Sample From 1957 Training Log Of John J. Kelley, 1957 Boston Marathon Winner

Thanks!

Great stuff, thanks for posting!

Would love to see more weeks on this thread, if you have the time to post them.

For those (like me) that don't know their Boston Marathon & running history well enough (from Wikipedia):

John Joseph Kelley (December 24, 1930 – August 21, 2011) was the winner of the 1957 Boston Marathon and the marathon at the 1959 Pan American Games[1] and a member of two United States Olympic Marathon teams. He was often dubbed John "The Younger" to avoid confusion with Johnny "The Elder" Kelley, the winner of the 1935 and 1945 Boston Marathons. The two men were not related.

Career Summary:

Kelley was born in Norwich, Connecticut. He began racing in marathons during his college years. From 1950-54, he attended Boston University, located about a mile from the Boston Marathon finish line. While there, he excelled in team races and would run his first two Boston Marathons, in 1953 and 1954. He finished fifth in the 1953 race before following up with a 7th place finish the next year. After graduating, he finished 2nd in the 1956 Boston Marathon and made his way onto the U.S. Olympic Marathon team which competed in Melbourne, Australia during the same year. He would go on to win the Boston Marathon outright in 1957 while setting a new course record on the remeasured course.

After his win at Boston, Kelley would win several other marathons, including eight consecutive wins of the Yonkers Marathon in Yonkers, New York.[2] As a result of his record setting performance at Yonkers in 1960, he again found his way onto the U.S. Olympic Marathon team and competed in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He placed 21st and 19th in the Melbourne and Rome Olympic marathons, respectively.

Boston Marathons ('53-'64):

1953 2:28:19 5th

1954 2:28:51 7th

1956 2:14:33 2nd

1957 2:20:05 1st

1958 2:30:51 2nd

1959 2:23:43 2nd

1960 DNF

1961 2:23:54 2nd

1962 2:28:37 4th

1963 2:21:09 2nd

1964 2:27:23 7th

*1984 2:58:35 (last time breaking 3 hours at Boston, at age 53)

Later Years:

After his career as a runner ended, he went on to a successful career as high school running coach. At Fitch High School in Groton, Connecticut, Kelley coached Amby Burfoot, winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon. In addition to coaching, he found work over the years as a newspaper columnist, free lance writer, cab driver and running wear store co-owner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._Kelley

Great stuff--thanks so much. I would love to see the week with the greatest volume, and the week with the greatest intensity.

A little more history:

http://www.runningpast.com/johnj.htm

1957 Boston Marathon Champion. U.S. National Marathon Champion eight straight times, 1956-1963. Two time Olympian. (1956 &1960) Five second place finishes at Boston. Pan American Games Marathon Champion in 1959.

Johnny attended Bulkeley High School in New London, CT where, after running a national record 4:21.8 mile his senior year, he was named top schoolboy miler in the country. As a freshman at Boston University in 1950, in seven cross-country meets he was undefeated and smashed five course records.

As Jock Semple wrote in his book, Just Call Me Jock :

"It was a long road from our marathons in the 1930's to Shorter's Olympic win in 1972, but I look at Johnny's 1957 Boston run as the pivotal event for the American marathon. I see 1957 as the halfway point; Johnny took a stone and placed it down, so that Shorter and Rodgers could spring off it. I'm happy to have held the blanket.

Young John should be given more credit for creating the line of college runners in America that starts with himself and goes right up through Buddy Edelen to Amby Burfoot, Kenny Moore, Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Craig Virgin and all the rest yet to come. Before Johnny there was none of that. There were only us 'plodders'."

In the Melbourne Games of 1956, John led the marathon for the first 12 miles. Suffering in the 85 degree heat, he finished 21st in 2:43:40.

How many years of logs do you have?

If you have it, I would also be interested in seeing a typical week during his high school years... maybe something from his senior year.

Thanks!!

This is great! I'd love to see his training leading up to his 2:20 win in the 1960 Yonkers Marathon. Also, I'd buy the book if you could publish these logs!

to the OP: Cool, Thanks

John was my high school coach back in the '70s. He let some of the XC team go through his training logs at one time; I remember seeing a 50 X 440y workout he did while at BU - don't remember how fast the quarters were, but I think he did 440 jogs for recovery. If so, that's 25 miles on the track in single workout! Emil Zatopek, who famously did a 50X440, was someone he greatly admired.

Please tell your mom that "Kevin O" says "hi."

Thanks for Posting,

Whats 'Jamie' and 'Bill' stand for? I am from the area and a quick google search shows no roads with that name in Groton. Was he running from the same house he lived in where the New Years run originated?

Also, was that Shennecossett golf course or were there other woods in the area with the same name?

Ran 4:21 as a senior and popped out a 2:14:33 when he was 24.

Damn.

#YOBRO wrote:

Ran 4:21 as a senior and popped out a 2:14:33 when he was 24.

Damn.

To be clear, that 2:14 was done before the Boston course had been remeasured. Construction and road changes from the 1930's to 1956 actually shortened the course by about 3/4 mile. Still, he ran 2:20 at a time when the world record was only 2:17(?).

I thought that 2:14 was a little suspect. Still a super impressive runner.

Also, his 4:21 was essentially within 20 seconds of the then WR (or 1500 eq), so quite respectable when you transpose the margin to current day.