In the continuing series of “runners you’ve never heard of (but probably should know about)” … today we introduce you to: Leonard “Buddy’’ Edelen!
Even hard-core, old-school fans of marathon running would be hard pressed to know about Buddy Edelen. If you want a deep dive into the life of one of America’s greatest marathon runners, I strongly suggest Frank Murphy’s outstanding biography of Edelen’s career, entitled “A Cold, Clear Day.” It the oversaturated market of running-related books, this one stands out as among the best.
For most of the 20th century, Edelen was the only American-born runner to have held the world record in the marathon. He was a dominant force at the distance in the early 1960s. And, even then, he was not well-known, because he spent his prime running and racing years living as an expatriate in England.
During that time, Edelen was the personification of the “loneliness of the long-distance runner,” training on his own most of the time, and often “commuting” to his teaching job by running to and from school. He was coached via air mail/snail mail letters with his coach back in America, Fred Wilt.
In an incredible (and, by today’s standard, mind-bending) feat of consistency, Edelen ran 13 marathons between 1962 and 1964, winning seven of them. Included in that amazing stretch was his world-record time of 2:14:28 at the Polytechnic Marathon, a point-to-point race from Windsor to Chiswick in England on June 15, 1963.
Edelen was the first man to break 2:15:00 in the marathon, and the first American to hold the world record since 1925. And, for the remainder of the 20th Century, the only other American that could lay claim to the marathon world record was Alberto Salazar, who ran 2:08:13 at the 1981 NYC Marathon. Salazar’s record was disallowed after it was determined that the NYC Marathon course was short.
The year after his world-record run in England, at the AAU Marathon in Yonkers, a brutally hilly course on an equally brutal weather day of heat and humidity, Edelen destroyed the field and won by nearly 20 minutes! That race acted as one of the Olympic Trials qualifying events. He would go on to finish sixth at the Tokyo Olympics that year. Murphy’s description of that 1964 Yonkers race was as compelling of a marathon play-by-play as you’ll ever read.
Another little-known fact: Edelen was the first American man to eclipse the 30-minute barrier for 10,000 meters.
The peak of his career was relatively brief. An attempt to reach Olympic-caliber success in time for 1968 fell short due to chronic injuries. He would retire from the sport soon after that, thus just missing the big “Running Boom” eras to follow by just a few years. And, at least from a running perspective, he lived the rest of his years in relative obscurity.
Buddy Edelen was a record-breaking American marathoner, about a decade before anyone in the general public knew about (or cared about) the marathon race. In addition, during his prime years, he didn’t even live in the United States! Hopefully, after this post, Buddy Edelen will be a little more than the answer to a trivia question for you.
(Speaking of “trivia question” … the title of this post is the same as one of my favorite Neil Young songs, from his lovely album 1992 called “Harvest Moon” … and here’s more trivia, Neil Young is back on Spotify!)
Thanks for reading, and have a great week!
What a great story about an incredible runner. I actually ran against him in the 1964 AAU National Championship race that you mention. The race was in Yonkers, NY. The joke was "there are 4 giant hills on the course, you don't have to worry about the 4th one (at 23 miles) because you won't make it past the 3rd one". Brutal was an understatement. 140 runners started and only 36 finished under 4 hours.