By Charles Riddle
WHEN Andy Galloway thought up the idea of holding the first marathon of the new millennium in Hamilton, his wife Margaret wished he had turned over and gone back to sleep.
The idea was to be five years in the making and culminated in Hamilton hosting the first marathon run in the world at the break of the new millennium.
Andy floated the concept in 1995 in New York at a meeting of the Association of International Marathons (AIMS) of which he was secretary.
AIMS turned down his suggestion, a race be held in every city as the sun reached it, with the proceeds going to Unicef.
However, a few hours later at another meeting of tour organisers, there was a lot more enthusiasm.
So, Andy decided he would organise a race in Hamilton and set about contacting a network of worldwide running contacts built up over three decades. Tour companies quickly picked up on the idea.
Kicked off at 6am on New Year’s Day 2000 at the Te Rapa Racecourse, the First to the Future Millennium Marathon attracted 2200 runners from 23 countries.
The marathon wound through the city and many Hamiltonians will remember standing in their dressing gowns, coffee in hand, cheering the runners.
the Queens Service Medal for Services to Athletics in 1990.
Andy told the Waikato Times in 1999 he resisted pressure on him to hold the event in either Auckland or Rotorua where there are better facilities.
“I’ve lived here all my life and I have a certain loyalty to Hamilton. I just wanted to do something for the city.”
Then Hamilton Chamber of Commerce president Steve Saunders, at the time described Andy as a man of vision and a “real doer”.
“As a race organiser there is no one better in New Zealand. Hamilton is lucky to have him… Andy is an action man. Put simply, he gets things done.
“And he has at best only a moderate tolerance for mindless bureaucracy.”
In April 2000 Andy presented a cheque worth $10,000 from funds raised by Hamilton’s Millennium Marathon to Sir Murray Halberg for the Halberg Trust.
A pioneer of mass participation in marathons, Andy started running at 17 and worked in race organisation for more than 30 years, many of them at international level.
Hamilton Harriers (now Hamilton Hawkes) committee member, president, and life member Andy once told a running magazine his career in the sport started when he was aged five.
“My mother Kate Galloway (nee Barker) walked me 15 kilometers to school for my first day but made the mistake of letting go of my hand when we reached the school gate. I took off, running as fast as my little legs would carry me, and didn’t stop until I reached the safety of my home.”
Andy’s son Bryce said his father attended Whitiora School and wanted to be a “commercial artist” (graphic designer) but as the youngest of three boys was made to work in his father Thomas’ hardware store instead.
“Later this led to his taking on a managerial position at Eclipse Wire on Hamilton’s Te Rapa Straight. Eclipse Wire produced wire fencing and metal gates for the farming industry. Dad had to indulge his interest in art in other ways by organising the annual Rotoart Exhibition/Competition in the 70s and 80s held by his chapter of Rotary Club, and also in the 70s by briefly running a dealer art gallery, The Starr Gallery, in Hamilton alongside local painter Ray Starr.
“Some time in the late 70s Dad left his job at Eclipse Wire and became a sales rep for various overseas companies supplying machinery and equipment to New Zealand paper mills. This is the job he would remain in until retirement.”
Bryce said Andy’s interest in art must have lingered in the genes as his children all went on to creative careers. Bryce is an artist and lecturer at the Whiti o Rehua School of Art at Massey University, while his eldest sister, Jane Galloway, is a a Raglan artist of renown. Older brother Robert taught himself leather craft and went on to found well-known Soul Shoes, making sandals, boots, belts, and leatherware on Raglan’s wharf, while middle sister Merren co-owns and teaches at Matapihi Kindergarten just outside of Raglan and is a talented ceramics artist. Youngest sister Kate, makes boutique wine and gin, living in Havelock North.
Outside of work Andy was the chief organizer of 27 Hamilton marathon events, starting in 1954 with a single official on a bicycle.
Back then race organisers had no computers, no reliable course measurement or timing, no cell phones, no sponsors, and no eager horde of volunteers. In the official history of Hamilton Harriers, Andy described how he created the first club marathon in the city by measuring the course by car with one official who left a stopwatch under a tin in the hedge by the start/finish line.
In 1997 Andy resurrected Hamilton’s iconic Round The Bridges event, which was down to fewer than 80 runners. That year 900 took part.
It was also the year he suffered his biggest race embarrassment. As the runners of the 10km event came in, they queried the distance they had run. It seemed longer than usual.
Galloway, an internationally certified measurer of more than 50 courses had mucked up, adding an extra kilometre between the 4km and 5km marks.
The irony wasn’t lost on him.
“Of all the ones I’ve measured it had to be the local one,” he said at the time.
Andy ran a marathon tour company and organized trips, among others, to the Honolulu Marathon, New York Marathon, Boston Marathon, London Marathon, and the Round Rarotonga Road Race, with which he had a long association
In 1978 Andy co-founded the Hamilton Marathon Clinic alongside doctors Denis Friedlander and Harry Nicholls, meeting at Hamilton Pools Te Rapa (now Waterworld).
He was general secretary then secretary (treasury) from 1982 – 1997 of the Association of International Marathons (AIMS) which was formally established during a meeting between various race organisers in London in 1982.
Andy ran 60 marathons in his lifetime, the first at age 20, his last and 60th on his 60th birthday in 1990.
He received a Queens Service Medal for Services to Athletics in 1990.
Andy was the husband of Margaret; father of Jane, Robert, Merren, Bryce and Kate; and loved Grandad to Julian, Lennie, Jessie, Emma, Ben, Louie, Jed, Sean, Joel, Esther, Sadie, Gala and Saul, and four great-grandchildren.