I had other plans for my blog post this week — plans that were scrapped when the news crossed my desk that the Olympic runner Jeff Galloway had unexpectedly passed away. You probably have never heard of him, but for those of us who have participated in a runDisney event, he is legendary as their official coach and full time cheerleader. I didn’t have the privilege of meeting him personally, but I was lucky enough to see him at both the starting and finishing lines for the two half-marathons I ran last year; I cannot tell you how incredibly amazing it was hearing him hyping us up for the race, or seeing him clap and wave at seemingly each one of us as we — finally — crossed that blessed finish.
But I think I can partially give you a sense of why it was so amazing.
If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that my sport is swimming; I competed up until high school, and then later as an adult, was part of a Masters program and swam primarily for fitness. My wife was the runner in our family, and after a few years of being her loudest supporter at various runDisney events, I decided it looked like too much fun not to run with her at the next 5K she entered.
You don’t simply decide to run a 5K, of course; shifting from swimming to a land-based sport required some preparation, and she recommended that I download the Easy 5K app that Jeff Galloway had developed to help get me started. She had already been following what she told me was his “run-walk-run” method and figured I’d not have too much trouble using it either.
I remember looking at her funny and saying something to the effect: “Run? Walk? Run?”
“Yes,” she replied patiently.
“But you’re supposed to run a 5k,” I said, as though it were obvious.
“Yes,” she smiled. “Try the program. Trust me.”
So, naturally I did.
The app proved to literally be a miniature version of Jeff Galloway that kept me company on each of the many training runs I did as I worked my way up to my first ever 5K. Whenever I felt like I was’t making any progress, Jeff was there in my ear, encouraging me to keep going while reminding me I was capable of achieving any goal I set my mind to. It was a power combination, running and his relentless optimism; before I knew what I was doing, I’d not only run a 5K, but had set my sights on doing a 10K. This time, I needed no encouragement to download his app, nor did it take much convincing to purchase a copy of his seminal The Run-Walk-Run Method book so I could get a deeper understanding of just how the whole thing worked. And work it did: nearly a decade after I started, I’m still at it, still running just about every day. All of that is due to Jeff and his infectious enthusiasm — and evangelism — for running as a way to remain healthy.
I’m a believer. I can feel how my sense of optimism dips when I’m not able to get out for a run; I know I perform better as a coder and a writer after logging a few miles. It’s crazy, but even though I never met Jeff, I feel like he’s been that friend you could always depend on, the one you could lean on in those moments when you were feeling low. He may have been a voice on an app, or a distant figure on a platform encouraging me onward, but in either case, he was a force for good in my life — and, if the internet is to be believed, in the lives of thousands of others over the years.
His legacy will live on, of that I am quite sure. I’m far enough along in my running journey now that I rely more on my run-walk-run timer than the app, but after he passed, my very next run I dug out my AirPods and settled in for four miles with the maestro. Hearing him again in that way made me far more emotional than I expected, but it was also a wonderful way for me to honor someone who had such an effect on my own life and wellbeing.
Just a quick reminder that this is the weekend for the 2026 Tucson Festival of Books! I’ll be at the Indie Author Experience on Sunday, from 10 – 1. Swing by if you can!
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