David Bedford

David Colin Bedford OBE (born 30 December 1949) is an English former long-distance runner, whose athletic career spanned the early 1970s.

Post-retirement, he served as race director of the London Marathon until 2012, and is the Chairman of the IAAF Road Running Commission (since 2012), as well as sitting on the IAAF Cross Country Committee as the UK Athletics elected representative.

Bedford held the 10,000 metres world record, improving it by 7.6 seconds with his time of 27 minutes 30.80 seconds in 1973. He also held the British records for 3000 m steeplechase and 5000 metres. He usually ran in distinctive red socks, which combined with his distinctive moustache later led to a well publicised dispute about the use of similarly attired runners in advertisements.