Dave McGillivray

I decided to run a marathon when I was 16 without any training and ended up dropping out. My grandfather told me that I had to train for it if I wanted to do it again. Two months later, he died and I trained hard for the following year's race. On the day before the race, I got sick but ran anyway to honor my grandfather's memory. Despite feeling sick, I finished the race in four and a half hours and have since gone on to run 165 marathons in total.
 
Transcript: "Hi, it's Dave. And the question was, what's the story behind my first marathon when I was 16? Well, I had just decided to wake up that morning and run in the race. I was a senior in high school and I called my grandfather up and I said, hey I'm going to run that race in Boston and he's headed meet me at the 24 Mile Mark, which is near where he lived. So my brother drove me out to the start and I took off course not having Trained it all and I got to the hills and Newton and Bam down. I went dropped out about 20 miles and got taken to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital on the ambulance, and when I got home, I called my grandfather and I apologized to him that I didn't make it and he said, well, he said you learned that I said what I learned. He said you learned, you can not go along in life and set Reckless goals. You had no business being in that race. So I said, yeah, you're right. He says, I'll cut another deal. I'm with you and I said what he said, you trained for it next year. I'll be I'll be here waiting for you. I said, okay, fine and two months later, he died and I train like the Dickens, for the 1973 Boston Marathon. And a day before the race, I got sick. And my parents said you can't run and I said have to run the newspapers for saying day. Running a memory of grandfather and so they drove me out to the start and I took off and I was so sick that right around 21.5 I dropped out again and I had my head. My hands looking around and I couldn't believe I dropped out two years and a lot are in a row and I turned around and defining moment happen in my life. And when I turned around, I saw the Evergreen Cemetery and that's where my grandfather was buried. And that son-of-a-gun said, he'd be there waiting for me and he was spiritually, not physically. I saw his Tombstone and I said if he could keep his end of the deal, I have to keep buying the deal and I picked myself up and finished in four and a half hours. And I said to myself on that day in April 1973, I was going to run this race every year for the rest of my life and honor and tribute to the lesson. My grandfather taught me about earning the right to do these things, and I've run it for the last 50 years in a row. So that's the story about my very first marathon. It's the only one I ever dropped out at run 165 of them and that was the only one I dropped out lesson, learned, take care."

I have been running my age on my birthday every year for the past 56 years. At first I would run 12 miles for my 12th birthday, but after I had open-heart surgery four years ago, I started to run a marathon and bike the rest of the miles to equal my age.
 
Transcript: "On my 12th birthday. I woke up that morning and I did a 6-mile run around a pond near where I live and later on in the day after cake and ice cream. I ran around the pond again. So ironically it was 12 miles on my 12th birthday. So when I turned 13 I thought about what I did when I turned 12. So I said well, Mazel, 113 miles and then 14 miles of my 14th birthday and 15 on 15 and that started this tradition of running my age and my birthday. But now I continue that for years and years and years and then I had open-heart surgery, four years ago. And my hat surgeon said you might want to cut back a little bit, but I have a motto in life and it's, it's my game. So it's my rules so I can change the rules a little bit. So, four years ago, instead of running 64 miles, I ran a marathon distance on my birthday, and then bike the rest of it. And that's what I've done, ever since run a marathon 26.2 and B, then remaining to equal my age. I'm 68 years old now, and my hope is that I can run all the miles of my age again. One more time maybe when I turned 70 but it's something that I've done for 56 years now."

I became a race director through a series of events after being fired from my job. I enjoyed putting on events and promoting health and fitness and have since done 1600 events all over the world, helping to raise people's self-confidence and self-esteem.
 
Transcript: "So how did I become a race director and was it something I really wanted to do for a while? Not really, I had done this run across America 1978 from Medford Oregon to mepid. Mass took me 80 days and when I got back, my boss wanted me to come back to work right away. I said I needed a few days to kind of recover and three days later, I got a terminal. Asian letter and he fired me. Best thing that ever happened to me. So then I started pivoting a little bit trying to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I was a math major in college, but running health and fitness was my passion. So I opened up an athletic footwear and clothing store in my hometown and then I started putting on events to promote the store. I realized I like putting on events more than shoes on people's feet and off. I went and did one, two, three events, three four, five events, five, six, seven events. Had people one thing led to another and I was doing 20 30 events a year when no one else in the country was doing that. And since then, we've done, 1600 events everything from helping out with the Olympic Games to US Olympic. Marathon trials, Goodwill games World Championships. I did the itu triathlon World Championships down at Walt Disney World in 1990. The Boston Marathon 35 years, you know triathlons all over the Caribbean directed help direct to Singapore marathon race in Lima Peru. So South America Asia all over the place. Almost every major city. In America, so it's been great. People say, what do you do as a race director chalk, Mark in the rodeo go I said, well there's a lot more to it than that but my main focus is helping to raise the level of self-confidence and self-esteem of tens of thousands of people in America. And that's what these events to people set. A goal work hard earned the right total align run. The course cross, the finish line, get a medal, a magic happens that go home, feeling good about themselves and that's what this is all about. Out."

Running across the United States in 2004 with other marathoners was a great experience. There was a lot of camaraderie and support, which made it easier than running solo. We raised $300,000 for five Boston area nonprofits, and I threw out the first pitch in Fenway Park with Gisele Bundchen.
 
Transcript: "Hello, everyone. I got asked the question, how did it feel to run across the United States again in 2004 with other marathoners? All of us were 50 years of age or older, and it was so much easier than doing it solo. Running with the guys and gals was just so much more-- there's so much camaraderie and support, whereas when I ran it in 1978, I had three guys following me in a motor home, but I was the only one out there on the road, so I was a little lonely, I guess you could say. And then running 45-50 miles a day is a little different than running 20 or 25 miles a day. So I would advise, if you want to run across the country, get nine other people to join you and do it in relay fashion because that's what we did in 2004-- raised over $300,000 for five Boston area nonprofit charities and finished that run like I did in 1978 in Fenway Park in front of 32,000 people, where I threw out the first pitch alongside of-- then who I did not know, but I know now-- Gisele Bundchen. She also threw out the first pitch with me that evening. So again, it was a great thrill to do it with a team of people versus just doing it solo."

I got into producing and managing triathlons after competing in several of them in the late 70s and 80s. I started my career by putting on a 1 mile swim, 40 mile bike, and 10 mile run, which eventually became the national championship. I also represented some of the best triathletes in the world as their manager and agent.
 
Transcript: "The question is, when I finished Hawaii, 1980, I was one of the first people to have a complete, a dying man, or even a triathlon. And did I ever think I mints would grow to be as popular as they are? Today, I actually did have a sense for that fact, when I got back from the, I am in 1980. I decided I want to to, as a race director produce and I am in distance Triathlon myself. So I put on a smaller distance but even though it was a long course distance, 1 mile swim, 40 mile bike, tempt a mile run in my hometown in Bedford Mass called The Bay State Triathlon. And I was getting all the best in the United States to come and race in that, you know, tinleigh, and and Dave Scott and Mike serpent odd at the time and Karen's Myers Alessandro. I mean, it was a star-studded field but my ultimate My goal was to put on an item in distance. Oh, I did. It was called the Cape Cod endurance Triathlon in Hyannis on on the cape in Massachusetts. So, so full, I am an 2.4, 112 26 to when it became the national championship. I think it was the second I am in distance Triathlon, ever next to Hawaii. And when I competed in Hawaii, that was on a wahoo, not Kona 1980. It was 78 79 and 80. In a wahoo and then it moved to Kona and had two races and then and then settled on the October race. But yeah, and I started my whole business with Triathlon. I put on the New England, Triathlon series. I directed the itu triathlon World Championship at Walt Disney World I put on the Goodwill games Triathlon. In downtown Manhattan, I did a lot of World Cup races, a lot of you STS races. So I mean, Triathlon is what got me started. Started in producing events and I probably corrupted about 160 170, triathlons early on in my career. So and I represented a lot of the best triathletes in the world as their manager agent. So I was knee-deep into it back then not as much now, but maybe just as a, as a amateur participant. So yep. Go Triathlon. Take. Yeah."

Growing up in Boston, I was always the last one picked when my friends chose teams. To overcome the rejection and prove to myself that I could be an athlete, I started running and setting endurance goals. In 1978, I ran from Medford, Oregon to Fenway Park and finished in front of a cheering crowd of 30,000 people. This experience taught me that if you're determined, persistent, and passionate enough, you can achieve your goals no matter what path you take. I went on to have a career in race organizing and still run every day!
 
Transcript: "So when I was a young boy growing up in the Boston area, I always wanted to be one thing and one thing only and that was a professional athlete. But unfortunately because I was short in stature, I was always the last one cut when I went off with the teams or the last one picked when my friends picked sides and that was devastating. You know, I learned about rejection at a very young age and I had to figure out a way to overcome it. But I decided to run because nobody can catch you from running. And so I started setting all these goals, these endurance goals of running across the United States and doing all the marathons and the Ironman triathlons. In 1978 I did run from Mippet, Oregon to Mippet, Mass and then on to Fenway Park and finished in front of 32,000 people. And that was the day I realized I had become the athlete I always wanted to become because instead of playing second base at Fenway, I actually ran in Fenway to a standing ovation of again 30,000 people for like 10 minutes. So the lesson here is that there's always another path to travel to attain your goals if you're determined enough and persistent enough and passionate enough and believe in yourself. And thus I created a career for myself in putting on races and continue to run every day."