Buddy Edelen

Just prior to the American running boom of the 1970s, Buddy Edelen was America’s greatest marathoner. He ran at the University of Minnesota but moved to England after college where he taught school, ran cross-country, and trained in the English club system. In December 1962 Edelen became the first American to better 2-20 for the marathon when he finished fourth at the Asahi Marathon Fukuoka, Japan. This set the stage for his greatest year, 1963. In May 1963 Edelen won the Marathon-to-Athens race over the original Olympic course. Only a few weeks later Edelen became the first American to hold the world marathon record, when he ran 2-14:28 to win the Polytechnic Marathon. Shortly after that race, he also won the prestigious Košice Peace Marathon in Czechoslovakia.

Perhaps his greatest race, though, came in the 1964 AAU Marathon, which was the Olympic Trial that year. On a brutally hot day with temperatures in the 90°s (ca~35° C.), Edelen ran 2-24:25.6 and won the race by almost 20 minutes. He was considered to have a chance at an Olympic marathon medal in 1964, but hampered by sciatica, he finished sixth.

Edelen ran the 1965 Polytechnic Marathon, which was his last race in England before returning to the United States. He studied at Adams State College in Colorado, earning graduate degrees in clinical psychology and practiced in Colorado for many years. He has been remembered by Frank Murphy’s excellent biography, A Cold Clear Day.

Personal Bests: 2 miles – 8:57.4i (1960); 5000 – 13:54.4 (1961); 6 miles – 28:00.8 (1963); 10000 – 29:53.0 (1963); Mar – 2-14:28 (1963).