Here is a kickstarter for a documentary film about Guar Marial, the Sudanese Lost Boy, who ran in the 2012 Olympic Marathon under the flag of the Olympics, rather than under the Sudanese flag. He hopes to be the first athlete to represent South Sudan at the 2016 Olympics. The lives, stories, and successes of the Lost Boys of Sudan always interest me and Guar's successes as a high school runner in New Hampshire and again at Iowa State led to an Olympic marathon qualifying debut. Guar will be running this year's Boston Marathon and hopes that the political climate changes quickly enough so that he can run in the World Championships in Moscow this August.



Here is a video of Guar returning to New Hampshire recounting his life and marathon journeys with New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen.



Here are previous posts I have made about Sudanese Lost Boy and now American 5000 meter Indoor recorder holder Lopez Lomong .

"Running for my Life" by Lopez Lomong
Lopez Lomong: Everything is Possible
Recovering Children in Africa: Great Stories of Survival and Giving Back

If I were a writer, Kings of the Road would be the book I would have loved to have written. I am not a writer however, and I am so glad that Cameron Stracher did the heavy lifting and put into book form so much of what I love about the history of running. This is a wide-ranging, but smartly cohesive book that should be on the must read list of every person who calls themselves a marathoner, a road racer, a jogger, or a runner. The complete and marathon-length title of the book is Kings of the Road: How Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar Made Running Go Boom (official release date is April 9). This is a book about how running invaded the consciousness of everyday people all across America in the years between 1972 and 1982: a time we now call the "The Running Boom." There were many catalysts of change that came together to create such a wonderful moment that reshaped the thinking and athleticism of people across the country. The running boom led to mass participation running events as well as to the world leading status of American distance runners. This book explores those roots and moments and how they all came together.

The Start of the 1978 Falmouth Road Race.

There were many catalysts which helped spur the running boom and Cameron Stracher covers them all. He adroitly captures the zeitgeist of the era through the music, movies, and politics of the time as he intertwines the significant people and events that shaped the running boom. He chose to identify the Falmouth Road Race as the unifying element upon which the running movement was shaped and polished. It was there that the three main running characters raced as the torch was passed from Shorter to Rodgers and then on to Salazar as the main players on the world and American running stage. The book is not just about Falmouth and these three runners, nor is it a biography of these champions. Stracher picks out the races and moments where the enigmatic and cerebral Frank Shorter, the friendly and somewhat loopy Bill Rodgers, and the aloof and focused Alberto Salazar strove for and achieved greatness. We learn their background, like we do the history of Falmouth, but we also learn of the multiple other characters, races, and events that merged together to help create the running boom.

Frank Shorter winning the 1975 Falmouth Road Race.

Stracher carefully and intelligently picked the details and moments that galvanized and transformed the running movement and which pushed running into the collective consciousness of thousands and millions across the country who decided that they too could become their own running heroes. No longer would a runner be laughed at for running through the streets in his "underwear" but rather the champion runners were widely known, even outside the running community due to mainstream newspaper, magazine, and television coverage, and thus wearing
red and white striped Dolfin shorts while running through town no longer brought catcalls or unpleasant comments (well, that may not be entirely true!). Runners were skinny, but tough and even admired. Besides framing and retelling the stories of Shorter, Rodgers, and Salazar and their impact on the world stage, this book delves into many of the influences and history of athletes and events from ancient times up to those preceding and coinciding with the running boom. Without being wordy, the details are enough and quite interesting for a reader already familiar with this history of running as well as for a novice without a knowledge of these facts. Many runners will already be familiar with the three chosen runners, but this is not their biographies. Their achievements are noted, but framed within the greater context of moving onto the story of how running became the popular sport of the masses at this time in history and how the careers of these three athletes intertwined over this short period of time.

Bill Rodgers leading the 1978 Falmouth Road Race at about the 6 mile mark.

I love this story, because it is also my story. It is familiar to me because I was there, pulled along in the excitement of watching a world class event develop in my Cape Cod hometown of Falmouth. I became a runner just weeks after the first Falmouth Road Race was held in 1973 and the great champions who came to run and party just down the road from my house excited me to no end as a teenager. As I was watching it all develop, it certainly molded me into the runner and fan of the sport that I am today. I still love the sport, the competition, and of course the Falmouth Road Race as well as all the events that were spawned from the boom in the 1970s and onward  It is a story I know well (and have tried to chronicle in this blog) , but I was entertained by all the new details that Cameron Stracher was able to piece together and highlight in this book. The story is book-ended between two races in which Alberto Salazar twice almost ran himself to death and I was also a participant in both of those events: the 1978 Falmouth Road Race, where Alberto was read his last rights as he lay in a ice filled pool with temperature of 108 degrees, and the 1982 Boston Marathon "Duel in the Sun" between Salazar and Dick Beardsley. In between these retellings lie a history worth knowing.

This is the book that should resonate with the beginning joggers trying to go from Couch to 5K, to the charity or bucket list marathoners who fill the roads in the big city marathons, all the way up to the highly competitive racers who compete throughout the country in scholastic races or in road races measured in distances from the 5k on up to the marathon. Those who have run the Falmouth Road Race know its winding roadways and this book likewise twists and turns as the story of running unfolds. You will enjoy how Stracher combines the personalities and events that somehow can be traced back in some way to a seashore race run along Vineyard Sound.

The roads are crowded these days with runners, but I am not sure the younger post-running boom crowd really knows or appreciates the vibrant history of the sport that is so readily available to them each weekend with choices of multiple races from which to choose from in order to compete. It is time to remember.

A photo I took of the awards ceremony after the  1976 Falmouth Road Race. Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Randy Thomas, George Reed, Alberto Salazar, Amby Burfoot, Bob Hodge, and Mike Buckley.

If Born to Run can ignite a multitude of people to contemplate ultramarathons and barefooted running, then a more sensible book about the historic roots of road running and mass participation events should appeal to both the casual and competitive runner. A few years ago I was running with a very fast local runner in my running club and in conversation I realized that he had never heard of Steve Prefontaine. I can just as readily assume that many, if not most runners under a certain age might not have any clue who Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar are or how they impacted the sport. Here, you can learn their stories, achievements, motivations, as well as learn their influence on the growing sport. You will also read about lesser known characters and contributors to the sport who also deserve credit for their part played in the history of running.The book is also about how the big city marathons got started as races went from dozens of participants or hundreds in the case of the Boston Marathon, to thousands of racers, and then to the point where races had to limit the number of participants.

Finish line at Falmouth 1980.

Nowadays, a race can sometimes have thousands of runners in just its first year. Hundreds of runners sign up for low key local races. My first road race (not including high school cross-country and track races) was the third Falmouth Road Race held in 1975. This was a most pivotal race in the running boom as it was the first time the 1972 Olympic Marathon Champion, Frank Shorter, and the 1975 Boston Marathon Champion Bill Rodgers competed against each other in a road race. A crowd of about 800 runners participated in the race that year and that was considered a huge field at the time. The running world and the national press took notice. Nowadays, Falmouth limits the field to about 10,000 runners. Of course, this 1975 race plays an important role in the Kings of the Road story and I was happy to be there.

Here is a photo I took after the 1980 Falmouth Road Race  of Bill Rodgers and Fred Lebow of the New York City Marathon  having an intense conversation. You can read about Bill and Fred and their disagreements  over money and competition throughout "King of the Road." Little did I know that I was probably interrupting a serious disagreement here.

The book is an enjoyable and fast-paced read. The details and background information is abundant, but not excessive so that a reader is not bogged down in wordiness. The thrill and unique excitement of those early days are readily apparent and definitely true to my recollections. Just like "Born to Run" Kings of the Road twists history, science, and culture together with a cast of compelling characters, a noteworthy setting, and some rather dramatic races. I have heard that certain parts of "Born to Run" were more storytelling than accurate reporting. The events and happenings retold in Kings of the Road are told with a reporters accuracy to the facts (I did notice a couple of minor mistakes). It all rings true to what I saw and experienced! I wanted to rip through the book to find its secrets, however I also wanted to slow down my reading and savor the retelling of events, because they brought back so many pleasant memories. Each chapter starts with a historic photo (nice to see), a running quote, and an intriguing title. As I was reading, I was constantly brought back to many a hot humid Sunday afternoon in August starting in the small village of Woods Hole and ending up 7 miles later on a ballfield in Falmouth Heights. The ocean along Vineyard Sound, the salty air, Nobska Lighthouse  the winding roads, crowds of spectators, bursting lungs and weary muscles, a downhill sprint finish, and a party with thousands of other runners where you could mingle with the running superstars of the day. This is the annual Falmouth Road Race and a great event to evoke the times when running became King and the Kings of the Road became superstars.

Salazar at 6 miles, 1977 Falmouth.

Please do yourself a favor and read this book and become enthralled with the athletes and a time when a sport was born. Learn the history of our sport and enjoy the many stories and characters. Just like any time you lace up your running shoes and hit the roads, I can guarantee that you will have a good time!

This is already a wordy post, but I have more to say. Look for additional posts centered more on my recollections and connections to the Falmouth Road Race with a local flair as well as an additional reason, with ties to Falmouth, for the demise of the popularity of competitive running and the nationwide disintegration of interest in the sport of running.

Meeting with Amby Burfoot in 2000.

I grew up in the small Cape Cod town of Falmouth. Falmouth is a town whose population more than triples in size during the summer season due to its lovely beaches and seaside lifestyle. Falmouth is also know for its annual road race and it was in Falmouth that I first loved running and racing as I literally  grew up running right along with the Falmouth Road Race. This post is a sort of part 2 to my previous post on Cameron Stracher's new book: Kings of the Road: How Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar made Running go Boom. His book traces the history of running during the running boom years of 1972-1982 and highlights the Falmouth Road. Having started running a month after the first Falmouth Road Race in 1973 and being one of the 800 runners that ran the 1975 race with Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers, I consider myself fortunate to be an ordinary runner during those extraordinary days and to witness and partake in the running boom years. These are just some personal reflections of growing up during those times as well as added reflections on the decline of running post 1982.

As a kid, I was not fast, as I don't think I was granted many fast-twitch muscle fibers. I was born with a lot of endurance, however, and I was told I would be a good distance runner some day when I didn't really know what that meant. I had some books on running and famous Olympic runners when I was in elementary school and decided that I wanted to run the Boston Marathon when I was in third grade. No one would take me to the race, so Amby Burfoot won instead! I guess I was a bit ahead of the curve, as I acknowledged the Boston Marathon, even as a kid. Running in the 1960s was not on many people's radar or even lists of things to do (unless you were a kid).

I recall being in 7th or 8th grade and the gym teacher had all the boys run a mile at Gov. Fuller Field. I was in the lead until about 3/4 of the way when stomach cramps hit me, but I was still the third runner to finish and I felt some accomplishment in beating all the guys in my grade who were considered the athletes at the time. Around the same time, I realized that one of my female classmates was very special, Johanna Foreman made the Faces in Crowd section of Sports Illustrated for her running prowess and the entire school had an assembly in her honor. At a time when girls where starting to pursue equality in sports, John Carroll began coaching girls alongside the boys and the girls were gaining National prominence for the Falmouth Track Club. Without knowing it, Falmouth was becoming known for its runners. Johanna went on to be a top American middle distance runner when she was in high school along with two other girls mentioned in Stracher's book: Tammy Hennemuth and Nancy Robinson (and there were plenty of other fast female runners). While I liked the idea of running and had even cut a few articles I had found of people who had actually run across the United States as some sort of inspiration for a later date, I was just a normal kid having fun doing all the sports of the neighborhood: street hockey and street football games, pickup baseball games at Worcester Court or at the ball field in Falmouth Heights right across from the beach, or just riding our bikes all over town.

Then I met my first runner. Well, I knew who he was already, but my family would marvel as we watched a high school friend and runner constantly running by our house and all over town through the summer seasons. Tommy Johnston lived a couple miles away and we kept seeing him zipping around and I think I recall that he was usually doing 8 mile runs. All that I can say is that I was very impressed and wanted to do likewise some day! In those days it was extremely rare to see anyone running on the roads at all!

Tommy Johnson running in the 1976 Falmouth Road Race.

I remember that during the summer of 1973, I kept hearing of a "marathon" that was going to be held in Falmouth. I had watched the great runners for years in track meets that were televised so readily in the 1960s and 1970s. I remember watching Jim Ryun at the 1968 summer Olympics in Mexico City and had watched everything that I could of the 1972 Munich Olympics including Frank Shorter's victory in the the marathon. Now a year later, a road race of 7 miles was going to be held from Woods Hole to that Falmouth Heights ball field just a short distance from my house. I recall thinking that it would be fun to run the race and that I might be good at it, but didn't really know what to do about it so nothing happened. I was happy that I didn't run when I saw how wet and rainy the race was in the newspaper articles afterwards. Tommy Johnston finished 9th in that inaugural Falmouth Road Race less than a month before he headed off to Wheaton College, where he continued to run cross-country.

A few weeks after that first Falmouth Road Race, I was a 9th grader at at the brand new Falmouth High School. I had intended to go out for the soccer team, but had been on vacation with my family during the preseason camp and sign up. A few weeks into the school year, Tommy's brother Stewart and I decided to join the cross-country team. It was an early release day, so there was plenty of time for running that day. I think the date was September 19, 1973 and if so, that is the date I became a runner. We ran the entire 2.9 mile cross-country course as a preview plus warmups and strides around the track as it was also a race day, we ran down the road to cheer on the varsity runners before our race. Stu and I ran together near the back of the pack when our race went off and about a mile into the woods, we went left where we should have gone right. We got lost and two girls from the opposing team followed right along. There was a lot of walking and a lot of time before we made it out of the woods and onto Gifford Street far past Brick Kiln Road where we were supposed to be . By the time we made it back to the school an hour or so later, everyone was worried about the two missing girls. No one even cared that Stu and I had been lost! I didn't run again until the next Monday (another race). All that I remember was that I could barely walk for days, let alone think about running. My legs were impossibly sore (at the time I think we calculated that we had done 8 miles of running and walking that afternoon).

Stu and I did not distinguish ourselves as runners and we usually finished last on our team of some very good runners. The only highlight would be the end of season team race which was a handicap race on our home course. I improved my best time on the course by 37 seconds and was the first to finish in an unremarkable time of 19:53 but I ended up "winning" the race: well, at least being the first finisher as I had improved the most and the starting times were based on your best time. I may not have been good, but I was hooked on running.

Unfortunately, with a new school came some really weird scheduling ideas and and an "out-there" school philosophy. Of course, this was the year when streaking became a fad and so there was a lot of overall weirdness going on. Classes were often only 20 minutes long (called mods) and there was tons of free time to study or seek out help from teachers. Right! Basically, I would spend hours in the gym each day playing basketball or would just hang out in the library with a large group of friends. By Spring, I would ride my bike to school, so I could leave school early and ride to a friend's house. We would stop along the way, if it was warm, and swim in the pond at Goodwill Park and then take his two person kayak out from Salt Pond, go under Surf Drive through the metal "tubes" underneath the road, and swim and play along the ocean off Surf Drive (around mile 4 of the Falmouth Road Race). I got a lot of biking and swimming in those days, which would serve me well in a few years.

With the school system in disarray, I along with 3 other Falmouth boys headed off to the Stony Brook School on Long Island. I knew the 2nd edition of the Falmouth Road Race was going to be happening that August and even though I was now a runner, I did not train or enter the race that year with all the planning I needed to move away from home.

I did go out for the cross-country team at Stony Brook where I found a great running coach in Marvin W. Goldberg and where I also found a running program steeped in tradition and success. Of course, I still was not fast, but I continued to love to train and to race. I also had a coach that would send me postcards in the summer months and mention that road race in my hometown and even the exploits about Johanna Foreman. The summer of 1975 was the first year I ran the Falmouth Road Race and it was my first ever road race. I was also incredulous at the thought that the two biggest names in the running world: Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers were going to dual it out on the streets of my hometown. What a sport! I could run a race alongside the current Olympic marathon champion and the current Boston Marathon champion (and American record holder). By golly, I wasn't going to miss that race. Mr. Goldberg eventually made it out to Falmouth to watch the road race a few times as well and also to convince Bill Rodgers to be a speaker my school and at the New York State Cross-Country meet in 1977 (the year after I graduated).

After finishing the 1975 Falmouth Road Race.

I don't remember too much of the actual race. I recall heading down the wooden bridge to the Woods Hole shoreline in the first mile and running on the grass on the left side of the road when I could. I recall people shouting out and then seeing a guy in a wheelchair, Bobby Hall, go speeding by. I remember finishing and how very tired I was at the end and for the rest of the day, but I was hooked on the Falmouth Road Race and the running boom, now in its infancy was about to experience explosive growth, according to Cameron Stracher in his new book Kings of the Road: How Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar made Running Go Boom. Many key components that fashioned the emerging growth of running as a sport happened at the Falmouth Road Race between the years of 1972 and 1982 with that 1975 race being a pivotal race. Road running was entering its heyday and Falmouth was the spot where the best runners in the country came to race and party. Every year each new edition of the race was like Christmas to this runner. All of the champions and up and comers that I had been reading about in running magazines would show up in my seaside community and duke it out on the roads I knew so well. Not only that, but I could join them, further back in the pack, and prove myself through my own running exploits. I was becoming known as a "runner" and even though my family never once saw me race a cross-country or track race, I would get their attention each year at Falmouth.

Classic Runner's World cover of the 1978 Falmouth Road Race.

For 40 years, my dad was the pastor of the Falmouth Baptist Church on Central Park Avenue right down the road from the finish line at Heights Field. The runners would run by the back side of the church on Falmouth Heights Road right between services each race. I would always have a large cheering section there before hitting the 6 mile mark of the race and my parents would always be there cheering and snapping a few photos of the top runners from the cheap cameras I had at the time. Still to this day as I run Falmouth, I always look around hoping to see a few friends from long ago in the crowd at that point in the race and stop at the church to meet the few people I still know there as I walk back from the finishing line

After graduating from the Stony Brook School, I enrolled at Wheaton College in Illinois and ran cross-country there too! Yes, that is the same school that Tommy Johnston ran at and I chased his best times until the final cross-country race of my senior year where I finally beat his college best time. Even though Tommy was the first real runner I knew, I don't ever recall running one step with him despite both of us running for Falmouth High School and Wheaton College.

Heading for the finish in 1980.

In college, I still wasn't fast enough and with a teammate who could probably be rated the greatest division 3 distance runner of all time on my team. I knew that I would never approach being fast enough, because I truly saw what fast really looked like. I had the marathon bug. I had really wanted to run the first 5 borough New York City Marathon in 1976 when in my last year of high school. I could have just hopped on train the from Stony Brook to get to New York City, but wonder of all wonders, I was finally good enough to be on the varsity cross-country squad.I still regret  not running that race. However, after my first college cross-country season, I went down to Dallas to run in the 1977 Dallas White Rock Marathon. I was a full and willing participant in the running boom and completed 8 marathons while in college.

Eventual winner Alberto Salazar with Mike McLeod at the 1981 Falmouth Road Race.

The Falmouth Road Race continued to be a highlight of every year. I couldn't wait to see Bill Rodgers finally defeat Frank Shorter and then new champions emerge like Craig Virgin, foreigners like Rod Dixon, and finally a young upstart named Alberto Salazar. I loved the race so much, I even cut short a summer traveling around Europe with some friends so that I could be home in time to run in the 1979 version of the race.

1979 Falmouth winner Ellison Goodall

I was also watching the women's side of running as a sport make an emergence. That 1968 Boston Marathon that I wanted to run as a kid, was a year after Jock Semple had tried to pull the bib number off of runner #261 K. (Katherine) Switzer. The Falmouth Road Race also welcomed the world's best women runners and I got to see Greta, Joan, Gayle Barron, Kim Merritt and other top female athletes of the time. Sometimes, I even got to run with them. I remember running down Nobska Hill with Joan Benoit in the race one year and staying with her until we went under the bridge and she took off. One year, I finished alongside women's running pioneer Nina Kuscick. It may have been 1977. I am missing from the results, but I see her listed in different places as finishing in 9th place in 43:05 or 43:45 and that sounds about right where I would have been.




Cameron Strachers's book Kings of the Road: How Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar Made Running Go Boom covers the glory years of American distance running during the running boom and the Falmouth Road Race plays an important part in the story. He says that the running boom ended with the 1982 version of the Falmouth Road Race. Not only did Alberto Salazar start to struggle being on top of the world after that race, but the dominance of American men in the running scene started to decline as well. In fact, since 1982 only one American male runner has won the Falmouth Road Race. It is erroneously reported in the book that Bruce Bickford won in Falmouth in 1985, but the only American male champion since Salazar was Mark Curp in 1988 (Bickford was ranked number one in the world for 10,000 meters in 1985). The 1983 race was won by a Kenyan, Joseph Nzau.

There are a few reasons for the decline of American male distance running after 1982 and Stracher covers those reasons in his book. I would also like to add one more reason to his list and it also has its Falmouth ties.

In February 1982, at a little known event held in Hawaii that catered to a small group of fitness fanatics, a young lady crawled to the finish line. Sports Illustrated had done an article on the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon a few years earlier and ABC had televised the race for a few years. I remember watching it in college and not having an understanding of the biking and swimming legs at all, but being enthralled with what type of athlete would prove most dominant. Julie Moss was less than one mile from winning the female race when her body gave out and television cameras caught the gut wrenching display of Julie making it to the finish line any way she could and ultimately being passed by Kathleen McCarthy for the win just before stretching her hand across the finish line. When the race was televised on Wide World of Sports  thousands of people watched and decided that they just had to do that race (including me). The television broadcast was such a hit and created such a stir that it was shown again the next week.



I think that event had as much of an impact on the way American's viewed endurance sports as Frank Shorter's triumph in the Olympic marathon. People took notice!  Just as I was on the running boom  and marathon bandwagon, I was soon to be on the triathlon bandwagon. The next year at the 1983 Boston Marathon, it was announced that Dave McGillivray was going to put on an Ironman distance race on Cape Cod that September. Dave was a big running figure already in New England as he had run across the country for the Jimmy Fund in 1978 and received a lot of publicity for his efforts. He had also participated in the Hawaii Ironman. As soon as I heard about the race, I was in, despite not having any swimming or biking background. I went out and bought a $300 bike and started training. I had no coaching and did not know any person who had even completed a triathlon, let alone any swimmers or cylcists. I swam that summer off (appropriately) Racing Beach in Falmouth trying to learn how to do the freestyle stroke and keep my head in the water. I biked out to the Cape Cod Canal and back and I ran. One note: Dave McGillivray became the race director of the Falmouth Road Race in 2012.

The Falmouth Track Club had been putting on a members only triathlon for a couple of years and that summer in 1983 that race became my first triathlon. I finished fourth overall, but the newspaper reports had the organizers already complaining about the size of the event and the non track club members in the race. Then, big time triathloning hit Falmouth. The nationwide Bud Light Triathlon Series showed up in Falmouth and about 900 triathletes came to race at Old Silver Beach. It was credited with being the largest open water swim on the east coast at the time and the race organizers were also credited with creating hills on the swim. It was stormy and the storm and angry waters were not just in the salt water. Falmouth officials did not want the swim to go off on time and instead wanted the organizers to wait for the waves to die down. The race organizers did not listen and the race started on time, but they were not invited back to Falmouth again. I got the feeling that the town was not really appreciating the attention the race got when they already had a road race that needed attention. Triathlons did not happen for many years after that in Falmouth.

One other side note about the USTS race. The day before the race at the prerace show, the featured guest was a young lady whose finish had brought the nationwide spotlight onto triathlons. Julie Moss was in town to be the master of ceremonies at this Falmouth event. While triathlons being hosted in Falmouth were stalled after that race, the attention given to triathlons and multi-sport races was on the upswing. And yes, that September I did complete my third triathlon at the Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon (a full distance Ironman event). The race passed through many Cape Cod towns, from Sandwich to Provincetown, but the one town it did not get near to was Falmouth.

Scott Tinley (here in 1985) and Scott Molina would both later win the Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon.

I think Julie Moss, Ironman races, and triathlons in general heralded a shift from running to an interest in other endurance sports. It was the new kid in town and those athletes who were getting tired of running, found some new ways to test out their bodies. I also think that triathlons started a shift in thinking away from an admiration of whippet thin runners to more muscular or well rounded athletic bodies. If Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar were going to be replaced as icons of endurance sports, then Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Scott Tinley, and Scott Molina were more than happy to take up the mantle. People also started getting curious about this new idea called cross-training and soon Greg LeMond and his Tour de France victories started getting people interested in cycling. Fitness takes on many forms and activities these days. I am glad to see American distance running making a comeback on the international scene, however the average runner these days does not have the drive and enthusiasm for all out training and racing like what was going on during the running boom years. It is amazing to think that those early years of the Falmouth Road Race are now part of the running past and showcase the history of your sport. I am thrilled that it happened in my own back yard and that I got to be a participant an observer of those wonderful days.



And here is the coolest part of Cameron Stracher's book. It is nice to see my past blog posts played a part in his research for the book.

Since my last two posts have been about the Falmouth Road Race, I figured I would share one more  photo that traces my racing career to even deeper historical roots in Falmouth. This picture is from July 4, 1961 at what looks to be an early predecessor to the Falmouth Road Race and 12 years prior to its more currently hailed beginnings in 1973. That is my older brother jumping the gun in the center of the picture. I am the calm and slightly ambivalent racer with the white rope belt standing there waiting for the official start. The photo was taken at the East Falmouth Elementary School playground. For those who have run in Falmouth, this school is right at the 9 mile mark of the Cape Cod Marathon.


Here is my mileage over the past three weeks:

March 11-17   32 miles- highlight was running my fastest 8 mile route in a couple months by about one minute- so that is also my fastest time post surgery
March 18-24  37 miles- highlight was 13 mile run- only the 2nd time going that far outdoors post surgery
March 25-31 27 miles- highlight- two 8 milers within seconds of my fastest time 2 weeks ago

Total miles January 97 miles
Total miles February 194 miles
total miles 2013 430 miles

Who knows if this is really the world's greatest stretch? It seems more like a dynamic mobility exercise than a traditional stretch, but I tried it and I really like the way it feel on all the muscles around my hips which were getting way too tight and throwing my running stride off balance. You go through a series of positions and only hold for 3-5 seconds. You can do the sequence in only a few minutes and repeat it a couple of times. It did not leave me feeling sore at all, but I felt a lot looser after doing it a few times and I felt more mobile in the morning.

From the Equinox site:

It is so beloved because it targets every major muscle in the body — especially the ones we tend to overuse sitting at a desk or a computer all day — and it takes less than 5 minute to complete. Since it’s a dynamic stretch with static components, it can be used as part of your dynamic warm up, to prep your body for your workout, or at the end of a session. 

This combination of movement and static positions challenges the central nervous system, forging the connection between the body and the brain that is so crucial to an effective session. When the connection is made, muscles fire properly, so you make the most of every movement and are much less likely to get injured. Plus, this synchronization of movement increases your range of motion, so each exercise can be completed thoroughly.

You can see a slide show of the stretch here.
You can view a PDF of the simple instructions here.

I found the stretch at this site here.

If you Google "World's Greatest Stretch" you will find videos and explanations of different variations of the stretch, the site I linked to has more positions embedded in it. There is no video yet, even though they say to view the video on their site.

Here is part 2 to the Alex Vero documentary Running to the Limits. If you have not seen part 1, you can view it here. The third and final part will be released at the end of May. In this section, Alex travels to Ethiopia to learn the secrets of East African distance running  and we get to see an interview with the great Haile Gebreslassie.

This is quite a race and definitively worth a watch if you are a fan of running. I won't give away the end result, but there is so much happening in this 1979 5000 meter track race with the great runners of that time. In this race are the world record holder holder Henry Rono (13:08.4), Rod Dixon bronze medalist at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games in the 1500 meters as he is moving up in distance at this point (a few years later-1983-he would win the New York City Marathon);  Brenden Foster, the bronze medalist at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games in the 10,000 meters;  Eamonn Coghlan, the speedy miler who would later win the gold medal at the 1983 World Championships for 5000 meters; Bernie Ford, and English runner who finished 3rd in the 1976 World Cross-Country Championships, American Rudy Chapa, Alberto Salazar's college roommate and storied high school and collegiate distance runner, and English runner Mike McLeod, who would later finish 2nd at the 1981 Falmouth Road Race and win the silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games 10,000 meters. Throw all that talent in a race and interesting things are sure to happen, especially with Henry Rono's weird surging tactics. There is even a fall in the race. Watch and enjoy. This is spectacular racing and the video is very high quality, something you don't often see in these older videos.

Last week was not a good week of running and I am shutting it down until I can get in for a M.A.T. (Muscle Activation Technique) appointment. I have been noticing over the last couple of weeks that I am imbalanced and having a hard time recovering from runs due to stressing my joints in muscls in the wrong way. This week I took 5 days off, then ran a decent 8 miler on Wednesday. The next day I was stiff and my joints were tight. I ran 8 miles again, but I should have stopped after the first mile. I basically forced myself to finish the run with my hips off and my legs moving in different patterns and directions from each other. It was hard to run and I was about 10 minutes slower than the previous day. I had noticed that my left foot was pointing more and more to the outside like it used to do as I walk and run through the day. The isometric exercises weren't getting it back and by Wednesday, my muscles were loose so I could fake the running, not with the stiffness the next day. When my foot points out ( I have been told I can never fix the tibial torsion-but I have been able to hold it in position better) it means the way I run is affected. I pronate and roll over the ankle, and the weight is placed on the inner half of my knee (affecting the popliteus muscle) and then my hip is not in position so both hips get out of alignment and I feel it in my lower and sometimes upper back. I have got in over 500 miles of running since the last M.A.T. appointment last November. Hopefully I just need a good tune up to get the muscles firing correctly. I am not sure what the cause is this time: running? starting to do some foam roller work? or maybe the camber of the road? I have an appointment for Saturday, but I hope to get in earlier, because I know better than to run like this and I don't like sitting around.

Running miles April 1-7
16 total miles
446 total miles for 2013

I did find a Janda exercise this week called the short foot. This is a movement to help strengthen the arch. I have heard of Janda before, but have never seen this exercise. It does remind me of what Gregg, the M.A.T. guy has been having me do . I have a lot of foot exercises from him, but maybe I have been doing them wrong. I am supposed to use a similar pull when doing multiple isometric exercises with the foot pointed in, forward, and out for different muscles. I have concentrated on pushing down with the forefoot and pulling back with the heel (all slight movements) but not on lifting up over the arch.

The book alternates between a retelling of his 1975 Boston Marathon triumph and his story of growing up and running through the years. In the first chapter, I learned not only who gave him his racing shoes, but also where he got his headband, and the t-shirt with the "Boston- GBTC" printed on it, as well as those white gardening gloves. A lot of the story is focused on Rodgers great 1975 Boston race as he slowly takes you along the course during the race in alternating chapters.

We learn about his close friendship with his brother Charlie and childhood friend Jason Kehoe. We also learn how Amby Burfoot, his college roommate and Boston Marathon champion himself  played such a critical role as his mentor, even though they were complete opposites in how they approached runner.

Jerome Drayton and Bill Rodgers

Bill Rodgers has always been a friendly person and this book is like a long conversation with him, except for a change he talks about himself. His voice comes through clearly in the retelling. I have met Bill many times and even ran about four miles of a marathon (Clarence DeMar Marathon in Keene, NH) with him. He was the official starter of the race and caught up with me and another runner at about the 9th mile and we just shot the breeze until he pulled off at the 1/2 marathon point (it was just a workout for him and a dream come true for me).  His friendly nature and positive outlook comes through in the book, well that is except when he is in a race. Then he is a cold-blooded killer!

I spent all day Sunday reading the book (a sign that a book is a good read) and had a splendid time reading about the running boom years with Bill Rodgers. There was a lot going on with the politics of the time, the emergence of the running boom, amateurism versus the need for professionalism in sport, and learning to train properly. I think that if you want to know Bill's story for the first or even fifteenth time, this book will keep you interested. I enjoyed hearing his thought processes as he described his racing, his outlook on life, and although I knew the connection with Amby Burfoot, I like how he gives so much credit to Amby's mentoring and the the lineage that was passed on to him from Amby back to Amby's high school coach and 1957 Boston Marathon winner Johnny Kelley (the younger). Bill calls himself the last of the great New England road runners who came up running on the roads rather than on the track like most of the champions of today.

At times the book seemed a bit repetitive and it might need a little bit of editing to tighten it up. Too often we heard about Bill's ADHD or how he used to chase butterflies as a kid. There were a few mistakes too, that as a teacher seem to stick out to me. The text says that Frank Shorter asked for a plane ticket and $6,000 to race the 1975 Falmouth Road Race. I was puzzled about that,as I was one of the 800 people that ran that race, I had never heard that figure before particularly for a race that cost a couple dollars to enter. A couple pages later the price had been reduced to a more likely $600. The female champion of the 1975 Boston Marathon is listed correctly as Liane Winter and a page later is called Liane Miller. These things can be corrected (at least on the Kindle version that I read) and I wouldn't point them out except we had an author at school today and he said that a typesetter retypes the whole text of a book before it is published and they can sometimes make mistakes. I hope it was the typesetter and not the author's who overlooked these and a couple other smaller mistakes.

Other than that, it was a book I thoroughly enjoyed. It makes a great book to pair up with Cameron Stracher's soon to be released Kings of the Road: How Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar Made Running Go Boom as they cover similar events and people from a completely different point of view. Runners who don't know Bill's Story will get a glimpse into the times when running was looked upon as a strange endevour to pursue and the top runners lived in poverty to a few years later when Bill could sell millions of dollars worth of clothing in the first year of his clothing business for runners. Those who know Bill's story will enjoy his retelling on the failures and successes he had along the way to bringing running and marathons into the mainstream and the public consciousness in the late 1970s.

Here is some vintage video of Bill Rodgers closing in on the finish of the 1975 Boston Marathon. You can also see Steve Hoag (or Tom Howard) running with Tom Fleming as well as Ron Hill in his hand-made Union Jack shorts.

Wow, here is a great old film of a 1969 two mile race between Gerry Lindgren, Steve Prefontaine, Frank Shorter, and Marty Liqouri. The race took place in Hawaii. I haven't seen many videos of Gerry Lindgren running. Leif Bugge has a lot of old running videos on his youtube channel.

It has now been a week since the 2013 Boston Marathon. Too much has gone on since 2:49 p.m. on that Monday afternoon. Like others I have been glued to the internet and the television for the past week trying to make sense of such a depraved act. Within minutes of hearing of the bombings at the end of my day teaching school, my initial thoughts and online message was, "Thoughts are with my friends and all the runners and fans at the Boston Marathon finish line. This is a simple sport and certainly is not a place for violence." My thinking has not changed one iota since that moment. While my sentiments have not changed during the past week, my mind has had to suffer the questions of who could do this? my eyes have seen photos and videos I would never care to see, and my heart has been ripped by the hurt and pain caused to so many people, my race, and the people of Boston.

The Boston Marathon is dear to my heart. It has woven itself through my life for decades starting in 1968 while as a third grader I decided I wanted to run that race in Boston. The night before this year's race, I started rereading Joe Falls 1977 edition of the book, The Boston Marathon. As I was reading, I was reminded how simple and innocent it was to be a runner back then. Here is a quote from the first chapter, "The runners is Boston seem special. Maybe it's because they are all God's children. They seem to understand charity and they seem to understand discipline. How many times in the course of 80 years has one runner paused to aid another runner. That's charity. And who will ever know of all the discipline that they put into their lives in order to prepare themselves to run in this race, this arduous test of one's self." How could someone decide to wreak havoc on such a race and onto such people?

As the violence of the bombing became known, I felt for the runners who nearing the finish of such a monumental goal, were stopped. Many were so close to fulfilling months of training and years of dreaming. As I learned more of the circumstances and those most injured or killed by the bomb, I realized most of the victims were spectators.  One of the biggest thrills of running Boston is the hundreds of thousands of fans along the route that cheer on all runners or their own friends and family members. Those who run Boston know how important the fans are to the event. Yet it seems that most of the injured were these fans who came to cheer on the runners. They are such good people to do that!

I can also say, that throughout the news of the event, I often thought of the volunteers and staff of the B.A.A. Marathon. I often thought of race director Dave McGillivray who so kindly let me run the whole "Midnight Shift" of the 2000 Boston Marathon with him (video). I know how thorough and prepared he is with the race each year and just knew that this must tear at his gut. I know many people that volunteer at the finish line or work as race announcers and I was wondering what was happening and if they were O.K. So much planning and hard work by runners and volunteers and staff at the Marathon and those are all good and noble things and I can't comprehend the savage need to attempt to destroy all of that.

In the week prior to the Boston Marathon, I was wishing I had rewritten my review of Bill Rodgers new autobiography Marathon Man. I felt like I had missed my favorite part of the book, not that it was anything insightful  but it is because of what I admire about Bill Rodgers and what I really think that running (at least for me) is all about in the end. Bill Rodgers just loved to run and the passages of him as a kid and an adult portrays his childlike enthusiasm and enjoyment with the physical act of running and being out in nature. We learn about him running through the woods with abandon all the while looking around at the birds and the woods. Running to me is all about getting back to the element of just freely running around like a kid and enjoying every second of it. I have seen Bill like this in a race and it still amuses me. I remember a 5 mile race in 2006 run before a major rainstorm that Bill Rodgers was at. After finishing, I went back to cheer other finisher on. It finished on a road over a dam. Everyone looked determined and miserable due to the race conditions until Bill Rodgers came into view. I watched with complete amusement as Bill headed right for all the puddles on the side of the road so that he could splash through the puddles as he ran. To me that is pure Bill Rodgers and after all the racing and miles that he has put in, I was so happy that to see that splashing in puddles still made running fun!

That is the running innocence that I don't want to lose. I still don't cut my hair short, because there is something about running and feeling it flop around behind you like Billy's hair or Pre's hair or any runner's hair from the 1970s. The other reason is it is one of the few things I can think of that cost money to have something taken from you! The innocence of youthful running,, legs stretching out, jumping over obstacles and cornering around trees, no care in the world, good stuff to hang a lifetime on; running. As I implore my failing legs to restore their carefree youthful moves and looseness, I so want running to return to those days. And maybe not just for my body.

Back when I started running in 9th grade at Falmouth High School, we were given an anthology of short stories to read. One of the stories was called "See How they Run" by George Harmon Cox (written in 1941). You can now find the story in The Runner's Literary Companion: Great Stories and Poems About Running. In this story based on the Boston Marathon a young collegiate miler decides to run the The Boston Marathon because his father is dying and can't. This would make the 20th consecutive race for his father. I remember reading this story multiple times to get a "feel" for the race. It seemed so simple and innocent in those days (I assume it was somewhat factual) with the competitors meeting together before the race at a barn and the camaraderie of the older participants. I guess newer marathoners would also consider it quaint that I remember running Boston in the early 1980s and hanging out in the school on Ash Street on the Village Green in Hopkington. You could just wander in like in many smaller road races today and sit in the hallways and stretch. The young Johnny Burke is somewhat cocky at the start, but in the end he learns about the race and himself and gets the girl. What more could someone want from a race. That was extra motivation for myself to get out their and run Boston someday. I ran my first marathon in Dallas in 1977 and it took 8 more attempts before I beat the 2:50 qualifying time in 1981 so that I could finally run Boston in 1982. That is over 200 miles of marathon running just to get a shot to run Boston. Qualifying was always in my mind and Boston was firmly entrenched in my blood. I remember thinking I would be one of the runners that ran it every year, but my interests changed after having a streak of two races (I ran in 1983 as a bandit in 3:07, but was given a medal despite my protest that I had no number. I was told that I was fast enough to get the medal by a volunteer. This was the first year that Boston gave out medals.) At that 1983 race, I heard about the Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon and I went from being a marathoner to a triathlete. Injuries, life, and other circumstances have meant I have only done about 8 Boston Marathons. I have lost count and will have to research my results someday to find out how many I have actually done, but I found 7 medals (plus 1981) so that makes 8, or 7 if you disallow banditting in 1983.If I don't run Boston however, I am always at the marathon expo and watching the race and being thrilled by the whole day each and every year.

Jon Sinclair and Kim Jones.

Strangely enough this year was the most low key, I have been about the race. I didn't do a big production like I usually do at school, although my class watched the finishes with me! I went to the expo and met and had nice conversations with both with Kim Jones and her husband Jon Sinclair as well as Steve Jones (no relation, but the former world record holder in the marathon). I was laughing as I read Joe Falls 1977 book that night on the Boston Marathon In the foreword to the book, he wrote, " The amazing thing is that no one named "Jones" has ever won the the Boston Marathon. You'd think they have four or five Joneses by now. They have had a Smith, and a Brown and a Hill and an Anderson, There have been two Kelley's, Johnny The Elder and Johnny the Younger. But there was also a Yun Bok Suh, an Eiino Oksanen, an Edouard Fabre, and an Aurele Vandendriessche." I don't think that the author in 1977 anticipated the deluge of African runners who would go on to win Boston. Heck we have even had two different Robert Cheruiyots win the race. Still, no Jones has triumphed, as I laughed that I met two Joneses that tried. Kim Jones (ha, I looked at Kim's wikipedia page and then remembered that the person talking to Kim before I did took a picture on his Ipad and said it would be on Wikipedia soon and there it was!) twice finished second at Boston (read her excellent book) and Steve Jones also was a second place finisher in 1987.

It is hard to recapture the race memories before hearing of the bombing. The winners will never get their due and I haven't even yet read over the race stories or find out how all my friends did (if I didn't hear their times before the bomb). I do know that all my friends are safe, but I also know that one para at the school I work at was hit with debris from the bomb and still has shrapnel in her head and body. She will be OK. I also have heard that Jeff Bauman, the spectator in that horrible photograph taken of him with missing legs in the bomb's aftermath works at a Costco in my city of Nashua.

"I think this has sent a powerful message about how marathons can mobilize people," she said. "Marathoners care about each other on a deeper level. It's something I've always suspected about the running community. Now there is hard evidence."

Joe Falls said:

I have had Becoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance by Kelly Starrett on preorder for a long time and I guess it has finally  been released as I got my copy delivered today. It is big oversized book (400 pages) and is chock full of illustrations. Is you are fans of his Mobility WOD (Mobility Workout of the Day) you already know Kelly has a lot of interesting ideas and techniques for all sorts of movement and injury problems. I have watched tons of his videos, so this will be fun to have his work all organized in one handy book for reference and insight. If you are inquisitive here is a 50 page sample PDF of the book.

Maybe I am not a leopard,  but I became Maasai

My Maasai club

My favorite observation while checking out the book so far is the illustration that Kelly uses when describing the hip joint. He uses an African Shillelagh (club) to portray the femur and then uses some cloth to demonstrate the hip joint capsule and the effects of a slack capsule joint compared to a tight capsule joint (pages 50-51). This has helped me understand some of the things that can go wrong in the hip joint. Strangely enough just weeks before my arthroscopic hip surgery to fix a labral tear in my own hip joint, I traveled to Kenya and met with some Masai people on the Masa Mara. I did some Masai jumping and bought one of those clubs from them. Despite all my focus on my hip at the time, it never registered to my mind that the club I bought looked just like the head of my femur.


And now that I am fully off topic...here is a video I made of the Masai, just because that was a really cool experience.

I got to talk a bit with former marathon world record holder Steve Jones at the Boston Marathon Expo this year. He was just sitting at a booth alone, so I went over to talk with him. There were lines all over the Expo for the current running stars: Ryan Hall, Shalane Flanagan, and Kara Goucher and I couldn't believe that people were walking right by Mr. Steve Jones. I got to hear about the runners he is coaching in Boulder, the Torres twins (now both retired), and the Falmouth Road Race's Tommy Leonard. He is one of the gutsiest runners of all time and hails from Wales. Speaking of being a gutsy runner, The Guardian just did a feature on How Steve Jones Pitstopped his way to Victory in the 1985 London Marathon. Let's just say that Steve "sorted things out." It's a good read and don't pass by Steve next time! I did forget to ask him if he was a fan of my favorite band, The Alarm, also from Wales.

Thinking about trying to regain your youth. What happens with us aging runners is also happening in the music business. The Alarm's lead singer Mike Peters is my age and has a new soundtrack out for a new movie called "Vinyl" a fictionalized account of the time about 10 years ago when he made a point to the recording industry by having some teenagers lip sync and pretend to be the Artists behind his newest single. The song went to the top of the British charts before he revealed that it was really an Alarm song. He wanted to point out that old guys can still rock and that there is a type of age discrimination in the music industry. Here is a bit on the soundtrack, which I have been listening to a lot lately. I don't know if I am being transported back in time to the 70s or if this is the sound of what music could and should sound like today.



An excellent book to read about a similar British champion from the same time period (and the guy Steve Jones beat in that race in 1985) is Charlie Spedding's From Last to First: How I Became a Marathon Champion.

And if you really wanted to know when the running boom ended or at least jumped the shark, check out  the video produced for the 1985 London Marathon as seen at the bottom of the Steve Jones article. Here it is if you can make it through the entire sappy 42 seconds.

April was a cruel month of running. It all fell apart again. I got two things fixed, but added a new problem.  I first realized that my left foot was rotated out to the side and throwing my whole stride off again. My exercises weren't fixing it, so  I went to get some M.A.T. (Muscle Activation Technique) work done on my foot and lower leg. That helped my leg get back as straight as it ever will (it never will be straight as the tibia is rotated).  That was two weeks ago.

Last week, I found a new chiropractor/therapist office in Woburn, Ma. that does a lot of cutting edge techniques and my insurance pays for it, so I went there on Wednesday. The therapist did a mix of techniques from some M.A.T. work to some Muscle Energy work to rotate my left hip back. She also did some karate chops to my heels and arches. I don't know what that was! I felt really good and perfectly balanced after the appointment. That night was my first track workout with the Gate City Striders in almost three years. Strangely enough, I think I miss running track workouts the most in the since my hip surgery and I was so excited to get out there and run. I had waited long enough.

I ran a two mile warm up with a friend and felt completely "normal" for a change. The workout was 6 X 800 meters and it was a beautiful evening for running. I wasn't sure which group to run with, but hoped I could keep up with the third group. I felt absolutely fantastic throughout the workout. I ran the 800 meters between 3:10 and 3:20 with the faster ones at the the end of the workout. I hung around in about fifth for the first three, but I finished 2nd in the final three behind some young kid. I ran hard, but not too hard. I felt that "inner pain" of pushing that I was missing, but was backing off enough, not to lose form. In other words, it was a great track workout for the shape I am in.

I felt like I was at about 95% balance and efficiency and I haven't been at that point since I don't know when. I had done 4 X 400 on my own on Sunday and I was off balance and my left leg was not working as well as my right. This workout was such an improvement after the morning therapy.

I even felt my hips in balance and my left leg rotate internally which allowed my big toe to get on the ground and there was a strength and fluidity in my stride that I have missed for years. That was as close to perfect running as I could be, so I was thinking that the morning appointment had worked out perfectly and I was back on the road to running.

There was only one glitch. After the fourth interval, I felt a tiny "electric" like twinge in my left glute medius or pirformis. My walk turned into a hobble for about 20 seconds; enough for someone to ask if I was OK. I walked it off, started gingerly on next interval and loosened right up after a short bit. Of course, my glute felt a bit shot after standing around after the workout, but I was so very pleased after a rough month of running.

The next day, I felt good and went for an afternoon run, but shut it down after 20 feet. The glute tightened right up. The next day, I hobbled through a 3 mile run, then tried a new pair of shoes the following day and made 3 again, but it was tightening up again on the run.

I took Sunday off and feeling good again, went to run 7 miles on Monday. Nope, the glute shut things down and I had to walk 3 miles home. Lucky it was a nice day. On the walk, I started remembering the feeling in my glute and stride and I believe the trigger point(s) in my glute have returned. The electric spasm I had on the track was exactly where my worst trigger point had been before.

Now I have to wait until Friday to get a trigger point injection. The last time I had one was in November and right after it I was at the point where I started building and enjoying my running again. Thursday, I see the new therapist for a second appointment, so it will be interesting to see what she thinks. hopefully I can run by the weekend.






Despite that one gloriously perfect day of running, this was a horrible month otherwise. Here are the miles.

April 1 - 7 (16 miles total)
April 8-14 (6 miles total)
April 15 - 21 (19 miles total)
April 22 - 27 (11 miles total)

Total miles January 97 miles
Total miles February 194 miles
Total miles March 139 miles

I feel like I have seen way to many doctors and therapists (of all kinds) in trying to "recover my stride" and some things hit me today about how some "get it" and some have "no clue". Here is my lists of what can make a therapist or a doctor "stand out" in their field and what makes them look like they really don't care about the patient.

1) If you don't know the answer, ask around for help. Now I don't know what goes on behind the scenes with all therapists and maybe they talk a lot, but I was most impressed with one PT I went to about 15 years ago when my hip got "stuck" right at the tail end of my marathon training season (hint: never run a 25 mile workout in Nike Shox-actually never run in Nike Shox). She worked for a couple of weeks trying to get me running.When she couldn't figure out what was wrong despite all our efforts, she had all the other PTs in the office check out my hip. They couldn't get it working either, so she researched at home. She found a figure four stretch that immediately brought relief to my hip capsule and I was back to running pain-free that afternoon. She was also the PT who said of me, "You were so born to be a runner, and so not born to be a runner." Unfortunately, she moved away, but she set the tone for how awesome a PT person could be.

2) Do hand out written or illustrated handouts for exercises you want done. Better yet, create videos of your instruction. I know therapists are busy, but how hard is it to give a handout. I forget the exact mechanics of a stretch or movement real quickly particularly when I am given more than one thing to remember. The M.A.T. guy I went to last fall, spent a couple of minutes filming the many movements he wanted me to do for my feet and back. I still have to watch the videos to get things right or I would be messing up all over the place. He just handed me the camera and I filmed his demonstrations and explanations. Then he sent me the video. Last month I just took the video on my camera. If you want me to get better and to do things precisely, this is a great idea! Better yet, show your enthusiasm for what you do on a website or blog. After finding this website, I made sure she was my PT pre and post hip surgery. I knew she cared about helping and informing patients.  I drove an hour each way to get to her office. She has since moved to Arizona, which is too far to drive.

3) Explain what you are doing and why. Explain the reasoning. I love information about how my body works and what you are looking for or trying to do. When I have the M.A.T. work with Greg, I was getting a running commentary of everything he was doing, as he explained each muscle he was testing and how it worked. I can't remember half of what he said, but I could match things up with what I have read or studied and found all this knowledge fascinating. I am trying to be involved, so please don't think I am not interested in your thinking or that I am a dummy. I am your student.

4) Listen to my questions and feedback. Again, I will reference Greg and his M.A.T. work. The first thing he asks me before a session is about what I feel is going on and what do I think needs work. Usually we are on the same page, but is nice to know he is listening and paying attention to my feedback changes the course of his work that day. Now here is an anecdote from today. I went to get trigger-point injections in my glutes Ever since my surgery, I have mentioned to many people including my surgeon's office during last week's appointment about the high up tightness in my adductors. No one seems to address that issue, yet still almost two years post hip surgery, I have a hard time lifting my left leg. I have to "assist" it when getting in and out of a car and some mornings I can barely put my socks and shoes on as well as my pants. The only thing I got out of the surgeon's assistant last week was that I could pursue an MRI at some time if I wanted. I would like to know "why" and what is going on as this seems to happen to many hip surgery patients. It didn't help that while I was waiting in the surgeon's office before the appointment, I was checking a "Arthroscopic Hip Patient" Facebook page that has members from around the world and two patients where not happy with the quality of care of my surgeon and later needed revisions. Oops, not the material you want to read in the waiting room!  Now, I have faith that my surgeon did a good job with me (but maybe the office is avoiding something he missed). Thee adductor thing seems to be a real problem and they seem to not be interested in it. I told them it feels like a bone is stopping my adductor from moving or causing it to quickly weaken.  I had x-rays taken before the appointment that the assistant looked at and I was supposed to bring a copy to my new therapist at her request. I forgot to pick them up and they hadn't been mailed. I saw the therapist yesterday, so I picked them up while getting the trigger-point injections today to bring next week. I saw some notes on the the x-rays that were never explained to me and they were basically the same notes from last fall's x-rays that were also included. These were not explained to me. Nor was my higher left hip. See the images below. it is quite noticeable!

1. Mild left hip osteoarthritis and left hip joint space narrowing.
2. Minimal right hip joint space narrowing.
3. There are pubic symphysis osteophytes. (and I think it was mentioned a narrowing here too on the recent x-ray which I left on my desk at school)
4. There is minimal narrowing of the bilateral sacroiliac joints.

Anyhow, I don't want to spend any time worrying about more things being wrong, but when I read these and typed them into Google, I got a some pages talking about Osteitis Pubis or Sports Hernia and I recall reading pages of these on the running message boards back when I was trying to figure out if I had a labral tear. The interesting thing is the new therapist told me these bones were misaligned last week and we did some Muscle Energy Technique work to realign them. Something is going on, but the surgeon's office just ignored the reports or didn't share them with me. When I look up osteophytes, it sounds like they are bone spurs. Well, I mentioned something felt like bone, was rubbing against my adductors, could that be it? I appreciate doctors not wanting patients to self-diagnose, but I was the one who pursued the labral tear when other doctors didn't even mention it. I am now curious is something else is going on?

5) Don't just treat my as your paycheck. Speaking of labral tears, this reminds me of an chiropractor who did ART (Active Release) work whom I visited during the summer of 2010. I had to stop running due to my hip. When I started seeing him that July, I though he was very knowledgeable, I kept mentioning a labral tear and he said, "No." He kept doing ART that had no real effect. Some days, I felt good, some I didn't, but my hip kept getting progressively worse. Finally at the end of that August, I called to cancel an appointment  because I was convinced it was a labral tear and I couldn't run any more and his work wasn't helping. He said that I should come in anyhow and at the end of that appointment he said that I have two more visits left and he would like to try some new things. I went in and whatever he tried did not work. At the end of the last appointment that my insurance would cover, his last words were, "Maybe, you do have a labral tear after all!" Over one year later, I got a letter from his office that those last three visits were not covered by insurance and I had to pay up the difference from the copay to his full price. He is also the guy, that when I asked for a recommendation for a  massage that summer and I needed someone real good, he recommended his secretary. She was a nice lady, but was the worst massage therapist I have ever had. She barely pressed on my muscles and kept asking if she was working too hard. If you want to  know who not to go to in Manchester, let me know. I'll tell you. This guy was not interested in anything but accumulating as many office visits from patients as he could. I got suckered by another chiropractor many years ago, back when my insurance didn't cover them, he convinced me to come in on his plan for 10 weeks or so where I could come in up to 3 times a week for about $100 a week. I would be fixed, he said. He did so much work and pushing on my back that I was just exploding sometimes after being in his office. My nerves were just completely shot. He got a nice family vacation paid for out of the deal and it fixed nothing for me. I guess this is more of a warning to be aware of the shysters out there!

6) Let me know you care. First off, today I was able to see my physiatrist when I realized that I had developed another trigger-point in my glutes. Earlier in the week, I was told by her office that she was going on maternity leave and wouldn't be able to see me, but they would see if someone else could do it. Later, the office called back said that she wanted to see me today, even though it was her last day of work until August. That was very helpful as she knew where to look for the trigger points and my history with them. She found a large trigger point very deep in my glutes and hopefully the shot will help it relax. Also, if you take the time to research something or report back to me later on a question after you thought about it, then I know you are a top-notch and caring professional. This doesn't happen often, but I want to feel like you care about my condition as much as you care about an elite athletes injuries. I can't recall this ever happening with my injuries, but I know a pediatrician in Nashua that my kids have had, who has called at times out of the blue to check on the condition of my kids and if they were doing better after a sickness or an injury. Good guy! Take the ART chiropractor above, who earned a lot of money off of me and the (at least) two runners who went to him that summer at my recommendation, before I realized his treatments weren't working and his focus was on getting me in to the office as often as he could. After telling me, "Well, maybe it is a labral tear," they guy never called to ask what eventually happened with me. He could have learned a lot about labral tears from me, and maybe saved another athlete from going to countless ART sessions without fixing the problem. Oh wait a minute, that might interrupt the flow of money going into his pockets. You would think, that after so much time and effort treating someone, he might want to find out what eventually happened.

7) Do not treat me, just like you did the last guy. I hate the cookie-cutter approach where everyone gets the same menu of exercises. I had a guy like this for PT last year and at other times in the past. They act like they know everything, and don't listen or belittle any questions or thoughts you have. And they certainly don't see the whole picture of how the body works as a unit.

8) Don't rush me through my visit. I can tell when you aren't paying attention or trying to get to the next patient as quickly as possible.

9) Are you up to date on your reading for your profession. Many times I ask a doctor or therapist about something I have read and I might name a prominent person in the field of therapy or muscle movement and they have no clue what I am talking about. I also might mention things like Postural Restoration. M.A.T., ART, or other newer techniques and the therapist has never heard of these. They can't know everything, but if it is your profession and if you don't know the newer and more cutting edge techniques then maybe all you know is your cookie cutter exercises. On the other hand, I am currently at my present therapist, because my chiropractor in Nashua mentioned something new called ARPwave that might be helpful and I found this place in Woburn that does it as well as M.A.T., M.E.T., and other new and interesting techniques.

10) Never be this guy! One of my most top ten read posts through the years on this blog deals with the Egoscue therapist who admitted to me during my first expensive session, that he was doing Egoscue because his friend told him it was good money! According to my stats on Blogger that is nearly 30,000 hits about my negative experience (and lots of negative publicity for Egoscue). I want to know how much you love what you are doing, not how much money you can get out of me!

Anyhow here are some images of my hips. I hope my new therapist can tell me more.

Sep. 2012 Notice the tilt and higher left hip. I am standing straight in these x-rays.

April 2013 same tilt. Talk about consistency! That is one thing my new therapist said we are working on (the up-down of the hip) Can this really be changed? and no wonder I have hip problems. I had a chiropractor about 15 years ago take x-rays and when he put heel lifts under my right foot and took new x-rays the left hip went up even higher. He was completely baffled and just gave up.

Left hip joint April 2013.

Nike had a famous advertisement that said, "There is no finish line." A crucified Jesus uttered the final words. ""It is finished," before dying on the cross. Minwax promises a long lasting finish to your wood products. While my running problems are nothing close to Biblical in nature, I do feel completely unlike the Nike runner who keeps running because there is no point in finishing up with running when you can enjoy it so much and instead I feel like a runner that may never get his legs back and realizing that as far as running goes, things might just be finished.

I am discouraged and embarrassed that I can't get my hip working and feeling right. The whole point of the blog is to announce that hard work leads to a victory some day over my hip problems so that I can happily go running off into the sunset. Every once in awhile  I get that hope that I am almost there, and then, I can't run again and my faith in my ever getting completely healed is destroyed.

Last week I ran a 2 mile treadmill run after going for my 2nd visit to the new therapist. The next day I had a trigger point injection for a really tricky trigger point deep in my glutes. I thought I would be good to go, for after my first visit to the therapist I had a close to perfect night of running at my first track workout in three years. I waited two days to run and Saturday I could barely make three easy miles. I took another day off and I had the same result on Monday. I have had only one good run in about one and 1/2 months (and it was awesome) and I can barely be encouraged my a couple of short awkward runs each week. My hip isn't working right and I am getting reoccurring  pains from my toe to my knee and up through the hip (adductors and gluteus ) and into my sacrum and lower back. It feels almost  like it did before I had to stop running before my surgery and is nearing the worst it has felt since the surgery.

I have a visit to the therapist tomorrow and if she can't get me back to how I felt after the first visit just two weeks ago, then I will be pursuing an MRI as my surgeon's office could only offer that to me two weeks ago. I really don't want to contemplate a failed surgery or a new surgery, but I am not convinced that my surgeon fixed everything. I learned that he is one of the few surgeons who doesn't believe in FAI (hip impingement due to bony problems) so he doesn't fix the parts of the bone that can create the impingement. It there is a bone problem, it can retear the labrum.

I know I didn't get the best post-surgery care either from my surgeon's office and I was left to pursue things basically on my own. I hope the labrum is still OK and I have a hard time getting answers from someone as to why the pinching feeling feels like nerve pain and then why that pain flares up through my body. I also also can tell my whole hip complex doesn't seem to work or move properly. The other day while trying to run, it felt like the whole hip was completely backwards.

I also realize that at another finish line, people had their legs blown off just  last month and there are so many people with much more pressing medical problems than me and my faulty hip, so I can't really feel too sorry for myself. I am a very lucky guy with the life that I have.  I would just like to know once and for all what is really going on with my hip and what do I need to do to keep running. And if I can't ever get back, then should I just retire the whole thought of ever running competitively again. It has been a good 40 years of running. I just want more.

I am at a loss of words in explaining the complexities to the doctors or therapists so that I can get a knowledgeable and satisfactory answer from them, particularly when it seems they don't get what I am saying. I know I am chasing lots of ideas around as I chase the pain around, but I can't seem to get a medical professional to join alongside me in my quest and my surgeon's office just seems clueless (and I am not the only patient to have questioned this surgeon- I have found many that have had to go to another surgeon for a revision). I don't think and I hope that is not me, but there is definietly something going on in my hip and I would hope that the surgeon's office would have some type of answer or advice.

I did see a wonderful blog post this afternoon that for the first time explains what the medical field should be doing with cases similar to mine where the hip just doesn't seem to cooperate. This type of arthroscopic hip surgery is relatively new (about 10 years), so the doctors don't have all the right answers yet. It is good to see that some doctors are starting to look at things a bit deeper due to patient concerns.

The blog Hip Impingement News by The Entrepreneurial Patient newest post Impingement and the Unraveling of Related Diagnoses explains this recent history and the struggles that certain patients have.  She talks about a recent symposium where some of the top hip surgeons began to address this situation with a layer of diagnoses:

Dr. Kelly presented his process for obtaining “layer diagnoses” for the painful hip as compensatory soft tissue changes are common. He encouraged attempting to identify diagnoses for each layer. He identified Layer 1 as bone and cartilage abnormalities. According to Dr. Kelly, Layer 2 diagnoses are defined by abnormalities affecting the tissues of the hip capsule and labrum, which lack ability to function. Layer 3 diagnoses refer to dysfunction of the muscle (contractile) tissues. Layer 4 diagnoses include processes affecting neural structures, such as nerve entrapment syndromes.

I think that is exactly what I have been trying to articulate to my doctors and therapists, but they don't yet seem to have ears to understand. While I had surgery. It only was a layer 2 correction. How do I get help for layer 3 (what I refer to as the hip not working properly and why I sought help with MAT) and layer 4 (the "pinching nervy problems" that I get). I am now also getting concerned with that Layer 1. I know my hip is abnormal with the femoral anteversion, so I wonder if there is some abnormality (maybe even FAI) that causes the pinching feeling. I wish I didn't have to think of these things, but I do want to know what the end result of all of this is so I can know if I can faster and more ably to more finish line or if that active part of my life is indeed finished.

It was be awesome if the therapist tomorrow can get me back to where I was 2 weeks ago after that first visit.

Things I am thinking about:

A short time post surgery, I started using Schiff Move Free for my hip joint. At first, it felt like it "juiced up" my hip for a short while, then I didn't notice anything in particular. I stopped using it in February right at the time I did a 71 mile week. I didn't notice any loss of hip function, but things started falling apart about two months ago. I also can't tell if the problem is in my hip joint, it feels more like the muscles and ligaments that surround the hip.

I started eating gluten-free at the end of November. Soon after, my running seemed to get better. I was hoping that a gluten-free diet would reduce inflammation. I stopped being real picky about being gluten-free about the time my hip started gradually doing worse. I really was not good at finding and making gluten free food that was enjoyable to eat. Maybe, I need to test out other anti-inflammation diets. I still try to be as gluten-free as possible. I am just not religious about it.

At my first visit to the new therapist, she tested my left TFL as weak. She activated the muscles then had my walk for a short time in my Hoka One One Bondi shoes. Then she retested my TFL and it was weak again. She thought the shoes may not be good for my feet (or maybe it was just getting up and walking). I decided to buy some new Brooks shoes and while I never felt good walking in the Hokas, I felt firmly connected to the ground in the Brooks. However, I haven't had a good run yet in the Brooks shoes and I liked running in the Hokas.

Update:
This new book from the author of The Entrepreneurial Patient blog mentioned above is a must read book for anyone with hip problems and is thinking about about arthroscopic hip surgery or has had arthroscopic hip surgery for a labral tear or FAI.

Anna-Lena Thomas of the The Entrepreneurial Patient has written the first (that I know of) book for the labral tear patient who has problems with their hips. The Entrepreneurial Patient: A Patient's Guide to Hip Impingement is a must read for any person (and therapist and doctor) who is curious about hip problems or suffers from a labral tear or femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). I found Anna's blog and this post last week that talked about the multiple and complex issues of the hip joint and helped categorize different layers of diagnoses. It was a very helpful post for myself.

While visiting her site, I noticed she has recently published a book: The Entrepreneurial Patient: A Patient's Guide to Hip Impingement While I have not been diagnosed with FAI (my surgeon doesn't treat it- I understand) I was curious about what she had to say about hip arthroscopic surgery and the different diagnoses, procedures, and outcomes. Upon downloading the ebook version, I did a real quick read of the book since it was late at night. I went back to reread it all over again this weekend and I wish this book had been written before I had my surgery in 2011. She walks you through her story, explains the mechanics of the hip and different forms of surgery. She uses data from studies and interviews and explains what a patient should know and do before and after surgery.

From my experience, just about everything I have learned about labral tears and arthroscopic surgery, (including my own) has been from my own research which is primarily found on online message boards from other patients. In fact, I believe I would never had been treated or had surgery if I didn't advocate for myself through self-diagnosis. No doctor or therapist ever suggested a labral tear to me as the source of my long-time problems, which started as a lower back problem similar to Anna's experience. I had the resultant back, sacrum, psoas, adductor, and glute problems as well as muscular imbalances long before I felt anything in my hip (although in retrospect the clicking, catching, and giving away in that hip joint should have been a clue that something was wrong with the joint).

Anna gives a solid education regarding the hip and it is good to have it in one place rather than in a bevy of numerous online postings. The book is worth its weight in gold, just because she tells you how to interview and seek out qualified surgeons and therapists. I thought I did lots of work to get my surgeon, but really he was only the second surgeon I called (the first considered me too old at over 50). My surgeon has excellent credentials, but I had heard he doesn't treat FAI and I really should have asked around to see if I have it and I never questioned him on it either. I still don't know if I have FAI.  I also did not meet my surgeon until right before the surgery. If I had researched and asked around, I would have found out how hands-off he is post surgery. I was given a sheet with a few exercises and told to call his office in 10 days, from which I was told I could start running when I felt ready. I waited until three weeks post surgery and I have yet to hear of anyone starting running so quickly! I don't think that was a problem for me, the bigger problem was I didn't know to ask about PT. I asked almost two months later, just to be sure.

If I had this book, I would have been much more prepared to question my surgeon or get second opinions from other surgeons before getting my surgery. Anna also highlight all the things to do pre and post surgery and the types of therapies that can help. She also goes over the many complications that can result from hip surgey: the muscle imbalances and the tight adductors and glutes, things that I am still fighting in my own recovery. One thing I found interesting is that Anna found that stretching the hip flexor was not helpful to her. I have noticed this too. If I stretch the psoas or hip flexor I seem to be worse off than if I leave it alone. Do you want to know how many times I have been told that stretching the psoas would solve my problem? Nope! She also gives advice for dealing with insurance companies.

This was one Kindle book where I constantly highlighted passages throughout my reading so I can go back again and reread. I got a wonderful one-stop education from someone who has done her homework. This should really help out the many patients who are curious about what is wrong with their hips. Message boards are great, but you can spend a significant amount of hours reading them to get the information that you need.

I thought I had done a lot of work researching on my own, but what I learned was only a small amount compared to all the Anna imparts. I am pleased to note that some of the important treatments that I discovered such as MAT are some of the treatments that she thinks are worthwhile. Hip arthroscopic surgery is a relatively new field that continues to grow. I also think that my recent frustrations (and last two posts) dealing with recovery and doctors and therapists mirror what Anna (and others) have discovered. It seems that getting a diagnosis is difficult (the pains of a torn labrum are referred to other areas), in surgery it is important to get the best surgeon that you can, and that recovery seems to be the most difficult part of all due to doctors and therapists not having a protocol or understanding of the needs of the patient after surgery. Muscles imbalances, deactivated muscles, and other problems such as in the psoas. glutes or with the adductors are common. Just like I have found, standard hip PT does not really help. I have some new ideas to pursue and some new ammunition when I talk with doctors and therapist that I did not have before I read the book. I think I was on the right track before, but this book will help me articulate things better and I now now that my hunches and speculations are probably right on, so I need to pursue them and not just trust that things will work out on their own. I can only tell you that if you are curious about your hip or are dealing with hip surgery and its aftermath, this is the one best book you can read and when you are done you can go to the message boards and fill in the gaps with the support and experiences from other patients that are so willingly shared.

With the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) currently underway, Austin Murphy of Sports Illustrated takes a wonderful 25 year peek back to at the 1988 Giro which American Andy Hampsten won in epic fashion. Hampsten's courageous ride on the 14th stage over the Gavia during a blizzard is legendary. Whether you were a fan of cycling, like I was back in 1988, and you who Andy Hampsten was, or you have never heard his name, you should know him as one of the greats of American cycling and his race over the Stevia as one of the greatest rides ever. It did pass my mind back in 1990 when my son was born that the name we gave him, Andy Hansen, sounded very cool and similar to Andy Hampsten! You can read the article here.