The 1968 Boston Marathon winner, Amby Burfoot, is the Road Runner Akron Marathon's Ambassador Award winner for his contributions to running -- a sport he's still championing at age 64.
AKRON, Ohio -- For the first time in his life, Amby Burfoot isn't speeding past everyone else on his training runs.
He's slow and plodding. He's starting to resemble other 64-year-old runners in the kind of distance races he competes in, like Sunday's Road Runner Akron Marathon, where he'll receive the race's Ambassador Award.
When he ran 20 miles with his wife and son last week, for instance, he logged 12-minute miles.
"It was the slowest 20 miles of my life," Burfoot said.
But the point is that he's still running. About three months after knee surgery to repair torn cartilage in his knee -- the first injury that's required surgery in more than 40 years of competitive running -- Burfoot is happy to be still churning his legs.
The fact that 1968 Boston Marathon winner is happy running a pace that's more than twice as slow as the best effort he put forth in 26.2 miles -- when he recorded 2:14.19 in a 1968 Japan race -- says something about his devotion to running and his belief that everyone can benefit from running at any age.
"The important thing is that people are out there running and trying to get in shape," Burfoot said. "I'm moving forward slowly and continuously."
Burfoot is part of one of the largest growing groups of runners -- those over age 40. That group has become so large and competitive that the Boston Marathon this year placed additional race numbers on the backs of top runners in the masters age groups so they could be easily identified by age-group title contenders.
Burfoot has had to adjust his expectations of late while he recovers from his injury, but the runner turned writer/editor for Runner's World isn't giving up the sport he feels he was "born to do."
"We all have to be good students of our own bodies to know what works individually," he said of the adjustments he's made to accept his slower pace.
He's working on bettering his running, making small adjustments to get back to the runner he once was, in advance of the Athens Marathon, which he plans to run with his wife, son, brother and brother-in-law on Oct. 31.
After all, Burfoot is a firm believer in his sport and in championing the benefits of running for all. He estimates he's logged about 103,000 miles in his running career.
"Lifetime running is what I increasingly believe in," he said.
It's something the medical community supports, too. A Stanford study released in 2008 found that runners delayed disability and lived longer than non-running counterparts. Out of 538 runners over the age of 50 that Stanford began following in 1984, about 15 percent died after 19 years. In a similar group of non-runners, 34 percent died.
Burfoot might be slower than he once was, but like an increasing number of competitive runners his age, he's still running. He's learned to accept he'll no longer win the Boston Marathon, but regardless, he's going to keep competing.
"I didn't need knee surgery to know I'm mortal," Burfoot said. "Running does that to you very quickly, it reminds you of your mortality. I'm simply determined to get back to where my fitness was before the surgery."