Gayle Barron (born 6 April 1945) is a former American marathon runner. From 1970 to 1978, Barron placed in the top five in marathons held across the United States and was the winner of the 1978

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was ...

. Barron was inducted into the

Georgia Sports Hall of Fame The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame is located in Macon, Georgia. It is the largest state sports hall of fame in the United States at . Exhibitions The Hall of Fame houses over of exhibit space broken down into sections including Hall of Fame Ind ...

in 2003 and the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.

Early life and education

On 6 April 1945, Barron was born in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

. She went to Druid Hills High School before attending the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

. Barron graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in journalism.

Career

In the 1960s, Barron began running while at the University of Georgia. She entered her first large race in the 1970

Peachtree Road Race The Peachtree Road Race (branded AJC Peachtree Road Race for sponsorship reasons) is an American 10-kilometer run held annually in Atlanta. After being held on Independence Day from 1970 to 2019, the race was cancelled because of the COVID pand ...

. As a co-founder of the Peachtree Road Race, Barron was the top female finisher at Peachtree each year from 1970 to 1975 except for 1972 when she was beaten by Gillian Valk. Barron also won the first three Peach Bowl Marathons held from 1972 to 1975. In 1974, Barron became a professional runner. As a professional athlete, Barron placed in the top three at the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the islan ...

marathons from 1975 to 1977. Barron's final win was at the 1978 Boston Marathon and she continued to run until 1981. After ending her professional running career, Barron began working for an athletic clinic. Outside of marathon running, Barron was a television broadcaster for

WAGA-TV WAGA-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter facil ...

in Atlanta and coached a team of runners from the Leukemia Society of America.

Awards and honors

In 2003, Barron was inducted into the

. In 2007, Barron became a part of the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barron, Gayle 1945 births Living people Track and field athletes from Atlanta American women television personalities American female marathon runners American female long-distance runners Boston Marathon female winners University of Georgia alumni 21st-century American women 20th-century American women