Who had the better career: Amby Burfoot or Jerome Drayton?

I'd say Drayton. He was much faster, won Fukuoka 3 times,2nd at Commonwealth Games, ran faster than Amby's best at least 4 times and older than Amby by a year and a half yet was still able to win Boston in '77 when Amby was no where to be seen. Plus the shades, man..

Drayton: excellent stache.

Canada's greatest runner ever.

Is this a trick question?

Burfoot was a slow Boston winner and not very fast in any other races either.

Drayton by a mile.

Drayton was also much better at throwing temper tantrums after races.

Look up how many titles that Amby has at the Manchester Road Race. Then get back to me.

i demand answers wrote:

Look up how many titles that Amby has at the Manchester Road Race. Then get back to me.

You asked about their running careers, not their careers in Connecticut turkey trot races.

From 1969 through 1977, Jerome Drayton was one of the top marathoners in the world, which is an area that includes Connecticut as well as several other states. He was also the world record holder over ten miles. As a side note, he was also the fastest North American over a record-quality marathon course, ahead of U.S. runners like Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and even Amby Burfoot.

During that same period, Amby Burfoot was one of the top road racers in New England, which also includes Connecticut and several other states, but is somewhat smaller than the world. Unlike Drayton, who was the top-ranked marathoner in the world in 1969 and second-ranked in 1975 and 1977, Burfoot was never ranked among the top runners in the world in any event.

i demand answers wrote:

Look up how many titles that Amby has at the Manchester Road Race. Then get back to me.

Each won Boston. Drayton's PR, run in essentially the same era, is about four minutes faster. He won Fukuoka three times. Burfoot ran at Fukuoka once. Drayton was sixth in an Olympic marathon. Burfoot never made an Olympic team.

No disrespect to Amby here, those Manchester wins are impressive, but echoing Avocado, are you really serious?

I'm amazed that Jermoe Drayton still holds the Canadian national record in the marathon at 2:10:09 set in December 1975. Something for Cam Levins to shoot for 5-6 years down the line?

I agree. Amby is one of my running heroes, but Drayton had the better career by far. Really far.

In addition to the better PR, olympic appearances and higher world rankings there is this: From the mid 60s through the late 70s, Fukuoka was the defacto world championship of marathoning. Drayton won it 3 times. He won San Blas, he won Sprin Bank multiple times... he was spoken of in the same breath as Rodgers and Shorter back then.

The Big Three of road racing prior to Shorter were Derek Clayton, Ron Hill and Drayton. Drayton was the only one still running championship races ('76 Olympics and '78 Commonwealth Games) after 1974.

Drayton is the Canadian GOAT.

But... he was born in Germany and lived there for something like 14 years. So, my question is: On the Canadian version of Letsrun.com, do posters recognize his Canadian National Records as "real"?

Is he like the Canuck version of Lagat?

Like others have said, much respect for Amby and his accomplishments, but this isn't close. Drayton by a large amount. If you take their PR's, its 4 min difference right? at that pace that's around 0.8 miles. So Drayton by 0.8 miles.

I'll swim upstream here and go with Amby. That dude was the ballz.

Burfoot once missed the AR by one second, running 2:14 and change at Fukuoka.

But yeah, Drayton had the better career.

Amby Burfoot made Bill Rodgers into a legend.

Drayton never created an iconic Canadian running god.

Since I judge a career on legacy rather than personal accomplishment, I give the nod to AMBY!

So who is the iconic born-in-Canada runner god? Longboat, Kidd, Carothers?

There isn't one.

Gerard Cote.

He only won Boston 4 times.

Johnny Miles made his mark as well.