Running Legend Amby Burfoot At 80: 'I Consider Manchester My most Important Race Every Year'

MANCHESTER, CT — Running legend Amby Burfoot turned 80 last week and it still going strong. He also still considers his stops at the Manchester Road Race every Thanksgiving a big part of it all.

Burfoot, a longtime Mystic resident, won Manchester nine times. He said it ranks up there with any accomplishment, even after winning the Boston Marathon in 1968, when he was a senior at Wesleyan University

"I consider Manchester my most important race every year — more so than the Boston Marathon," he said in a conversation with Patch this week.

He continued, "There's only one race where I began my road running career as a high schooler in 1963, and where I return every year."

The nine Turkey Day wins made up a good percentage.

"I ran about 10 times as a top competitor, and now have completed another 50-plus as a regular mid-packer like everyone else. Manchester is a tradition and a reunion rolled into one, and the townsfolk who turn out to cheer us have been the best in the world for as long as the race has been held. When I chug under the Manchester finish-line banner every Thanksgiving Day, I know that it's been a good year for sure."

Burfoot had authored several books on running and was the longtime Executive Editor of "Runner's World." Burfoot has been one of the strongest editorial voices the sport has even seen.

He has written not only about elite running, but topics designed for the everyday runners — training, health, aging, running culture and the science of endurance exercise, often adding personal experience to the. prose.

He is certainly a welcome celebrity in Manchester.

Said longtime Manchester Road Race Official Richard Dyer, "Amby Burfoot is an icon in the history of the Manchester Road Race. Not only did he win an unprecedented nine championships, but he has run in the race 63 consecutive years and is expected to do so for the 64th straight time this November. Amby running here on Thanksgiving Day is as much of a tradition as turkey and pumpkin pie."

So will the pie ever get stale?

Let a birthday social media post from Burfoot himself answer that.

"The day before my 80th birthday last week, I finished third in the 70-79 division of a local 5K at about a 9:15 pace. The day of my birthday, Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers raced around the yard in an egg race. The next day, I ran a Danbury 5K with my wife (12:00 pace) in a torrential downpour and won the 80+ division. I think I'm going to like this new age group."