The Bills Mafia is no stranger to sacrifice and tailgating greatness. The passionate fanbase of the Buffalo Bills football team turns out every home game in often near- or below-freezing temperatures while performing WWE-style slams and finishers through tables like a sacrificial offering to the football gods—or to quarterback Josh Allen.
So it’s no surprise that Bills fans are ecstatic about clinching their first AFC East title since 1995 and making the playoffs for the second time this century.
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Colin Dee was one of these lifelong fans. His fandom stretched from his days growing up in Rochester, New York, and stayed with him even after he left in third grade to move to North Carolina.
Now, Dee resides in the Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is home to the rival New England Patriots. Once the Bills had the playoffs and the division in the bag, he and his fellow fans celebrated virtually, leading to Dee’s friend throwing him a dare.
“In mid-April when the schedule came out, we didn’t think COVID would last to December, so we planned to go to the Monday Night game,” Dee told Runner’s World. “We gotta go, but when we realized we couldn’t, they told me I had to do something. Originally it was just a run. Then it was a 5K. In the end, I was dared to do a marathon.”
Dee wasn’t a stranger to the distance. He had completed five marathons, inspired by his lifelong running dad. It was that family tradition that was passed down instead of his dad’s New York Giants fandom that Dee’s grandfather, a Bills fan, on his mom’s side was adamantly against.
Dee’s true Bills Mafia passion amped up in college. While moving in freshman year at the University of Dayton, Dee discovered a friend who moved away in the second grade to Chicago—also a Bills fan—lived next door.
The two reconnected and even splurged on season tickets their sophomore year and made the roughly six-hour drive for home games in the fall. They’ve been season-ticket holders ever since. Plus, they even converted Dee’s dad to be a Bills fan.
“My dad got me into running, and I got him into the Bills,” Dee said. “My dad has done a couple ultras and was trying to do a 100 miler. Here I am doing a marathon outside a stadium. People think I’m a nut.”
It was also Dee’s childhood friend who dared him to do the marathon. While Dee was determined to do it, as the week went on, he realized he could also do the run and try to raise money for charity.
Thinking about which to pick, Dee turned to inspiration from Bills quarterback Josh Allen. Bills Mafia has gotten behind their leader since Allen’s grandmother died earlier in the season and fans followed by donating over $1 million to Oishei Children's Hospital.
Dee hoped people would donate at least 17 cents per mile—an homage to Allen’s number—or a nominal $4.45 for the entire run.
“There’s people going through a lot worse things right now in the world, and if we can do something like this for a kid or a family going through cancer, you gotta do it,” Dee said. “If it coincides with things like the Bills and the work they’re doing with Josh Allen, even better.”
A little over a week later, Dee kept his word and lined up, untrained, around 4:30 p.m. on December 28 in his Josh Allen jersey for a marathon run through the empty parking lots and uncrowded sidewalks around Gillette Stadium. The start time was before the game because Dee had to beat the Massachusetts COVID curfew of 10 p.m. ET.
Dee had a route around the facility mapped out, but on the first lap, he had to get creative because he accidentally ended up in a restricted area and was chased out by security. That lap ended up being the longest at 2.2 miles. After that, he settled into a 1.3 out and back that ran by an opening that looked onto the field.
“People think I’m some drunk guy running around,” Dee thought out loud as he ran.
While his family crewed him, he charged through the first miles at an pace as fans of both teams who happened to be in the area (very few because of COVID) cheered and jeered at the person running around the stadium in a jersey.
He’d hear people screaming, “Josh Allen,” all night for his jersey. However, around mile 6 when he heard that, it wasn’t directed at him. In fact, as he ran by the opening to the field, Josh Allen was actually running through the tunnel to the field to warm up.
After that, Dee kept up his pace as he saw the fireworks mark the start of Monday Night Football and listened to the game from the outside.
The marathon would take him 5:08:44, but he did it and was able to recover with some food, his family, and the second half of the game.
Not only that, he’s also ended up raising more than $3,200 for Oishei Children's Hospital. (You can still donate to that cause here.)
“This didn’t start as anything more than a dare made over a couple of beers,” Dee said. “Then I thought we need this to go back to Buffalo. I don’t want to give this to Boston. With all the good that has come from Oishei and the Bills connection, he knew we had to do it. I’m so happy with what we’ve done so far.”
To make the night even sweeter, the Bills ran away with a 38-9 victory on the road.
Drew covers a variety of subjects for Runner’s World and Bicycling, and he specializes in writing and editing human interest pieces while also covering health, wellness, gear, and fitness for the brand. His work has previously been published in Men’s Health.
