Jeff Galloway - Olympian

Olympian

Galloway, along with his Florida Track Club teammates, Shorter and Bacheler, made the 1972 U.S. Olympic team, Galloway in the 10K, Bacheler in the marathon, and Shorter in both events. The three spent two months in the mountains near Vail, Colorado, conditioning themselves for the Olympics. According to noted runner and journalist, Joe Henderson, Galloway "should have been an Olympic marathoner", but is sometimes said to have given up his shot at a spot in the longer event to help his friend, Bacheler, to make the 1972 team, although some Olympians, including Steve Prefontaine and Frank Shorter have claimed otherwise. At a meeting of the Florida Track Club held in Gainesville on October 19, 2010, Galloway personally recounted how he had arranged to help pace his friend and training partner Bacheler and eased off only at the finish for the marathon trials. This after the latter had narrowly missed out qualifying in the 10,000m trials a week earlier. He also stated that this remained the single most memorable experience of his long running career.

In 1973, Galloway set an American ten-mile road race record, posting a time of 47:49. He was a member of the U.S. National Track and Field team in Europe, Russia and Africa. In the mid-1970s, he altered his training program to emphasize more rest and less weekly mileage, coupled with a long run every other week — a model that has worked successfully for amateurs and first-time marathon runners since then. The strategy helped extend his competitive career, and at age 35 he ran the Houston-Tenneco Marathon in 2:16:35. Other marks included 27:21 for six miles and 28:29 for the ten kilometer event.