At the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational meet last night, Lopez Lomong put on a show, well actually two shows, as he won the 5000m race in his debut at the distance. Not only was it an awesome show of strength and speed, but it was quite a humorous race. I am glad I stayed up to watch it live. If you missed it check it out here. To skip ahead to the last two laps, start watching at 11:30.
Red and white candy-striped Dolfin shorts used to be considered cool by some runners and "clown pants" by others. Here is Frank Shorter wearing them and leading the AAU Cross-Country Championships in 1973. He beat Doug Brown by 3 seconds despite an injury earlier in the year that caused him to miss a great deal of training. Not only does he wear the striped Dolfin shorts, but he is also donning the iconic Florida Track Club shirt.
Shorter winning his third Fukouka Marathon in Japan.
Shorter and Pre in 1974
The shorts didn't keep Shorter ahead of Pre in the end.
Pre, Shorter, and Don Kardong all broke 13 min. in this 3 miler.
20k mark of the 1977 Fukuoka Marathon, Bill Rodgers leading Sakamoto of Japan and Moseyev of Russia who would go on to finish 5th in Moscow Olympic marathon in 1980
Vintage ad from the late 1970s
Kirk Pfeffer winning the 1977Mission Bay Marathon.
Kirk is a 2:10 marathoner and ran 2:17 as a 17 year old.
Rhode Island's Bobby Doyle finished the 1978 Boston Marathon
in 12th place wearing the non-traditional Dolfin blue striped short.
Even the women wore this "manly" short.
Here is the 1977 Women's National AAU Marathon.
The winner Leal-Ann Reinhart is peeking over the shoulder of
Jenny Tuthill (center) winner of the 1st 1973 and 3rd 1975
editions of the Falmouth Road Race.
Gayle Barron wearing a different version of the Dolfin Shorts at the 1978
Women's International Marathon. Later that year Gayle would win the
Boston Marathon in similar shorts!
Tom Fleming running to a 4th place finish at the 1979 Boston Marathon
Wheaton College teammate Danny Henderson went home for Christmas in 1978 and won the Altanta Marathon in 2:25:28 (9 minutes ahead of 2nd place). The race was in 30 degree weather with driving rain.
It must have been the shorts.
I even sported a pair at the 1980 or 1981 Fox Valley Marathon in Aurora, Illinois
...and then this happened and no one wanted to run in Doflin striped shorts again!
In this comprehensive Gary Cohen interview with Jeff Galloway we learn a bit about the origins of the Dolfin shorts. Teammate Danny Henderson (pictured above) worked at least one summer a Jeff Galloway's Phidippides running store in the Atlanta area, so it is no surprise that he was wearing the shorts in his marathon victory.
GCR:
I remember there being word-of-mouth information about your Phidippides store as Olympic Trials marathon runner, Lee Fidler, brought striped shorts from your store to Boone, North Carolina when I was running for Appalachian State in the late 1970s and he would sell them at good prices to the distance runners.
JG
That is a good memory as those were the Dolphin shorts and we were one of the few dealers in the country who carried those shorts. They were originally a swimsuit company and used some of their striped swimsuit material to make running shorts for a few local track teams, we heard about it, ordered them and runners loved the shorts.
Nobska Lighthouse is one of my favorite places and the hill to the top is one of the best short hills you could ever run. I visited the lighthouse again yesterday, but did not run, which was very hard not to do.
Along the shore on your way out of Woods Hole you encounter a giant painted number one in the road as you start running up the hill. This is the first mile mark for the world famous Falmouth Road Race. It is at this mark on the left side of the road that I saw my Stony Brook School cross-country coach from New York, Marvin W.Goldberg, for the last time photographing the race as I steamed up the hill years ago. It is also the point where I took the lead in the Falmouth in the Fall Road Race over 10 years ago (same course as the summer version but with only 500 runners). I held the lead for only about 1/2 mile, but it was very memorable leading my hometown race in Falmouth just like all the great stars in the summer did. It got very quiet out front with just my footsteps to listen to and a pick-up truck with the race staff sitting in the back ahead of me watching me in the lead. Then some young stud went by and my dreams of winning Falmouth (albiet a smaller version of the race) were shattered. I did eventually finish in third place that year, but for a brief moment I got to imagine what it must feel like to be a champion runner cresting Nobska Hill in the lead of a road race.
Just a few meters after the one mile marker painted on the road, you come across the 22 mile marker for the Cape Cod Marathon. If you ever race the CCM, I suggest that you make this the place where you start your hard drive to the finish. The flat easy portions of the race are too tempting to go out hard. If you save your best energy for beyond the 1/2 point and you start accellerating through the Sippewisset Hills, you may be in for a wake-up call during the last few miles of the race. However, if you get past the Nobska full of energy, you will end up flying home the last few miles and passing all the runners who can't lift their legs who you let pass you earlier in the race. This is a smart strategy particularly if you are running on a windy day like in 2006 with the 50 mph wind gusts. It was a tailwind the last few miles and some runners just couldn't take advantage of the gusts of wind. I recall just letting loose when the wind picked up and looking down at my GPS watch that said I was running 12 mph at times. I felt bad for the runners who were barely moving due to their lead legs.
As you near the top of the hill, the beautiful Nobska Lighthouse reveals itself. Can't you just smell the salty air?
Yesterday my 12 year old daughter Hannah, said she is going to run the Falmouth Road Race some day, maybe in a year's time. She says she has run 4 miles and that is almost 7 miles! She had fun running up and down the hill yesterday.
This is how the hill and lighthouse looks on a hot August Sunday morning.
I did not run last week. Not one step! That is part of the plan, though, and my day will come. I did do some kickbiking, some mountain biking (some walking-after getting a flat 3 miles from home), and then Saturday I did something I haven't done in a year. I clicked into the pedals of my road bike. Biking has been a killer for me. When I did triathlons in the 1980s, the bike caused me so much pain and discomfort. Even though I came from a running background and despite the pain, once I picked up cycling, I turned into a better cyclist than I was a runner. But cycling hurt. I tried to fit myself onto the bike by angling out the pedal for my foot that rotated out. I would always try to keep the screws on the cleat a bit loose to allow my feet to twist some. Even worse, I could never get comfortable on the saddle. Never. On training rides, I would keep getting off the bike to twist the saddle a bit from pointing one way and the back to the other. It felt like the bones on my left side pushed into the saddle and were a bit forward of the bones on the right. There was nothing I could do to relieve that discomfort. I tried every insole, shim, and adjustment possible to get my foot comfortable and nothing worked there either. I just tried to get used to the pain and my body got more and more dysfunctional.
Bay State Triathlon 1987 1 mile swim, 40 mile bike, 10 mile run all in a speedo? On my Centurion- Cinelli Equipe that I still ride today.
Finally I gave up cycling due to the discomfort. Every year I would take out my old Cinelli-Centurion Equipe and try to ride it again., Every year, my feet would hurt within 2 miles. My butt would hurt within 4 miles and I would just want to get off the bike within a couple more miles. Then my lower back would be sore for days. I would try cycling a few times more if I was brave and try to get used to it, before giving up so I could concentrate on my running.
Two years ago, when I got my recent pair of orthotics. I noticed that for the first time that my feet didn't hurt when cycling. My last ride last Spring was almost 20 miles and I felt OK except that it hurt my adductors just like running did pre hip surgery. I was curious what would happen now that I had the surgery, especially since I saw my hip surgeon last week and he said my hip looks real good and should stay that way for many years. I locked into my pedals and took off. I was using the same setup that I have used for over 10 years without change and as I cycled down the road I noticed that I had absolutely no pain or discomfort. I decided to head out to the hills of Hollis and just felt magnificent on the bike. I had no saddle soreness and my left femur for the first time was not being pushed into the saddle. I was absolutely even on the saddle. I have never felt that before (which leads me to wonder how long that hip has been bad). I scampered over the hills. Everything felt new and free and easy. I wanted to go further, but I wasn't sure if I might fell pain after the ride so I only did 22 miles. I had none of the muscle knots and pains that I always used to get after cycling and I had to stop myself from going out for another ride later that evening.
That ride was a revelation. It was too easy, too comfortable, and very balanced. I never knew that cycling could feel that good. THAT is exactly how I want it to feel when I run the next time: balanced, easy, and comfortable. My PT exercises are feeling good. I ditched my orthotics (now I only use them for cycling) and Bryan Reddy over at B-Reddy.org is giving me some great advice, pointers, and information on his IT Band thread.
-Look at this picture again: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaEbch8bC6nryFs9vLTUSjJVe6Y9UdHHlmgSVMH6T6Dl213OrMTg3F_Meb6qffWiM5hvbmwzaWXu-rMyUei3URNYafzTp3ByycHWHuf4QZet458-HqgfrICEs45Z6YhGldG9C65icVlk8/s1600/running8.jpgNow look at your left hip and left shoulder. Notice how they are closer together than the right side? Notice how your left glute / hip is kind of sticking out to the left side? This is classic tibiofemoral rotation syndrome (your femur is internally rotated and your tibia is laterally rotated). Because your glute medius and other hip abductors are so weak your knee caves inward, and the internal obliques are performing extra work (this is why your shoulder and hip are closer together on that side -the internal oblique is short / stiff / performing too much work) and the hip abductors are not strong enough to perform the work they should be doing. The lateral rotation of the tibia is really prominent during knee flexion. This would be where you comment on how your foot is “out” when it’s bent behind you. As per this post, that is likely due to an extremely tight IT band.
Honestly, I see a “you” every day. Hell, Holly (the girl in all the videos and pictures above) is EXACTLY you. I really don’t see anything unusual with you, at all. (Of course doing things in person can potentially be different.)
It bears repeating: I just highly doubt you have femoral anteversion or any true structural issues. Keep in mind, just because you’re having issues with femoral internal rotation does NOT mean you have anteversion. In fact, many males can have femoral internal rotation and have a RETROverted hip.
So, you ran pain free for a ton of years, you’re male, you have narrow hips (anteversion is more common in females who have wider hips)…I would just be shocked if you had anteverted hips. Every now and then I see something I haven’t seen before. But, at this point, based on what I see so far you’re probably in the majority side of the clientele I have i.e. all very, very common issues. In fact, I see your issues in my clients more often than I see clients who don’t have those issues!
Well, I am not that unusual after all. I just need lots of work and Brian has pointed out my weak spots and indicated why I am weak. Hopefully my PT appointments and work there and at home will get me to the point where I can run without pain and feel as balanced and as easy as I did on the bike, because that is exactly how I want to feel!
Frugal Dad has a list of 50 Top Running Blogs which you can find here: Frugal Dad's Top Running Sites. I am pleased to see my blog listed. This is what Frugal Dad wrote as a description:
Recover Your Stride shares everything from inspirational running stories to book reviews with readers. The reviews provide insights and analysis into the featured works, and the stories are designed to motivate fellow runners to keep reaching for their personal goals. The site also features a number of health-related articles which address many common ailments faced by runners.
There are 49 other running sites and blogs listed with short descriptions. If you are looking for some interesting running related reading, this would be a good page to check out. Thanks, Frugal Dad!
Here is Alberto Salazar and Dick Beardsley talking about the epic 1982 Boston Marathon now called "the Duel in the Sun" recently before the even hotter 2012 Boston Marathon. I am about halfway through Salazar's new book 14 minutes. Two excellent books on the this race are Duel in the Sun by John Brandt, who is in this video, and Dick Beardsley's book Staying the Course. This is a rolicking good video that had me chuckling with two stars of the sport shooting the breeze about their moment in the sun and their appreciation for each others racing and lives.
The story of how Dick Beardsley got his New Balance cap back is pretty awesome.
Here is a continuation continuation of the above video where Salalar and Beardsley give details of the race while watching a video that of the race that we can't see.
I am not sure if this is the exact video they were watching, but here you can see the epic race.
OK, I am just posting these pictures to show the consistency of my bad running mechanics for over 30 years. The questions are: Are these typical pictures of what femoral anteversion and tibial torsion look like (on my left side)? Is my stride structural. mechanical, or a mix of the two? Or is it a pattern of poor muscular activation or dysfunction of certain muscles. I really don't like looking at myself in these pictures, but they are an extension of my thinking after meeting with my surgeon and physical therapist today as well as discussions with some friends online and especially Brian over at B-Reddy.org who has me thinking new thoughts and understanding things better after seeing his post on the Best IT band stretch and some follow up comments he has made. There were plenty more horrible looking pictures to choose from, but in the end they all have the same consistent look to them with the left knee twisting in and the foot twisting out along with the knee caving in on that leg. Sometimes a picture is better than words.
Falmouth Road Race- high school -1976-knee in-foot out
Falmouth Road Race early 1980s
same form about 10 years ago
yech! about to tip over!
1980 marathon knee in foot out
Mid 1980s knee caving in
really falling apart- I almost didn't start this race
as my hip was so tight!
Earlier in the same race-crooked as can be
A few weeks before I stopped running in 2010.
I had started improving my form after I got shoe inserts
and some manipulations on my foot. Straighter form made my hip feel worse
and I started wondering if I had a labral tear from who knows how long ago.
I met Meb Keflezighi again at the Boston Marathon Expo last week and he signed this appropriate photo for me:
I am still looking for ways to recover my stride and it has been a good week for ideas. Last Wednesday, I started up some new physical therapy. I am going with a new PT who works at the same hospital that I had my surgery at as well as the same office with the physiatrist who did the trigger point injections. At the initial appointment, he gave me three stretches or exercises for my hips and IT band. I was also told not to run.
The first exercise he gave me is the standard leg lift to strengthen my glutes. My cues are to keep the leg straight and to tighten the core. When I thought it was straight I was bending the knee a bit . I lift the leg up and slightly back from a side lying position. I do 3 sets of 10 multiple times a day. Next he gave me an IT band stretch. I found a video of that one online (see below). I do 3 sets of 30-45 seconds. Finally he gave me a figure 4 stretch. I lie on my stomach, keep me knees on the floor and lift my left lower leg 90 degrees from the floor so mu foot is pointed to the ceiling. I can move the knee out to the side a bit and then let the foot drop over the other leg. I can do this with a light ankle weight holding it down for 3 sets of 30 seconds and then I can lift the leg up and down 10 times for some mobility. All of these target tight muscles around my hip. They feel good. I feel the IT Band stretch over the outer side of my knee area.
The figure 4 stretch, when done by the PT pushing down on my femur and pulling the leg down really gets into the tight hip muscles. It reminds me of a PT that found this stretch for me over 10 years ago when I went from running a 25 mile workout in a new pair of Nike Shox (never wear that shoe) to not being able to run more than 1/4 mile without my left hip locking up and forcing me to stop killing my fall marathon plans that year. It was the first time I "felt" something wrong with my hip. She was a young PT who also said of me, "You were so born to run and so not born to run." She had every PT in her office try to figure me out, but none could. After many appointments she kept doing some research and found this stretch for tight hip capsule. I remember going out to run for the first time in a couple weeks after the appointment with a working hip and actually feeling the most balanced as a runner that I have ever felt. That is still one of my most favorite runs of all time as everything just felt right for the first time in a long time and my hip was no longer tight. I guess it unstuck my hip through positioning. The new PT does a similar stretch and mobilization, but after my surgery on the hip he really does it at about 1/2 the angle and force as it was done by the PT years ago.
I could not find a video of the figure 4 stretch, but I found a video of the IT Band stretch. The video is called, "The World's Best IT Band Stretch."
But wait! I found the video on this site on this blog post by Brian Reddy at B-Ready. He uses it as part of a post on stretches for the IT Band. Brian that goes into detail that I have not seen anyone else do where he explains what tight and weak muscles do up and down the leg and how the imbalances may look like the leg has femoral anteversion and tibial torsion. Whoa, he is describing my left leg. He talks about how all these muscles insert into the IT Band-which is not a muscle! So he mentions a tight TFL-that is me and a loose glute medius-me too! The tight TFL can cause internal rotation of the tibia-me here! The IT Band also has connections to the muscles in the lower leg. Yeah, I have been wondering about the anterior tibialis and Peroneus Longus. What? These muscles can create rotational problems like external tibial torsion. That is definitely me He is the first person to show me how all the muscles on my left side may be caused by muscular imbalances and how they all impact each other. And the connection is the IT Band. There is a lot more in his article and I am still working on it to understand it all, so if this interests you, please read it here: The best damn IT band stretch ever. By the way, the stretch he advocates is not the stretch I am doing, but something completely different and he explains why. So you wiill want to go and see what he says is the best IT band stretch. Brian has also been kind enough to answer some of my questions and give me direction which are in the comments on his blog post.
Tomorrow I go see the PT for the first follow-up visit and I also go see my hip surgeon for an evaluation. I have not seen him since minutes before the surgery last July, so I will be happy to thank him for the good work he did on my hip, but I hope he can answer a few questions about what is happening further down the chain for the last thing I want to do is mess up the hip again due to my poor biomechanics.
So at met this guy at the Newton Shoe booth at the Boston Marathon Expo. He looked familiar and I waited awhile to speak to him rather than to a younger salesperson. I thought he might be one of the founders of the company as maybe I had seen him in a magazine article on Newton Shoes. I explained that I still had a the original version of the first available Newton shoe from a few years ago (with not much mileage on them). I was wondering if the shoes had changed much since that version and if they might be good for my feet (orthotics or not). I explained a bit of my problems and he had me run back in forth in the crowded expo. He did note that my left foot was not kicking out like I said it usually does (something confirmed a few minutes earlier by a gait analysis video taken at the Brooks shoe booth). Here is my barefoot run on the Brooks treadmill. My wife says my left foot that points out looks so much better here than it has in the past, so maybe I am getting somewhere with my stride or maybe I should be a barefoot treadmill runner.
He had me do one-legged squats and remarked how weak my left side was with a definite lack of stability. He told me to practice the squats with a straight knee and also work on a wobble board. He also gave me some interesting advice. I need to start over and only run correctly. He said run for one minute the first day, but do it correctly. After all running is just falling forward and doing one legged knee-bends. The next day go two minutes. The day after that go three. Keep adding one minute per day. By the end of the year, I could be running for hours. That sounds like a great plan, but here's the problem. If someone told me to go run one hour, I could do that. I would muddle through it any way I could. To run perfectly for one minute? Seriously, I don't know how to do that. I have not gone out the door to even try it yet. I think I will fail, because I do not know how to put it together. I am practicing the squats, but I don't know how to transition that to running. He also said to do leg presses on a machine as that is the same controlled (without the knee turning in) movement my leg needs to do while running. I know that was one thing I was forbidden to do post hip surgery, but I think that was for heavy full leg presses on the machine. Wednesday, I go in for a visit with my hip surgeon so I will ask then. I think my rowing machine would be a good substitute for that too. So now I just have to figure out how to run correctly for one minute. Maybe I'll try tomorrow.
After he spent a good amount of time with me (without trying to sell me shoes, which I appreciated) I asked if he was one of the founders of the Newton line of shoes as he looked very familiar. "No," he said, "You may have seen me on television." It turns out he is Ian Adamson, considered one of the greatest adventure racers of all time. I had seen him on television in such races as the Eco-Challenge and the Primal Quest. I also recalled the Primal Quest that had a kickbike leg in it, so I asked him if kickbiking would be a great exercise while I build up my running. He said it would be fantastic for the leg motions and also because you are doing mini-lunges-squats just like I need to do for strengthening. So kickbike away it will be! Ian is right. He told me to take my time and get it right. I want to be in it for the long haul and not go back to running with my bad patterns. It was nice that he thought I was younger than I really am, too. I will take that as I have been feeling so aged the last year.
Last week I had my first physical therapy session with a new therapist. It was interesting and I will comment more at another time. He is working on the muscles around my hip which are very tight. He said no running at all until I see him agian this week. OK, but what if I want to run for a minute? Actually, a few days after the visit, I broke the rule and went for a 4 mile run, but I was experimenting. Another runner had suggested a couple weeks ago that I try Schiff Move Free Advanced Plus MSM which has Glucosamine and Chondroitin and a few other ingredients in it for your joints. My hips have been so stiff and even my principal was asking what was wrong a couple weeks ago as when I walked I looked like I was in pain. Within a couple days of taking them I thought I was looser, but I wasn't running so I wasn't sure. After a week, I was walking in school and all of a sudden I realized that my hips felt really lubricated or slippery as I moved. I felt like I had oil between the joints rather than just that sticky old feeling I have been used to. After a few days of this, I had to see what would happen on a run. It was the first run since my surgery where I felt real good from the first steps and I wanted to sprint and go faster than my shape would allow. The hip joints did feel good for the whole run, so at this point it seems to be a good experiment. I still notice that my left joint doesn't seem to be hitting or working in the joint the way I think it should, but that is because my left side is still messed up and that is the next question, "Why is that happening?"
Anyhow, who would have predicted just a week ago that two of last year's fastest marathoners Geoffery Mutai and Moses Mosop would not win the Boston and Rotterdam Marathons. Well that is what happened this weekend. Mosop ended up third at Rotterdam and Muttai dropped out in the oppressive heat of Boston. Congratulations to everyone who persevered at the Boston Marathon earlier this morning.
Nice video, article, and graphics in this recent Washington Post story on World Championship bronze medalist Matt Centrowitz, Jr. He describes the strategy behind racing the 1500 meters. It is the third part of a series called Profiles in Speed, a closer examination of the first word in the Olympic motto- "Faster, Higher, Stronger."
Here is Lopez Lomong telling his incredible story from being kidnapped as six year old by soldiers in Sudan in a an attempt to train him to be a child soldier and how he escaped to become one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. He tells how he was first inspired by watching Michael Johnson racing in the Olympics on a television set to coming to America, earning his citizenship, and making the USA Olympic team in the 1500 meter race. In just 8 years Lopez went from being in a refugee camp to running in the Olympics for the USA and then most poignantly, Lopez was chosen by the American athletes to be the flag bearer for America in the opening ceremonies in Beijing. As the say, "Only in America!"
More on Lopez Lomong's story from HBO. While in Kakuma, the refuge camp in Kenya, Lopez. "ran and ran and soon it was more than just a hobby. It was all he had in the world."
Here is Emmanuel Jal, a friend of Lopez Lomong, and fellowSudanese Lost Boy and child soldier who dedicates his life to bringing peace to Sudan as well as throughout the world singing his song, "We Want Peace."
Emmanuel Jal has a book, a documentary movie, and a music cd all called "War Child." They are worth reading, watching, and listening to if you want to know about such an inspiring figure.
Lopez Lomong and Emmanuel Jal doing good things and showing mutual respect.
I didn't realize that there was a video to go along with the excellent article in Runner's World last October. Frank's Story revealed the childhood that Frank had growing up with an abusive and highly regarded father.. If you haven't read the article, then you can find it here. Here is the video Frank Shorter's Nightmare which is up for a Webby award.
I have made two blog posts on the documentary Town of Runners and now it looks like you can watch it at the Tribeca Film Festival if you are in New York. There is also an option for 1000 people to watch it online, so sign up now if you are interested. I don't see any cost to watching it online and it says the online showing is on April 19 at 6:45. This is for US residents. I hope that is not the only time it is shown as I have an awards dinner to go to with one of my students that night.
Ever since reading an excerpt in Runner's World of Alberto Salazar's new book 14 Minutes: A Running Legend's Life and Death and Life. I can't wait to read a copy. It comes out tomorrow so the wait should be over soon. I would like to hear Alberto's perspective on his running and coaching career. I was in the Falmouth Road Race back in 1978 when he collapsed and was read his last rights. I also ran the 1982 Boston Marathon when he had the incredible "Duel in in Sun" with Dick Beardsley. I consider that race to be one of the greatest and most hard fought marathon "races" of all time. The 14 minutes in the title does not refer to a slow Salazar 5000m race or the last few miles of a marathon, but rather to the 14 minutes where Alberto was considered clinically dead from a heart attack on the Nike campus back in 2007.
Here are two Runners World Brief Chats where Amy Burfoot asks some great questions of Alberto Salazar. Runner's World Brief Chat 1 Alberto talks about his new book, his heart attack, and the "Duel in the Sun" Boston Marathon with Dick Beardsley. Runner's World Brief Chat 2 Alberto talks about coaching Dathan Ritzebhein and trying to figure out why Dathan's "engine" hasn't produced a faster marathon and why he may hold Galen Rupp out of doing a fall marathon. He also talks about the simple and biggest mistake he made with his own running. Cameron Stracher's review for the Wall Street Journal Cameron has been working on a book of the running boom in the 1970's including the Falmouth Road Race for which I have hopefully helped out a tiny bit! The Rookie an excerpt from the book
Alberto and Galen Rupp talk about Alberto's heart attack:
John Brandt and Alberto Salazar talk about 14 Minutes.
Here is a book for younger people on Lopez Lomong: Run For Your Life!
. 
I am not sure if this is the exact video they were watching, but here you can see the epic race.
So at met this guy at the Newton Shoe booth at the Boston Marathon Expo. He looked familiar and I waited awhile to speak to him rather than to a younger salesperson. I thought he might be one of the founders of the company as maybe I had seen him in a magazine article on Newton Shoes. I explained that I still had a the original version of the first available Newton shoe from a few years ago (with not much mileage on them). I was wondering if the shoes had changed much since that version and if they might be good for my feet (orthotics or not). I explained a bit of my problems and he had me run back in forth in the crowded expo. He did note that my left foot was not kicking out like I said it usually does (something confirmed a few minutes earlier by a gait analysis video taken at the Brooks shoe booth). Here is my barefoot run on the Brooks treadmill. My wife says my left foot that points out looks so much better here than it has in the past, so maybe I am getting somewhere with my stride or maybe I should be a barefoot treadmill runner.
. I can't wait to read a copy. It comes out tomorrow so the wait should be over soon. I would like to hear Alberto's perspective on his running and coaching career. I was in the Falmouth Road Race back in 1978 when he collapsed and was read his last rights. I also ran the 1982 Boston Marathon when he had the incredible "Duel in in Sun" with Dick Beardsley. I consider that race to be one of the greatest and most hard fought marathon "races" of all time. The 14 minutes in the title does not refer to a slow Salazar 5000m race or the last few miles of a marathon, but rather to the 14 minutes where Alberto was considered clinically dead from a heart attack on the Nike campus back in 2007.
