“I’m a runner due to Jeff Galloway.” It’s a sentence that Chris Twiggs, a longtime pal and co-worker of Galloway, says he’s heard from 1000’s of runners since working with him over the previous 16 years.
On February 25, 2026, Galloway, whom iRunFar founder Bryon Powell considers one of many prime 5 most influential runners of the previous half-century, handed away at age 80 as a consequence of issues from a mind bleed. It was with deep unhappiness that I discovered this information final week, however I’m sure that, whereas gone in individual, Galloway will proceed to stay in operating lore for his racing, together with the ten,000-meter occasion on the 1972 Olympic Video games, his race directing, and his run-walk teaching methodology. However maybe what he can be most remembered for is his skill to encourage individuals to do way over they thought they may.
Jeff Galloway: runner, coach, race director. All pictures: Chris Twiggs
A couple of days after Galloway’s dying, I caught up with Twiggs, an 17-time Hardrock 100 finisher and a stalwart of the path operating and ultrarunning group. Twiggs has been an integral a part of the Galloway teaching crew for 16 years, and he informed me he owes a lot of his success to the teachings he discovered alongside the best way from Galloway. “The primary time I heard Jeff discuss was in 1995. He spoke the evening earlier than a marathon my spouse and I have been operating. He informed us to take stroll breaks. We thought he was loopy, however we gave it a attempt, and my spouse certified for the Boston Marathon. We have been immediate followers of ‘Jeffing.’”
Galloway popularized a run-walk coaching and racing protocol, and “Jeffing” quickly grew to become a world phenomenon. “Think about having your identify grow to be a verb!” exclaimed Twiggs in occupied with Galloway. Having labored for Galloway for a few years, Twiggs had countless experiences with him as a co-worker, runner, and pal. “Jeff helped me qualify for the Boston Marathon a number of occasions, run distances I assumed unattainable, and luxuriate in operating on a degree I by no means would have believed. Extra importantly, Jeff confirmed me find out how to hearken to, imagine in, and empower different runners to realize their goals, one run-walk-run at a time.”
Studying the Sport from Galloway
I personally grew to become a Galloway fan early on in my operating profession. In September of 1989, a couple of week shy of my twenty second birthday, I ran my first highway race: the Philadelphia Distance Run half marathon. I had just lately graduated from faculty and was beginning my first educating job on the William Penn Constitution Faculty. A tad chubby and anticipating a brand new problem, I signed up for the race on a dare to myself, to see if I may do it, and to see — if I did handle to do it — what it will do for me.
I crossed the end line on that late September day about an hour and 50 minutes after I began, and I used to be wrecked. My quads have been screaming in ache, and my respiration felt like I used to be inhaling and exhaling by means of a straw. In brief, for the primary time in my younger life, I had turned myself inside out. At that second, I used to be impressed to do it once more — and to do it higher. I simply wanted some recommendation.
Galloway impressed 1000’s of runners to get out and transfer.
After I returned to high school the next Monday, I sought out Penn Constitution’s legendary monitor and area coach, Steve Bonnie, who was a 15-time defending Inter-Tutorial Monitor and Area Championships coach on the time. As we shared fried hen and biscuits over lunch that day, he requested me how my race went and nodded knowingly as I rehashed the regular and inexorable decline into distress that characterised my expertise on the Philadelphia Distance Run.
Arriving at college the subsequent morning, I used to be greeted at my mailbox with the standard scribbled cellphone messages and stacks of report playing cards, in addition to a e book, “Galloway’s E-book on Working,” accompanied by a handwritten observe from Coach Bonnie: “Wilkie, learn this e book and comply with this recommendation, you’ve got potential on this sport.”
Over the subsequent week, throughout each free interval, and at dwelling within the evenings, as a substitute of writing lesson plans and grading papers, I devoured Galloway’s knowledge. His theories on pacing, vitamin, coaching quantity, and particularly his walk-run methodology all spoke to me, and as a wannabe runner, made operating appear so accessible, exceedingly easy, and simply plain enjoyable. It was the beginning of one thing that might redirect my life.
Offering Inspiration
I’ve a deep appreciation for Galloway and the whole lot he did and represented. Having impressed three generations of runners identical to me, Galloway was a man who motivated us all to only get on the market, whether or not operating or strolling. Galloway was, in his coronary heart, a believer within the energy of motion, a believer in operating as one thing peaceable, pleasing, and playful. Working was one thing to be savored and loved for a lifetime.
In line with Twiggs, my Galloway expertise isn’t distinctive. “The tales individuals inform are of empowerment. They didn’t assume they could possibly be runners; then Jeff informed them they may do it, in order that they did it: a 5k, a half marathon, a marathon, an extremely. Whether or not your purpose was to complete a Disney race in entrance of the Balloon Girls (if you realize, you realize) or to qualify for Boston, Jeff believed in you. Greater than that, he had a way, a run-walk ratio, that might get you there.” Twiggs sums it up nicely, saying, “Jeff Galloway had a much bigger affect on my life than any individual exterior of my family, and a whole bunch of 1000’s of individuals can say the identical factor, a lot of whom by no means even met him.”
He can be missed.
Bottoms up!
Jeff Galloway (proper) finishes a Disney race and appears for the Balloon Girls together with runner Chris Twiggs.