Galloway suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and died at a hospital in Pensacola, Florida, said his daughter-in-law Carissa Galloway.
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His influence was evident in the final days of his life: Crowds of people posted videos online, awaiting Galloway’s recovery from emergency neurosurgery and thanking him for the advice that boosted their confidence and got them to the race starting lines.
Galloway’s family announced the surgery on February 20 and invited the public to express their support.
Jim Vance, an elite endurance sports consultant in San Diego, said Galloway was a “pioneer” in getting people to run.
“It removed the barrier to entry, which was primarily mental,” Vance told The Associated Press. “Running is not supposed to be a suffer-fest. It should be something peaceful, something enjoyable, so that people can enjoy running and not fear it.”
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Galloway survived heart failure in 2021 and was still hoping to complete another marathon after logging more than 230 during his lifetime.
“My mission now, at the age of 80 and older, is to show that people can do things that are not normally done, and that they can do them safely,” he told The New York Times in December.
Galloway’s run-walk-run method began in 1974, when he agreed to teach a running class at Florida State University, two years after competing in the 10,000 meters at the Olympics. He thought he could attract customers to Pheidippides, his new store for runners.
“Neither had run for at least five years. So we started walking with a few one-minute jogs,” Galloway said on his website.
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“I spent some time with each group, during the races, to adjust the frequency of the walk breaks so that no one was huffing, even at the end,” he said. “Walk breaks kept the groups together. Everyone passed the final exam – finishing a 5K or a 10K run with a smile on their faces.”
Galloway believed that walking while running reduced the risk of injury, conserved energy, and kept confidence afloat.
“I’ve been using them ever since,” he said, “continuing to fine-tune the ratios of running and walking based on mile pace and individual needs.”
And Galloway even had his own recipe. He walked through every water station during the 1980 Houston Marathon and finished with a faster time, 2:16:35, than his previous 26.2-mile (42.1-kilometer) races, the Times reported.
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He shared his career philosophies through books, websites, and retreats. Galloway was the official training consultant for runDisney, a running series at Walt Disney Co. resorts, and would be among the runners. Many fans went online to offer tributes after his recent surgery.
“I never thought I would be a runner. I never thought I would run a half marathon,” Karen Bock-Losee of Jacksonville, Florida, said in a video. “I’m 70 years old and I’ve raced several times since I turned 60 when I discovered running at Galloway. I just want to say thank you.”
Susan Williams recalled watching Galloway as he struggled to the finish of a half marathon in Murray, Kentucky, in 2011.
“You passed me and my butt was cramping,” he said. “You turned around and came back. You told me about it. It was amazing.”
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Bobby McGee, a Colorado-based running coach, said Galloway’s run-walk-run approach made running more accessible to the masses.
“When a group of people in any type of race, from marathons to fun runs, get together afterward, they talk about their time,” McGee said. “No one asks them if they ran the whole thing.”
Galloway is survived by two children and six grandchildren.
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Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this story.