‘Amby’ still a legend after 50 years
It was on Friday, April 19, 1968 that a lanky, bestacled Ambrose “Amby” Burfoot raced into Boston Marathon lore, pulling away in the closing miles from U.S. Marine William Clark to cross the line first with a time of 2:22:17, and a victory margin of 32 seconds.
Clark was no slouch as he had set a course record of 2:24:23 at Philadelphia four months earlier. Less than a month before the Boston race, Clark was the top U.S. finisher at the International Cross Country race in Tunisia.
On the day he captured the laurel wreath, Burfoot wore a painter cap, his Wesleyan College singlet and his customary black-rimmed eyeglasses.
The race featured a strong Mexican contingent with Alfredo Penaloza, Pablo Garrido Lugo and Jose Garcia Gaspar placing third, fourth and seventh, respectively, on the sun-splashed 72-degree afternoon.
Burfoot became the first American men’s champ at Boston in 11 years. Coincidentally, the last U.S. man to accomplish the feat was his school coach at Fitch High in New London, Conn., Johnny “The Younger” Kelley. When Kelley won in 1967, he was the first American man to win since John A. “The Elder” Kelley in 1945. It provided a fitting macadam passing from Kelley to Kelley to Burfoot.
“It was fun to run in those days. We were spaced out along the course a little bit and people would actually be able to see our numbers, not like today when 1,000 runners go flying by, and, of course, the Boston spectators were absolutely great,” said Burfoot. “But, I recall every moment. There were two crucial points. I’ll probably extend that out too much (laugh), but I was very fit. It was the best I felt in my life in a road race. There was a pack of about a dozen runners and I felt like I was jogging. I did a little surge. I thought maybe I could drop one or two runners. I dropped the entire field except for one runner (Bill Clark).”
“That was a horrifying feeling to have in a race. It was suddenly man-o-man. One of us was going to win and run into history and the other was going to finish second and probably be forgotten, sadly,” Burfoot said. “But, I knew Bill and he was a great runner. He was a miler, a much faster runner than I was, so that meant I had to push. I pushed and pushed and I couldn’t get away. We got to the top of Heartbreak Hill and I sagged for a stride or two. But, we didn’t know about the downhills back then like we do today and Bill cramped on the downhill.”
Now 71, Burfoot had first come to run Boston in 1965 and was driven to the start by his dad. The erudite Burfoot recalled his first glimpse of the Hopkinton Town Green and the adjacent Hayden Row where the race started back then. Burfoot has written a new book titled “Run Forever,” which shares his fundamental approach to running with greater joy and enhanced health.
“It looked like a quintessential New England town,” Burfoot told this reporter in an interview four years ago. “There was a bit of snow on the rooftops and the crocuses and forsythia were starting to bloom and there was old Johnny Kelley doing a warmup in his Harvard sweatshirt as he was wont to do in those days. Then we spotted three Japanese runners in their sparkling white uniforms ... I said, ‘Oh, my God, this is the race I’ve always wanted to run.’ ”
Burfoot typically runs the marathon at five-year intervals. But he chose to run in 2014 for the MR8 Team. Burfoot carries the history of the race within his soul, but in 2014 he passed out thank-you cards to fans along the route.
Each card was signed: Amby Burfoot, 1968 Boston Marathon winner.