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.

Watching Them Play

At Concord Academy (where I coach), the academic calendar mandates that spring sports start in February with two weeks of preseason, followed by two weeks off for school break, followed a restart at the end of March. I’ve just survived … Continue reading

Posted in Coaching, High School Runners | Leave a comment

Bekoji

The March issue of The Atlantic has an article about the town of Bekoji (Little Town of Champions), a farming village of ~17,000 located in the highlands of Central Ethiopia that is remarkable for producing world-class distance runners. Incredibly, runners … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

It Takes a Village (to set a WR)

On Saturday morning I watched Tyler set a world record for the fastest half marathon ever run a treadmill. He accomplished the feat running on a machine set up in the front of the Marathon Sports store near the Boston … Continue reading

Posted in Records & Statistics | 3 Comments

Hope Springs Eternal

My wife is not a sports fan. In fact, I sometimes think that her favorite “sport” is baiting me, which she does by calling my attention to articles in mainstream (i.e., non-running) publications that she knows will set me off … Continue reading

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What a Coach Wants

“My intention was what every coach wants—to advocate for my athlete. It was a physical race and when I saw the contact and the flag go up, I filed a protest.” – Alberto Salazar When the Wall Street Journal spends … Continue reading

Posted in Coaching, Pro Runners | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Race Report: 2014 USATF-NE Indoor T&F Championships

I woke up Sunday morning in a surprisingly cheerful mood. What was this all about? After all my complaining about February, what would account for this change of heart? Was it the sudden invasion of warm weather, the smell of … Continue reading

Posted in Indoor Track, Racing | Leave a comment

The Five Stages of February

Denial Spring is just around the corner. February was snowy last year, so it won’t be snowy this year. There is no scientific evidence that a rodent can predict the duration of the seasons. Anger Oh, you went to Florida … Continue reading

Posted in Attempts at Humor, Weather and Seasons | 2 Comments

Why Kevin Will Not Like the Movie Adaptation of “Unbroken”

Laura Hillenbrand is a terrific storyteller. I loved “Seabiscuit,” and thought it remarkable how Hillenbrand was  able to create a compelling and moving portrait of a superb, but complicated competitor who, because he was a horse, couldn’t speak for himself. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Foraging

For the past week or so, I’ve had an odd image in my mind, a kind of half-memory, of seeing a small herd of deer come out of the woods and wander into the backyard of our house in Amherst … Continue reading

Posted in Weather and Seasons | 1 Comment

e(Go): Measuring Relative Esteem of Olympic Gold Medals

I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to watch certain events at the Winter Olympics without wondering about the relative importance of some of the more marginal sports. Well into my second hour of watching curling, I … Continue reading

Posted in Attempts at Humor | 1 Comment