A “Weakling” who excelled at the mile and beyond

At the time that Dave Farley started running in high school in 1958, the running world was obsessed with the mile. After all, just a few years before, Roger Bannister had set a milestone that rocked the sporting world. The emergence of the legendary Jim Ryun was just around the corner. So when Dave Farley decided to take up running in his sophomore year at Brewer High School, it’s understandable why he might have chosen the mile. In time, a very short time in fact, he would run the distance faster than any Mainer had before him and emerge as one of the best middle distance runners in the nation.

Farley lived in Orrington, and the reason he took up track, he says today, is that "it was the easiest sport I could find for a 125-pound weakling." Quickly, under the coaching of Harold "Red" Pressey, he developed into a four-time state champ, twice in both the mile and 880, setting state records in each.

He was the first Maine high school miler ever to break 4:30, running 4:26.3 in 1959, only a year after he started running. Farley went on to take second in the New England’s that spring, clocking 4:25.1. He was also 5th in the National Junior AAU Mile in 4:25. He won the outdoor mi1e and 880 in the Maine AAU Championships in 1961. Coach Pressey, Farley said, was one of the most influential people in his running career, along with his wife Pat and other members of his family.

Farley, who was 5-foot-11 and 140 pounds in his prime, went on to Brown University where he continued to improve. He won the freshman race in the New England Cross Country Championships. As a freshman in 1961, he ran the second fastest frosh mile in the nation, 4:13.7. He went on to set five freshman records and eight varsity records. Among those records was a mile in 4:06.6, the 880 in 1:51.4, the 1000 in 2:12.8, as well as a mile relay time of 3:18.8. In his junior year he beat Boston College's Larry Rawson with a 4:10.4 mile, setting a track and Rhode Island record. This would be his best career time indoors.

He won the IC4A mile two times – 4:13.7 indoors in 1963 and 4:06.6 outdoors in 1964. In the indoor race he edged past Villanova's Tom Sullivan at the tape for the victory. Sullivan had been a member of Villanova's world record-holding two-mile relay team. In his 4:06 effort, Farley beat Villanova's Tom Sullivan (4:07.3) and Seton Hall's George Germann (4:07.3). It was the fourth time Farley had broken his own Brown record.

Highlights of his senior year included: running on the winning two-mile relay team at the prestigious Millrose Games, setting a Brown University record of 7:40.4. At the annual Carolina Relays he was voted the meet's outstanding athlete as a result of a 1:51.8 leg on the two-mile relay team. Farley's 4:06.6 outdoors in 1964 was the fastest mile ever run by a Mainer. Farley would eventually record a personal best of 4:04.7 in 1965 at the New York Athletic Club Spring Games. Today he stands as the third fastest miler of all time from Maine, behind Erik Nedeau and Bruce Bickford.

Among his other great wins during these years was a victory in the Boston Knights of Columbus Indoor Meet in 1963, and a second-place finish behind U.S. indoor record holder Tom O'Hara in the Stagg Relays 880 in Chicago, in 1964, when he clocked 1:51.4. His best ever 880 was 1:50.3. at the Modesto Relays in 1965, clocked in a relay split.

His stellar running earned him induction into the Brown University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973. Farley continued running while serving in the Marine Corps from 1965 through 1968. As a Marine he competed in the 1968 Olympic trials in the 1500 and placed 11th in 3:46.5. He took 7th in the National AAU mile in 1965 in 4:12, and was 9th in the National AAU 1500 in 1968 in 3:46. At Athens, Greece in 1968, he placed 4th at the World Military Games, at 1500 meters, with a time of 3:45. At the time he was coaching the U.S. Marine Corps National Track Team.

While serving in Vietnam, he ran three road races in that country in 1966 during the war, winning all of them. "I didn't always use common sense in my younger years," he says. In the early ‘60s, there were few road races in Maine, but Farley was the best of the lonely long distance runners of that day. He remembers winning races in Bangor, Berwick, Rockland, and Standish. "At most, there were fifteen runners in each race,” he says.

Farley eventually tried a few marathons. "If marathons were 20 miles in length, I would have been a decent marathoner. I am an expert at hitting the wall,” he joked. He ran five times at Boston and once in the Ocean State Marathon, with a best of 2:45 for 115th place at Boston in 1970. He also gave the Mt. Washington hill climb a shot, and he emphasizes that he ran it just "once. Another example of poor judgment,” he says.

Farley has continued running throughout his life and has now raced for 35 years at the age of 54. When he was 41, he ran a 4:38 mile indoors, and he also ran 2:04.4 indoors for 800 meters at age 45 in winning the Eastern Masters TAC Championship for the fastest time in the nation in his age group.

Among his personal records are: 440 yards in 49.3, run during a Brown record-setting mile relay; 1000 yards in 2:12.8 at Dartmouth, during his senior year (another school record); and 1500 meters in 3:45. Over the years he has belonged to the BAA, the Bruin Spiked Shoe Club, and the Maine Track Club. Farley says that his best lifetime performances were winning two IC4A championships, and winning the 800 in the Eastern Masters Indoor Championships at age 45. His greatest memories in the sport, he said, include winning the state of Maine high school mile at Bowdoin in 1959, and competing in the Olympic trials 1500 meters in 1968 in Los Angeles.

Farley also finished second and fourth in two New England Cross Country championships, leading his college to two New England titles. He was also second and fourth in the Ivy League championships. He took sixth place in the IC4As and helped his team capture a second and sixth place at the IC4As. Brown also finished 12th in the NCAAs.

Today, Farley lives in Warren, Rhode Island. For the past 27 years he has worked for Fleet Financial Group and currently holds the position of executive vice president.

"Being recognized by my home state of Maine is very important to me," he said upon learning of his induction into the Maine Running Hall of Fame.