Amy Fakterowitz (2021)
Some people are considered for the Western New York Running Hall of Fame for their running accomplishments. Others put up noteworthy achievements as coaches. Still others did their work behind the scenes, and are considered contributors. Amy Fakterowitz checks all of those boxes at the same time. Not too many of our inductees over the years can say that.
Most people know about some of her running accomplishments. She ran for the SUNY Buffalo track team, and then moved smoothly into road racing. There she was a two-time overall winner of the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge, and has been part of winning teams as well. She’s won three national age group championships (6k cross country, 5k cross country, and 8k roads), and the USATF Masters Grand Prix in the 50-54 age group in 2019. She’s also been a Buffalo News Runner of the Year age-group champion multiple times. Amy also has run more than 500 races since the age of 19, and recorded more than 200 wins. She probably has won more races than any other runner in Western New York history. In six of those victories, she has defeated all of the female contestants … and all of the male runners too.
Amy has somehow made time to do some coaching over the years. She created a summer track program for Amherst youth, paced Buffalo Marathon runners to goal times, and worked the Amherst modified cross-country team. Then there’s the contributor part of the story. Amy has served on committees for races and running clubs on a local and regional basis. In 2021, she was elected president of Checkers, the area’s largest running club. That makes Amy a runner-coach-contributor. Now we can add a new hyphen to describe her career: runner-coach-contributor-Hall of Famer