Stay ConnectedThe first ever Boston Marathon podcast, presented by the Boston Athletic Association and media partner WBZ-TV.
We invite you to join us as we bring you stories, the people, and the issues, that make the Marathon what it is, both today and through history – in Boston and around the world.
In the world of running, Dave McGillivray has covered a lot of ground, from running a shoe store, to training with world class athletes, and now serving as the Boston Marathon race director. He's also run across the United States twice, and has run more than 150 marathons and "about" 150,000 miles in his life.
Now, as leader of Dave McGillivray Sports Enterprises, he leads many races around the country, and is always looking for his next accomplishment. Though it all, there is the matter of being a husband and the father of five - a role he cherishes deeply, and especially in the wake of a health scare. Dave dishes on all these roles, decades of running tales, and whether he continues to believe, as he has often been heard to say, that sleep is overrated.
In the 1960’s, the word 'pioneer' sounded romantic to Sara Mae Berman. Little did she know at the time that pioneering would become part of her legacy. As one of the first women to run long distances, and the second woman to win the Boston Marathon, Berman won in 1969, 1970, and 1971. Her accomplishments paved the way for Berman’s long road for women’s advocacy and inclusion in sports, and for tens of thousands of women who have run the Boston Marathon since. Along with Bobbi Gibb and Kathrine Switzer, Sara Mae Berman was at the forefront of women’s marathoning. Now 81, she’s holding a high pace of daily activities and in sport.
Jack Fultz, born in Northwestern Pennsylvania as the sixth of seven children, grew his running career through high school, the University of Arizona, the Coast Guard, and Georgetown. In an attempt to qualify for the 1976 Olympic Trials, Fultz needed a sub-2:20 marathon performance in Boston to hit the standard. As he arrived in Hopkinton on Patriots’ Day 1976, the mercury reached to 100 degrees. In what’s famously remembered as “the run for the hoses”, Fultz picked off one opponent at a time, grabbed whatever water the spectators put out along the course, and prevailed to win. He sits down with B.A.A. CEO Tom Grilk to talk about his 1976 victory, and his other Boston appearances through the 1970s.
A four-time champion of the Boston and New York City Marathons, Bill Rodgers is a global ambassador for the sport, and, now 70, is still tackling road races near and far. Among other roles, he's an ambassador for John Hancock at each Boston Marathon, and can be found bounding around the city each year around the race.
After his collegiate running days at Wesleyan University, Rodgers moved to Boston, worked in a hospital, and his running ambitions diminished.
He dropped out of the first Boston Marathon he ran in 1973, he finished 14th in 1974, and had his first running breakthrough in March of 1975, when he earned a bronze medal in the World Cross Country Championships in Rabat, Morocco.
While racing the Boston Marathon in April of 1975, his shoelace became untied while leading the race in Newton. He went to a knee and laced up, and when he started up again he never looked back, winning in 2:09:55. With the performance, Rodgers set a personal best by about ten minutes, a new Course Record, new American Record, and began a legendary running career.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
