Since the city of Boston is celebrating this weekend, I though this post was appropriate!
Even after all the fun at the expo, the dinners, and the races, my favorite part of the Runner's World Weekend was listening to Dave McGillivray Speak.
I admit that before April of 2013, I didn't know who Dave McGillivray was. My sister ran the Boston marathon that April, so I quickly became acquainted with the name. He spoke at a race I was at in Williamsburg, VA this summer and then was the keynote speaker at the Runner's World Festival I had just attended in October.
I was super impressed with everything Mr. McGilvery had to say and I wanted to share some of that with you. I in no way could ever reiterate his life story they way he did to us, so I am just going to list some fun and interesting facts he shared with us.
On every birthday, he will run the number miles as his age. So on his 59th birthday, he ran 59 miles! ( this tradition started when he was a teenager and he plans to continue it as long as he can)
Every year he runs the Boston Marathon at night. He waits until the race day is over and then he runs his own marathon!
Dave always wanted to be an athlete, but at only 5ft 4in, he was always picked last in school sports. He cut got from the b-ball team.
He participated in his first Boston Marathon at age 17 ( the legal age you had to be was 18). He went down at the Newton hills and ended up in the hospital. His grandfather waited for Dave to finish, but he never did.
His grandfather told him to keep training and run the marathon again the next year. His grandfather died two months later, but Dave trained and ran Boston again. He dropped out of the race again and did not finish.
The third time Dave ran the Boston Marathon he finished
1978 Dave ran from Medford, Oregon to Medford, Massachusetts to raise money for the Jimmy Fund. It took him 80 days to run from coast to coast. ( He claims he was the original Forrest Gump) :)
1988 was his first year as race director.
He once ran the Boston Marathon blind folded and he still finished in 3 hours and 14 minutes!
At one point in the presentation he asked how many of us HAVE ran a marathon. He then asked how many of us WANT to run a marathon. He than chose one young lady in the audience that had her hand up. She came up on stage and he gave her a medal. On the medal it said "One day I will earn my own medal" Dave told her that when she earns her own marathon medal, that she will need to send this medal back to him. He informed us that that particular medal has been passed around more than 100 times. Talk about accountability! Isn't that cool? This lady now has the support of Dave McGillivray!
I haven't even began to touch upon the many accomplishments Dave has had in his lifetime already, but if you were to ask him what his greatest one is he would say " My greatest accomplishment is always my next one".
I am so glad that Dave was our keynote speaker for the weekend!
Have you ever listened to a speaker that you thought was so inspiring?
