BOSTON (AP) — Before there was “Forrest Gump,” there was Dave McGillivray.
Gump, the fictitious simpleton played by Tom Hanks in the 1994 Oscar-winning film, trotted across the U.S. because he “just felt like running.”
McGillivray did the same, but with a singular purpose. Forty years ago this month, he completed his own cross-country running odyssey from Medford, Oregon, to his hometown of Medford, Massachusetts, to benefit the Jimmy Fund and its fight against cancer.
On Thursday, McGillivray — now race director of the Boston Marathon — will dash into Boston’s Fenway Park, re-enacting the last leg of his 80-day run in 1978.
Hundreds of people since have matched or exceeded that feat, but McGillivray was one of the firsts.