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.

4 Seconds to the Good

“People who hate to lose are not going to go through with a running career because you have to lose and lose and lose to get to a point where you can win, to get to a place where you’ll … Continue reading

Posted in Marathon, Pro Runners | Leave a comment

Taking up Arms

A couple of months ago, the Journal of Experimental Biology published a study that looked at the energy cost of running with various different arm actions. (The metabolic cost of human running: is swinging the arms worth it?). The study’s … Continue reading

Posted in Coaching, Running Research | Tagged , | 1 Comment

From the Archives: Al Oerter

[First published October 4, 2007] On October 1st, 2007, Al Oerter, four-time Olympic gold medalist in the discus, stepped out of the terrestrial throwing circle for the final time. He was 71 years old. According to the obituary in the … Continue reading

Posted in In Memoriam | Leave a comment

30-year-old Kimetto Sets Marathon WR in Berlin

On Sunday morning in Berlin, Dennis Kimetto and Emmanuel Mutai ran the fastest and second fastest times ever for a record-eligible marathon course. With his astonishing 2:02:57, Kimetto became the first human being in history to run a marathon in … Continue reading

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Orrery

“Orrery (noun) – an apparatus showing the relative positions and motions of bodies in the solar system by balls moved by a clockwork.” – Merriam-Webster At no time of the year does the daylight flee at a greater rate than … Continue reading

Posted in Weather and Seasons | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Cloudless Skies

The Chameleons of Concord had home meet yesterday at Great Brook State Park in Carlisle. Great Brook is a beautiful park, and there aren’t too many things nicer than watching cross country there under a cloudless sky on the first … Continue reading

Posted in High School Runners | 1 Comment

My Back Pages: Running to Belchertown

On Sunday, thousands of people walked some or all of the Boston Marathon course as part of the 2014 Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk. In fact, one of the girls on the Concord Academy Cross Country team walked, and her … Continue reading

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From the Archives: Born to Hunt

[ Originally published October 28, 2009] In Tuesday’s NY Times, an article entitled “The Human Body is Built for Distance”  begins with this rhetorical question: “Does running a marathon push the body further than it is meant to go?” Sometimes, … Continue reading

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Data Driven

I don’t deny that running can be an intensely aesthetic experience. Some afternoons I’ll be out there on my own, running around Great Meadows at dusk as the last rays of sun make long shadows on the path, and I’ll … Continue reading

Posted in Coaching, High School Runners, Records & Statistics | Leave a comment

Race Report: Lone Gull 10K (9/14/14)

Every weekday afternoon for the last two weeks, I drove past a sandwich board in the center of Concord advertising a local 10K road race scheduled for Sunday, September 14. And every time I saw that sign, my first thought … Continue reading

Posted in Race Reports | 2 Comments