1976 Olympic Marathon Trials video with Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Don Kardong

Here is a video of the 1976 Olympic Trials Marathon. It is not the best quality, but seeing videos of these great runners of the 1970s is fun to watch.

This reunion flashback video is of a special movie made by Martin Darrah on the US men's Olympic Marathon trials in Eugene, Oregon. There is great footage and wonderful commentary by the leading runners in this race. The WVTC had 5 members who competed in this race. They were Don Kardong, Tony Sandoval, Chris Berka, Ron Zarate and Chuck Smead. Kardong would place third and make the team heading to Montreal. There is some fantastic slow motion video of Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers(1st and 2nd in this race) as well as Kardong and Tony Sandoval(who finished behind Kardong in 4th). Additional commentary can be heard from running author Joe Henderson.

From marathonguide.com 

Sat May 22, 1976 Eugene, OR 

Qualifiers: 87
Starters: 77
Finishers: 49

Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers ran virtually step for step at in what seemed to be a sub-2:10 pace until two or three miles from the finish Rodgers was affected by a leg injury and had to drop back. Shorter would become the first, and as of this writing only, man to win back to back Olympic Trials Marathons. Don Kardong would finish third in 2:13:54.

At the 1976 Olympics, Shorter would go on to win silver behind East German Wlademar Cierpinski who - in recent years - has been suspected of using performance enhancing drugs. Bill Rodgers led the Olympic Marathon in the early miles but fell back with the same leg injury that affected his Trials performance - he would however, rebound to handily win the 1976 New York City Marathon. Don Kardong in fourth place at the Olympics, missing the bronze medal by just three seconds.

1.	Shorter, Frank ( FL)	2:11:51
2.	Rodgers, Bill ( MA)	2:11:58
3.	Kardong, Don ( WA)	2:13:54
4.	Sandoval, Tony ( CA)	2:14:58
5.	Fleming, Tom ( NJ)	2:15:48
6.	Varsha, Bob ( GA)	2:15:50
7.	Bramley, John ( CT)	2:17:16
8.	Pfeffer, Kirk ( CA)	2:17:58
9.	Galloway, Jeff ( GA)	2:18:29
10.	Burfoot, Amby ( CT)	2:18:56
11.	Busby, Bob ( MO)	2:19:05
12.	Hatfield, Carl ( WV)	2:19:18
13.	Sudzina, Marty ( PA)	2:19:55
14.	Forrester, Perry ( CA)	2:20:01
15.	Kurrle, Ron ( CA)	2:20:18

Which body part suffers the most in ultra endurance challenges?

Think about it. Which body part suffers the most in an ultra endurance challenge. If you can't think of the answer, maybe it's because you just recently did an ultra race of some type.

In an article on the limits of the aging body, David Robson on the BBC.com Human body: The ‘ultra-athletes’ aged 60+ answers this question with a surprising result. It is not the cardio-vascular system nor the stress on the joints (although my body would beg to differ). Strangely, according to Robson, the brain may be the body part that suffers the most.

"Strangely, the brain perhaps suffers the most. One fMRI study, which scanned the brains of athletes (young and old) taking part in a 4,500-kilometre (2,800-mile) ultra-marathon found that the brain’s volume of grey matter fell by 6% across the course of the race. “It’s a very profound loss,” says Wolfgang Freund at Ulm University Hospital in Germany, who followed the athletes with a 50-tonne truck full of brain imaging equipment. However, it returns to its usual size during the following months. For this reason, Freund suspects the cells themselves weren’t dying, but shrinking as their nutrients were drained to feed the rest of the body. “The body is sucking everything it has to burn on the road.”"

 In regards to the aging question, the author says athletes over 60 still do well in these events, despite slower speeds and longer recoveries, although he doesn't acknowledge the fact that there are athletes who can no longer participate in these events due to the excessive mileage and deterioration on of joints and muscles that can no longer perform. Those over 60 still competing are the survivors or newer converts with less body mileage. In fact the author thinks that the older athlete may even do better in these events because of their stronger mental abilities.

The article is a great read whether you are over 60 or not and even if you have no desire to be an ultra endurance athlete. The takeaway is that you shouldn't be thinking about tapering your activities as you get older like we are sometimes told. Keep pushing those boundaries! I wish I had books like this years ago, before destroying my body doing marathons and triathlons: Build Your Running Body: A Total-Body Fitness Plan for All Distance Runners, from Milers to Ultramarathoners - Run Farther, Faster, and Injury-Free Maybe I would be still be looking forward to hitting and competing at age 60 in a few years.

Hot off the Press Reading Recommendations for Movement and Mobility Work

I am still in the hopeful mode of being able to run some day. Except for the other days when it gets so frustrating and I believe it will never happen. There is some secret somewhere, but I just can't find it. I got a new health plan this summer and with this one I can schedule my own PT or chiropractic appointments. I decided to try a PT with whom I had heard many good things from back in August. I went to him about 10 times with no improvements, well I did get better at doing clam-shells and other exercises that he assigned to me that never helped in the past and didn't help this time either. The ART he did on my muscles did not seem to help either. In the end, he and I both decided he wasn't helping me and I heard the same things I have heard in the past from therapists about how complicated my body is!

I gave up on running again by that point, but decided to give it another shot. I started with one minute runs, but the next day I was as sore as if I had run for a mile or two. I tried some longer runs up to two miles, and the running feels fine, but the next day of two all sorts of muscles are thrown and pulled out of whack.

I thought I found some new and unique movement pattern exercises that worked amazingly in a new way for me and for a week I felt great, but then they stopped working. Last week I did a 3 mile run on the treadmill and it felt easy, but the next day and still through to today, everything around my hip keeps firing up and causing all sort of tightness that migrates around my hips, back, and legs. I was hoping to be able to get in shape to to a 5k Thanksgiving day race and eventually another winter of snowshoe racing, but I don't like how I feel the days after running. It is so uncomfortable.

In the past few months, I have been checking out a few books that I hope could help me, but I haven't found the correct therapy (if there is one for me yet). Anyhow, here are some quick observations of a few of those books, but first I will start with two videos.

I wish there was a book or website for this. I discovered this movement and a few others from Susan McLaughlin (her blog) on YouTube. It is based on work by Gary Ward (website). Doing these exercises for a week had me feeling great and is the type of movement pattern I need. Unfortunately, there is not much on the web about this and it seems you have to learn to be a trainer to learn the movements. These felt very "right" for me when I did them, but I realize it is only a small part of a whole movement program.





I always check out newly published books to see what I can glean that might be helpful.

Ready to Run: Unlocking Your Potential to Run Naturally is the newest book by Kelly Starrett of Crossfit MWwod fame. He advocates all sorts of strategies to improve mobility and movement. A lot of his suggestions have been too drastic for my problems, but if you want to go into the "pain cave" then he is your guy. This book is geared towards runners, moreso than his previous book Becoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance. He also has a framework based on 12 performance standards to build his book around. I was reading a bit of his chapter on hydration last night and was convinced to move away from drinking diet sodas and plain water and start trying some Nuun All Day Hydration tablets to add to some tap water.

Build Your Running Body: A Total-Body Fitness Plan for All Distance Runners, from Milers to Ultramarathoners - Run Farther, Faster, and Injury-Free is a book I had higher hopes for. I think it is a great book, but I need to figure out how to run before this book would help me. If I was up and running, I think this would be a great book for building fitness and strength in a smart way.

I have the original POSE running book and met Dr. Romanov when he first published it at the Boston Marathon years ago. He has a new book out The Running Revolution Deluxe: How to Run Faster, Farther, and Injury-Free--for Life I got the audio/video Kindle version. Again, if my hip mechanics were not bothering me, I think some of his exercises and theories would be helpful, but I realized I have a hard time diving deeply into a book like this when I have to first be able to run without the problems I get hours later. It is like a chicken-horse thing. I have to figure out what is wrong with the chicken before I can ride the horse. No one has written the book on how I can fix my chicken! And I can't put the horse before the chicken!

Move Your DNA: Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement by Katy Bowman is an interesting book on human movement. She does some deep thinking, but writes in a practical and easy to understand way. Katy is also very down to earth, however sometimes it seems that she is writing more for a female audience.

Sean Schniederdjan writes lots of short ebooks with interesting takes on movement practices. I tried out two more of his books this summer. He comes up with different exercises to try. Sometimes they pop something back into place for me and sometimes later the exercise stops working, but as the doctors say, my body is too complicated. He does try to simplify and find unusual things to try: Cure Tight Hips Anywhere: Open Locked Up Hips and Pelvis Anytime, Anywhere (Simple Strength Book 1) and Move Like Humans: Feel Better, Move Better, Discover How Your Body Moves The first book is not as comprehensive as the second. You can find many of his movements at Sean's Youtube channel.

Finally The Roll Model: A Step-by-Step Guide to Erase Pain, Improve Mobility, and Live Better in Your Body was just published this week and I received my copy today. This one impresses me greatly upon first view. It is full and comprehensive. Jill Miller puts out her own DVDs and has her own therapy balls and tools under the Yoga TuneUp brand. She also has been working with Kelly Starrett a lot recently. There are photos galore with tons of ways to use balls, blocks, and other tools to work on muscles. I see many things I want to try. From the looks of it, I will spend lots of time with this book. The photos of muscles and bones are helpful and I see so many new ways to use massage balls on muscles throughout the body.




These are all good book recommendations if you are interested in movement therapy and ways to deal with muscular or joint tightness. That said, what works for you may not work for me. These are intriguing reads and guides, but I am still looking for that magic something that gets me running pain-free. My worry is that I have some residual post surgery thing that can't be fixed. I don't quite yet understand why I can ride 100 miles in a day on my ElliptiGO, but can't run 100 yards without dealing with discomfort that next day.

2014 New York City Marathon Slow Motion Video of leaders

Balanced Runner shares this video of some of the elite runners at the 25th mile in the 2014 New York City Marathon. Jae Gruenke also gives a running form analysis of the elite runners on her blog post here.



Here is some more slow motion post NYC Marathon movements!



Here is a short video of the actual competition and race winners.