The global running community lost its number one ambassador with the death of Jeff Galloway, 80, last month in Pensacola, Florida, from complications of a recent stroke.
And I lost my favourite training partner. Jeff and I ran together every day for three years as college students at Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT) in the mid 1960s.
Four-time Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon winner Bill Rodgers also ran with Galloway at Wesleyan. “Jeff was like this powerful southern preacher of running,” he said. “I can’t think of another Olympic runner who downshifted the way Jeff did so he could reach so many average people.”
Galloway was like a ship’s captain–steady, steady, steady. The first time I saw his running log, I was stunned. Whereas I kept my weekly mileage totals in a thin mini-notebook, Jeff kept his in a literal captain’s log—hard covered and big as a coffee-table photo book.
This was a runner who took his workouts seriously and believed they should be duly recorded.
Galloway’s intent and discipline eventually led to an Olympic team berth in 1972 and a marathon PR of 2:16:36.
This is not how he will be remembered, however. Tens of thousands of would-be runners in the U.S. and beyond heard Jeff speak at marathon clinics and small, retail runner gatherings. He had a simple message for them.
You don’t have to aim for the Olympics or a Boston Marathon qualifying time. You can change your life, improving it dramatically, by adopting a run-walk-run approach for your fitness goals.
Don’t measure yourself against others. Just take a few strides forward from where you are today. The mental and physical benefits will soon be apparent to you.
I met many Galloway runners, also called fans of “Jeffing,” at the Honolulu Marathon in December. He was supposed to be there to run a marathon in the eighth consecutive decade of his life. Unfortunately, he suffered a knee injury and couldn’t make the trip.
I have always supported mid-pack runners but hadn’t met a lot at the back of the mid-pack. In Honolulu, I did. At the celebration party many Galloway runners finished in 7 hours, give or take 30 minutes. I expected to hear tales of misery.
That isn’t what I found. Almost all seemed pleased and excited with their day’s efforts. I was particularly struck by one woman
in her 70s who had run the entire marathon with a Holter monitor due to her recent heart problems.
The monitor didn’t survive the wind and rain. The runner did. She just kept plugging along even after she realized her heart-protection device had shorted out.
Jeff had that kind of effect on people. He made them believers.
Chris Twiggs, the chief training officer at Galloway Training Programs, remembers a trip to Beijing, China, with Galloway. “Jeff was celebrated as a hero there,” Twiggs said. “All the runners wore shirts with Jeff’s face on them.”
Anyone who ever spoke with Jeff recalls the Galloway stare that it was almost frightening.
“He was fully invested in every conversation. He would spend as much time as possible with every individual, looking straight in their eyes and deep in their soul, listening, and letting them know he believed in them.”
Jeff Galloway was an educator, too. He saw that the emphasis on elite runner performance and training wasn’t helpful to typical recreational runners. So, he also started a new school.
Few if any have called it “The Galloway School of Running” but that’s essentially what it was.
And it graduated more healthy, happy runners than any other running program I have known.
There can be no greater legacy than this.
This article is edited for length and reprinted with permission from Marathon Handbook – www.marathonhandbook.com
Photography: Galloway Digital
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