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.

A Better Way to Tie Your Running Shoes

“Now up until that moment, I would have thought that by age 50, one of the life skills that I had really nailed was tying my shoes, but not so…”  – Terry Moore The first time that David Wilder told … Continue reading

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Off on a Tangent

On a damp and dreary morning back in early January, long before the winter of 2015 unleashed its 100 inches of snow on the region, Joni and I made a trip out to Hopkinton and ran back, covering the first … Continue reading

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From the (Dusty) Archives: No Excuses

(In a couple of days, I’ll be joining three thousand other winter-weary runners at the starting line of the New Bedford Half-Marathon. I haven’t run a race longer than 10K in well over a year, so I’m not expecting great … Continue reading

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Book Review: Wannabe Distance God

“See, what I called confidence then rings of cockiness now… The cockiness got smacked out of me over the years, but I’m not convinced that being brash and loathing to lose were bad for a runner striving for elite status. … Continue reading

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“Spring” Track

At Concord Academy, as at many private schools, spring sports begin in winter, at a time when fields are unplayable, tracks are unrunnable, and it’s still so cold outside that frozen fingers can’t grip the baseballs, softballs, javelins, and frisbees … Continue reading

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Those Funky Indoor Distances

(Today wraps up a week of posts inspired by the US Indoor Championships last weekend. One thing that made these championships unusual was the inclusion of events on the track that are not normally contested at the national championships. Instead … Continue reading

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How Lauren Wallace Won the U.S. 1000m Championship

(One of the more unexpected results from Sunday’s action at the 2015 USATF Indoor Championships was Lauren Wallace’s victory in the 1000m. Entering the race, several runners, including Treniere Moser, Stephanie Charnigo, Charlene Lipsey, and Stephanie Brown, seemed to have … Continue reading

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Chasing a Ghost

(I’m feeling guilty that I didn’t attend the USATF Indoor Track and Field championships this weekend, even though they were less than ten miles from my house and plenty of tickets were available. To assuage my guilt, I’m going to … Continue reading

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The Guilty Pleasure of Age-Grading

At the end of another long day of plodding, as a familiar melancholy descends and I contemplate how monumentally slow I have become in my late middle age, there grows in me a longing for a happier place, a fantasy … Continue reading

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Mo Farah, the 2-Mile, and ‘Real’ Records

(Photo credit: The Guardian) In my day job, my colleagues are vaguely aware of me as a running fanatic, and so they’ll occasionally draw me into a conversation or ask for my opinion about some running-related matter. For instance, after … Continue reading

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