Johnny Kelley Races - Hyannis, Massachusetts - Running

The Johnny Kelley Races is a Running race in Hyannis, Massachusetts consisting of a 10K and 5K.

In Honor of:

Johnny Kelley.

Beneficiaries: Chips House and Tommy's Place

Johnny was a Cape Cod resident and loved Cape Cod

Per Wikipedia: Johnny was, born in West Medford, Massachusetts as one of ten children, Kelley ran track and cross-country at Arlington High School in Massachusetts. He did not finish his first Boston Marathon in 1928, but eventually competed in a record 61 Boston Marathons.

A legend of the marathon, Kelley won the 1935 and 1945 runnings of the Boston Marathon. He finished in second place at Boston a record seven times. Between 1934 and 1950, he finished in the top five 15 times at Boston, consistently running in the 2:30s. He ran his last full marathon at Boston in 1992 at the age of 84, his 61st start and 58th finish there. For two more years he ran the last seven miles. Kelley also ran the Yonkers Marathon 29 times.

A member of the U.S. Olympic Team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, he finished 18th in the marathon.

Kelley ran his 50th Boston Marathon in 1981; the event was also his 108th career marathon.[1]

Kelley was named Runner of the Century by Runner's World magazine in 2000. According to his New York Times obituary,[3] he enjoyed painting and worked in natural landscapes, producing about 20 paintings a year. One commissioned work is The Boston Dream, a Primitive School painting showing the marathon course, with Hopkinton and Boston rising from the distance, as two winter runners-a woman and a man-train for their Boston Dream.