David Monti is the editor and publisher of Race Results Weekly, a news and data service which covers distance running and the running industry.
Monti graduated from UMass Amherst with a BA in English in 1982. He later earned an MBA from William & Mary and began a career in finance, though he found this work to be unfulfilling.
In 1994, Monti started Race Results Weekly as a running event results service. He soon started to add editorial material and took advantage of the advent of the internet.
“I realized early that it was possible to operate a global, niche news service from the corner of my bedroom,” Monti writes, “I left my comfortable job at Citibank and dove into my publication—and a companion consulting service for running events—full-time.”
Almost 30 years later, Monti has written over 10,000 articles, covered the Boston Marathon 25 times, and worked as a writer and researcher for NBC Sports during seven Olympic Games. Recently, Monti covered the Chicago Marathon, writing a feature story on two competing athletes and a recap of the race.
Monti has also covered events in over 40 countries and is considered a global expert on distance running.
Still, Monti remains humble; “I'm not a talented writer,” he says, “For me writing is more like carpentry; sizing-up the job quickly, measuring carefully, and executing construction cleanly (and on budget!) matters more in non-fiction writing than the ability to write truly beautiful prose. The reliable writer with clean prose will usually get the job over the more creative writer who can't make deadlines, doesn't fact check, and goes over-length.”
Monti says that the education he received as an English major “laid the foundation for a very fulfilling career. Even though I took a few turns in other directions, I still came back to writing.”