Remembering Jeff Galloway: A Tribute to a Running Pioneer and Mentor

On Sunday morning, I was asked to be one of a handful of speakers at Jeff Galloway’s memorial service in Atlanta. We were encouraged to dress in a somewhat appropriate and runnerly way, so I wore a Wesleyan University singlet and a painter’s cap. Here’s what I said to an auditorium of Jeff’s family, friends, and fans.

In September, 1964, I walked onto the campus at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, as an incoming student. I was 18, a freshman, naive and unsophisticated. I knew only one thing for sure about tiny Wesleyan: I wouldn’t be meeting anyone as marathon-crazed as I was. After all, in the mid-1960s, there were few marathoners anywhere, and certainly no teenage collegians.

I gained my passion for running from my high school cross-country coach. He was America’s best distance runner for a decade, a Boston Marathon winner, and a two-time Olympic Marathon participant. More importantly, he was mercurial, chaotic, creative, forward-thinking, and brilliant beyond any measure. His name was John J. Kelley. I fell in love.

Much to my surprise, lightning struck me again at Wesleyan. The good lightning. I met a sophomore named Jeff Galloway from Atlanta who was as excited about running and the marathon as I was. Jeff was the polar opposite of Kelley’s mercurial and chaotic; he was strong and steady. He was also creative, forward-thinking, and brilliant. 

Brush teeth, run with Jeff

I like to say we ran a million miles together. Sure, I exaggerate. But we were so tight, so connected. We ran together almost every day for three years. Brush teeth, run with Jeff.

I can’t say for sure that we were the perfect team or a dream team. But let me tell you: After a few years, we got pretty darn good. Those were halcyon days, days of miracle and wonder, and we cherished every one of them.

There is no way I can fully explain how much those million miles with Jeff meant to me at that stage of my life. They meant everything. We all need role models and training partners. Jeff Galloway was mine.

I consider myself the second luckiest person I know — to have had John Kelley and Jeff Galloway as mentors.

A brief tangent here. Last Monday I ran the Boston Marathon… with Jeff at my side the whole way. And thanks to Jeff, I achieved something I had never before managed at Boston, and I have quite a long history there. I ran negative splits! I did it, of course, with a run-walk-run strategy.

Finding your gift and giving it away

I believe that Jeff himself was the luckiest person I have ever known. Why? Pablo Picasso had an explanation. He said, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”

Well, Jeff Galloway found his gift, meaning, and purpose relatively early in his life. And boy, did he ever give it away. For decade after decade after decade.

Jeff ministered to the runners that everyone else overlooked. He counseled them, one at a time, mile by mile, with his easy smile, soothing words, and that transfixing gaze of his.

Jeff Galloway changed people’s lives for the better. Thousands? Tens of thousands? More? We don’t know. But we do know for certain that he changed lives and made the world a fitter, healthier place.

Best of all, I don’t think it took a lot of effort on Jeff’s part to produce so many miracles. I believe it came easily to him because he was simply living the life he was born to live. No one can do more than that. We should all aim so high.

It’s not possible to sum up a life like Jeff Galloway’s in just a few words. But Shakespeare came close when we wrote:

“His life was gentle; and the Elements

So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world, ‘This was a man!’ ”

This was a man.