Amby Burfoot has been running and writing since his junior year in high school in 1962, when he edited the school newspaper and joined the cross-country team coached by US running legend John J. Kelley. A little more than a year later, Burfoot won the Connecticut State 2-mile championship and was accepted by Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. There he was undefeated during four years of dual-meet cross-country races, and he won the Boston Marathon his senior year, 1968. In December of that year, he ran his best marathon, a 2:14:29, in Fukuoka, Japan.
In 1978, after teaching public school and serving in the US Peace Corps in El Salvador, he was recruited by Runner’s World, where he has continued to work in one capacity or another to the present. He has won numerous journalism awards, including those from the Road Runners Club of America, Running USA, and the New York City Marathon, and has written or coauthored a half-dozen books including Runner’s World Complete Book of Running, The Runner’s Guide to the Meaning of Life, and First Ladies of Running: 22 Inspiring Profiles of the Rebels, Rule Breakers, and Visionaries Who Changed the Sport Forever, about the pioneer women runners of the 1960s and 1970s.
Burfoot has run more than 110,000 total miles in his life, and is known for his fifty-five consecutive finishes in the Manchester Road Race, a 5-mile race held each Thanksgiving Day in Manchester, Connecticut. He’s won the race nine times. He also curates the website www.100kLifetimeMiles.com, which features runners who have covered more than 100,000 miles and made a commitment to lifelong running and fitness.
Burfoot lives in Mystic, Connecticut, near where he grew up, with his editor-writer wife, Cristina Negrón, who has completed fourteen marathons and engages in weekly running, yoga, and strength training. He has two adult children: Daniel, a big-data scientist, and Laura, a community organizer. Both are casual fitness runners. He and his wife also have two cats. Neither runs.