Competition
Amby Burfoot grew up in Groton, Connecticut, where he started running at Fitch Senior High School. His high school coach, John J. Kelley (The "Younger") was the 1957 Boston Marathon winner and two-time U.S. Olympic marathoner (1956 and 1960 Olympics,) and his influence led Burfoot to take up the marathon while still a collegian. In his senior year at Wesleyan University, where Burfoot was the roommate and teammate of Bill Rodgers, Burfoot won the Boston Marathon, but an injury caused by running a steeplechase race in a collegiate track meet later that spring prevented him from being fully prepared for that year's Olympic Trials marathon.
Burfoot's influence on Rodgers, who later went on to win the Boston Marathon four times, provided a link in a four-athlete Boston tradition starting with John A. Kelley (The "Elder") and continuing through John J. Kelley and Burfoot to Rodgers.
In the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan in December 1968, Burfoot ran a personal best time of 2:14:28.8, which was only one second from the American marathon record at the time.
At his 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 2012, Burfoot had run the Manchester Road Race 50 times in a row tying the streak of Charlie "Doc" Robbins. In the process Amby won Manchester nine times. Burfoot also continues to run the Boston Marathon at five-year intervals, marking his 1968 win. As of Thanksgiving 2012, Amby plans on running the 2013 Boston Marathon.
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