About 125 people showed up but the thing is, I quite literally ran with Amby the 3+ miles. It just kind of happened as they sent people off with groups based on minute miles. I left with the 7-8 minute mile group and later saw Amby was running right behind me. It is tough to run with a group on sidewalks but the entire time I found myself focused on him. I had no idea who this guy was, other than the brief intro in the email I read, and all I knew was that if I was a runner this guy was cool.
First, Amby Burfoot is the Editor-at-Large for Runner's World magazine. So, if this was Project Runaway, he would be Nina Garcia, Bill Bowerman would be Michael Kors, and Hidei Klum would stay aboard.
Seriously, I had no idea who Amby Burfoot was. The situation makes me think of Mitch Hedberg's joke about meeting someone famous without knowing their body of work, "I did a movie with Peter Frampton. He's a musical genius, but I don't listen to his stuff. So I had to continuously try to draw attention away from the fact. Hey Frampton! Do you like toast too!? As do I. It is warm and crispy and the perfect place for jelly to lay. Now stay away from me Frampton, I ain't got nothing else to say to you!"
So, there I was running with a legend. I asked him if he had always been just a runner or if he had played other sports. The wiry 60+ year old scruffy bearded runner said he had enjoyed and been good at both baseball and basketball, but had had an accomplished running coach in high school who ultimately made a big impact on his life. We talked and eventually I asked him how good he was at his peak. "Well, I won the Boston Marathon," he said. To which I was thinking, "Wow. I should have just asked if he liked toast too."
The run became fascinating. He told me the story. He was running in the lead pack and about half way made a break for it. He said it was him and one other guy. He knew the guy, and the guy knew him. "And we both knew he was going to beat me," he said. They were running together and then after Heartbreak Hill the other guy started to cramp up and Amby Burfoot went on to win. The interesting part was he told the story like he always knew it was a second place medal. It would be difficult to have a victory where you felt like you were only the best by default, that you didn't 'win,' the other guy lost. Either way, still amazing. Later, after the run at Luke's Locker, in his address to the crowd he mentioned he was a former Boston Marathon winner, to which those, like me previously, were wowed. He didn't mention how the race went down and to those people he might seem less human as a runner.
I asked him if it felt fast, if running a 2:14 marathon felt like lightning. He said it really didn't because you are just running with the pack. The thing about that is the pack he ran with you really only see their backs, at the starting line. I talked about how I wanted to break a 4 hour marathon. He said he was in about 3:15 marathon shape and that I was barely breathing. Easy for him to say. I told him it was easier to run a 10 minute mile than a 6 minute mile. He later talked about when a researcher asked him to come into a lab and test out a product called "Gatorade." He said the original version, designed specifically for Florida's football program and "300 pound, out of shape football players," tasted like drinking the Pacific Ocean.
I asked him if he ever got into ultra marathons. He said a little and that people can really confuse an ultra as being just a couple miles more than a marathon. He said that is a mistake. And then I told him I was doing the Sunmart 50K this weekend. I wondered if he had somehow already known that and when he had said "people" I wondered if he meant ME.
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