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.

How Meb Won Boston

Meb Keflezighi’s unexpected victory in the 2014 Boston Marathon was one of the great moments in the history of the race.  Understandably, most of the accounts of his race have been eloquent about Meb’s personal history, his courage in the … Continue reading

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Their Last Boston

Imagine how the young man felt going to the hospital. He was twenty-one years old and not much more than a kid himself, and now he and his wife were about to have a kid of their own. It wasn’t … Continue reading

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The Spectator’s Dilemma

With only a few days until the Boston Marathon, I’m still not sure how to watch the race. Thinking about that problem, I started thinking about another hard-to-watch event: the Tour de France. I’m not a cyclist and don’t think … Continue reading

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From the Archives: Have a Rotten Day

[I got nothing this morning — too busy balancing work and preparing for a track meet this afternoon — so I dug up this story from the archives. No one liked it then, so I assume no one will like … Continue reading

Posted in Weather and Seasons | 1 Comment

When Did 2:08 Become Slow?

Multiple Choice Quiz: 1. When did we start considering a 2:08 marathon “slow?” A: 2003 B: 2008 C: 2012 D: April 13, 2014 The 2014 London Marathon is in the books, and as everyone knows by now, multiple Olympic and … Continue reading

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Boston 1984 (Part 3 of 3)

“It is good to live and learn.” – Cervantes, Don Quixote. Everything I wrote in the first two parts of this story, I wrote from memory, without consulting old training logs, accounts of the race, or anything else. But when … Continue reading

Posted in My Back Pages | 1 Comment

Boston 1984 (Part 2 of 3)

Leading up to the 1984 Boston Marathon, I didn’t have enough experience to know that the worst thing you can do when you’re a couple of weeks out from a race is to start reading random articles in running magazines … Continue reading

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Boston 1984 (Part 1 of 3)

If nostalgia is defined as a wistful or sentimental desire to relive the past, then no, I’m not nostalgic about my first time running the Boston Marathon. At the risk of understatement, it wasn’t an easy race for me. But … Continue reading

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My Personal Decathlon

Outdoor track season continues, which means my afternoons are a series of frantic attempts to attend to each and every one of the different events that comprise a high school meet. On a typical day, one of my assistants sends … Continue reading

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Early April Workout

It’s Tuesday night and I’m driving to Harvard for our first outdoor track workout of the Spring. It’s almost 6:30 and I’m annoyed at myself for being late. I’m also burdened by the feeling that my day should be over … Continue reading

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