Flashes of Panic

…Johnny Kelley has finished.

For years in the ’80s and ’90s, the crowds who turned out to watch the Boston Marathon were waiting for two things: the leaders, and Johnny Kelley. Kelley “the elder” ran the marathon 61 times, winning it twice, with his last finish coming in 1992, when he was 84. It took him nearly six hours that year, so you can imagine the spectators came prepared to camp out for a while. But for many of the people of Boston, he demonstrated that the marathon was just as much about tenacity as it was about the kind of speed and elegance seen in the leaders.

John J. Kelley, “the younger,” was also a Boston champion and the high school coach of my former editor, Amby Burfoot, also a Boston winner. Amby has in his office a print by Andy Yelenak which, while simple in design, illustrates the kind of influence Kelley had on running and racing even into this century.

Now playing: Here Comes A Regular from Tim by The Replacements