course who are here this weekend, and Kara and Ryan. Every single one of them is an incredible, accessible, interesting human being in their own right. The ability to cover them as stars in this sport has made the job incredibly easy for all of us. We're so lucky to have had them.
Lastly, I think it's appropriate here to recall a few race directors. Fred, forever, I hope we never forget that crazy little man and his impossible dream and where it has gone, and what it has become. And after Fred, Alan, and of course Mary. I don't understand how they open up the streets of New York on Sunday morning and keep them open for this race. I think it's a miracle. It's certainly an incredible spectacle that's enthralling to the entire world, and has spawned a world of similar movements.
So what began in New York has spread across the world and done great good for all of us.
So thank you very much, New York Road Runners for sponsoring this award. Thank you, George, for everything you have given me. Thank you all of you for being here this morning.

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