Author Archives: Jon Waldron

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About Jon Waldron

Running and Racing have been important parts of my life for as long as I can remember. I ran Track and Cross Country at Amherst HS, back in the day, and am proud to have been training and competing with the Cambridge Sports Union (CSU) for more than thirty years. If my bones hold out, I hope to continue for another thirty. Sixteen years ago, I began coaching, first as an Asst. Coach at Newton North HS in Newton, MA, and for the past ten years, as Head Track and Cross Country Coach at Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts. I've been writing about running for almost as long as I've been running, dating back to high school, when I would write meet summaries for the Amherst Record for about $0.33 per column inch. I've been blogging about running since 2005, and began blogging at "the runner eclectic" in 2014. Until recently I also had a day job, working full-time as a Technical Product Manager for Nuance Communications, based in Burlington, MA. But I am now on what might turn out to be a permanent sabbatical. Thank you for reading my blog, and please consider leaving a comment.

Adventure Run

Since the end of the school year, I’ve had two priorities: run every day… and I can’t remember the second one. I wanted to run every day because months of running sporadically, and only when I had time for it, … Continue reading

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Track and Field thrives with only a few fans

I always swore that I wouldn’t write a blog post about the sad state of Track and Field, or — even worse — attempt to formulate a prescription for how to revive it. First of all, what do I know? … Continue reading

Posted in Track, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Watches that Run Slow

It was good to be back on the track last night, attempting my first Tuesday night workout in many weeks. The afternoon was warm and pleasant. There was no sign yet of the showers that had been forecast for the … Continue reading

Posted in Track, World Championships | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Thoroughbreds

The pack in the “Adro” mile, the night’s final event, hitting 200m. As I was heading out the door this morning on my way to work, my wife stopped me at the threshold with a question that sounded accusatory. “Where … Continue reading

Posted in High School Runners, Pro Runners, Racing, Track | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Man with a Plan

Among the final, and not unpleasant, tasks of the spring track season was having a handful of one-on-one meetings with kids who wanted a plan for running over the summer to prepare them for cross country in the fall. Before … Continue reading

Posted in Coaching, High School Runners, Training | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Commencement

“That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.” – Henry David Thoreau Summer began last Friday. If you will be pedantic and insist that the solstice is still three weeks away, I won’t argue the celestial facts. But it … Continue reading

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In the Shadow of Greatness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS80aXRYLRM   I wonder if as he went through the familiar pre-race motions in Lane 1, Dentarus Locke felt an incongruous shiver in the warm Caribbean night. I wonder if he reflected at all on the journey that had brought … Continue reading

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Tilting at the Two-Hour Windmill

“In some ways, a goal of two hours is as arbitrary as the distance of the marathon itself: 26 miles 385 yards, established at the 1908 London Olympics, in part to accommodate viewing by the British royal family. But round … Continue reading

Posted in Marathon, Records & Statistics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

From the Archives: The Rundown on Warmups

[At least once every season, our track team gets caught in traffic on the way to some meet and we arrive with little time to warm up before competition begins. Although I still preach the importance of a thorough warm-up, … Continue reading

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The Discreet Charm of the Suburban Cross Country Course

On Sunday afternoon, I found myself in Framingham with an hour to kill. I had been on my way home from a trip to Western Massachusetts and had planned to pick up my son from his job in a restaurant … Continue reading

Posted in cross country, High School Runners | Tagged , | 3 Comments