He Ran 165,000 Miles. Then He Needed a Triple Bypass.

Get Nowhere to Hide, my weekly letter about doing the uncomfortable: kenrideout.link/newsletter

Dave McGillivray was 23 when he ran into Fenway Park on August 29, 1978 in front of 32,000 people. He had just run 3,452 miles from Medford, Oregon to Medford, Massachusetts, 45 to 50 miles a day for 80 straight days, raising money for the Jimmy Fund. His mother mailed chocolate chip cookies to post office boxes along the route. That was his PowerBar. I grew up next door in Somerville and remember it as a kid.

He was the smallest kid on every team, the last pick, until he figured out that nobody can cut you from running. He has run every Boston Marathon since 1973, 54 in a row. For 36 of those years he worked the race all day, then went back to Hopkinton and ran it at night as the last finisher. He has directed or consulted on 1,400 events, run 175 marathons and logged 165,000 miles.

Then one day he could not catch his breath on a run. He ignored it for months. The angiogram showed severe coronary artery disease, and he told the doctor to zip it up and not tell anyone. He changed everything, cut his cholesterol by 100 points and reversed the disease by over 30 percent. It came back anyway. In October 2018 he had open heart triple bypass surgery. Six months later he ran Boston.

This week I sat down with Dave to talk about the grandfather who waited for him at mile 24, the day he sat down at mile 21 and looked up at his grandfather’s grave, standing on the start line in 2013 when the call came that two bombs had gone off at the finish, Little Katie’s 26.2 foot marathon, and why just because you are fit does not mean you are healthy.

He is 72 and already planning his 55th Boston in April. One of the great Bostonians. Hope you guys enjoy this one.

Follow Dave: @dmsedave

His book: The Last Pick