Officially a Gladiator!

When you hear the term "gladiator," do you envision these types of gladiator?

Or, if you were watching reality TV in the U.S. in the '80s, maybe these are the gladiators that come to mind?

Well, while I am now officially a gladiator, this is the more appropriate image that should to come to mind:

This was one of the photos from the 2026 Guinness World Record-setting pace team from Run Rome the Marathon. I'm thrilled to be joining the group for the 2027 marathon. This will be my first time in Rome. I'm looking forward to seeing the sights during the marathon, and then spending the rest of my time in the city seeing them at a bit more of a leisurely pace. And, of course, eating spectacular Italian food. 

While I've been part of international pace teams before, they have always been for domestic marathons that included folks from overseas (generally Miami Marathon and Marine Corps Marathon). This will be my first time being one of the foreigners on a team. I'm looking forward to meeting my co-pacers and, even more so, meeting the hundreds or thousands of people I'll be helping to navigate their way through the 26.2 miles of an iconic race, be it within the pace group I get assigned, random additional runners along the course, or participants that stop by our booth at the expo.

Over the next several months, I'll be taking a look at the different places that we get to see on the course. Join me in my journey of discovery!

Achilles Fairfax Chapter Officially Launched

This past fall/winter, several of us attempted to get a new chapter of Achilles International up and running out in Loudoun County. Unfortunately, likely in large part because of the location, we never got traction with a sufficient number of athletes. So that one disbanded. Over the last many months, several people who were involved in that chapter as well as the DC chapter have been doing a fair bit of outreach in various venues to try to build up interest to start a chapter in Fairfax County. 

There are many athletes and guides who are part of the WhatsApp group -- seems like a lot more than were in Loudoun's -- so we scheduled our inaugural workout for this morning. The meeting point -- the Wiehle-Reston Metro stop -- is much more easily accessible than the prior Loudoun one. People can take Metro, those of us who are relatively local can drive and park for free in the Metro's parking garage (since they don't charge on weekends). And, depending on the planned workout and other factors (such as timing), it's not necessarily unreasonable to run there, as it is two blocks away from the W&OD Trail -- which is where the workouts will be run, anyway. For me, it's about 5 miles away on the trail -- certainly a doable out-and-back, but something I didn't do this morning because I didn't know what the workout would be. 

Turns out it was the right call. A few people needed to cancel, so we only had one athlete, Monica. She had four guides the entire time, and a fifth for a brief time early on. The workout? 70 minutes at 11:15/mile pace. Not bad -- a 10k. But I don't usually do anywhere near 16 miles on Saturdays, since my long run is on Sundays, so the extra out-and-back would have been more than desired.

When running with Achilles, athletes are only tethered to a single person. Additional guides, when available, wind up taking on different support roles. Fred wound up carrying Monica's cane. And, in part because of the conversation we had beforehand, once I heard what the desired pace was, I immediately took up the mantle of pacer.

11:15 is definitely a fair bit slower than I'm used to pacing, so dialing it in was definitely tricky. And based on how many times Monica was slowly trying to pass me and pull away, I'd say it's slower than she might have wanted to go. Each time she did, though, I flagged it to her and she scaled back.

All the numbers worked out perfectly for this workout. Given where we got onto the trail and running westbound, we had our midway turnaround point (above) when we got to the major intersection in Herndon at Elden St. We didn't need to cross over to hit the 35-minute mark. Turns out it's 5k from our starting point to this intersection. The return was just as smooth. In the end, our overall pace for the 10k that we ran was pretty spot-on at 11:18/mile.

For now, the chapter will be holding biweekly workouts, as we build membership and involvement. Hopefully there will be several more athletes joining in starting in two weeks. A mixture of desired workouts and paces would be great to have. Alas, for me, I will not be available for the next two workouts because of other out-of-town commitments, so my next jaunt with Achilles won't be until late September. While the next couple of workouts will likely start an hour earlier than we did today (it was already about 80F by the time we started after 8:30am -- way too hot), by late September, it may start turning more reasonable temperature-wise at 8:30. Time will tell.

For more information on Achilles International, go to their website. After you join up there, you can join your local chapter and sign up for workouts on the Rosterfy portal.

Big Change Coming to NYC Marathon

Anyone who has attempted to get into the NYC Marathon for a while knows that New York Road Runners has put in more varied methods for entry than probably any other marathon. One of those methods -- which is most beneficial to people who live in the vicinity of NYC -- is the 9+1 Program. In short: for those people who are members of the NYRR who finish in any nine of NYRR's events and volunteer at any one of NYRR's events during the calendar year, they get a guaranteed non-complimentary entry into the NYC Marathon the following year.

When I first started out marathoning, this was how I got into my 2nd NYC Marathon -- in the predecessor that didn't include the "+1" part. It wasn't difficult to enter the various races, so fulfilling the base requirement was a breeze. For some number of years now, though, it's gotten insanely difficult to be able to register for nine races -- despite how many NYRR puts on throughout the year -- and maybe even more difficult to land a spot volunteering at one of them.

So, NYRR has announced changes to the 9+1 Program.

In short, NYRR members will enter a drawing to be a "9+1 Passholder." Those who are selected pay a fee to be pursuing the 9+1 method of entry for the given year, and will be supported in terms of being able to gain entry into the necessary races and volunteer opportunity.

There are lots of other membership-related changes that are being instituted simultaneous with this. Most notably that there will no longer be varying tiers of membership with different sets of perks depending on the level. Definitely go to the above link to read all of the different ins and outs.

"Sports Bra" and Flag

Last year, I started as one of the pacers for the New York Road Runners. There are over 200 people on the larger team. Given how many races and training runs they host throughout the year (it's not just the NYC Marathon that they put on), it's a good thing they have that many people available to pull from to fill however many pacer slots they have for each run.

Until recently, NYRR pacers used the same thing that most race pacers do in the U.S.: small signs atop simple wooden dowel poles that are held by the pacers. Starting with their 12-mile training run next month (which I will be pacing), they are permanently ditching the handheld signs for the "backpack" flags.

We just got an e-mail providing us some details about the new system. It will be interesting to see and wear the system, because we will be wearing a vest of sorts, that effectively looks like a sports bra with a pole sticking up from the back on which the pace flag will be placed, which will be underneath our pacer singlet. Hmmm... hopefully it's reasonably comfortable and not too bad to put on and take off.

Limited Lottery for Boston Marathon

The B.A.A. just announced earlier today their new additional method of entry into the Boston Marathon: the Boston Qualifier Selection. As you know, for years, not only have time-qualifying runners needed to run at least as fast as the Boston Qualifying time for the age group, but they have needed to run from only a few seconds to as much as 7.5 minutes faster than that standard. And there is never a way to know in advance if what you've run was a "good enough" BQ to get in -- not until the results of the registration window are announced. (This past year, my BQ was about 2:30 faster than the standard, but the "cut-off" time was about 4:30 faster, so I was squeaked out by about 2 minutes.)

With this new system, while the BQ and floating "cut-off" buffer will still continue, B.A.A. will take all of the people who had a BQ but didn't make the cut-off and enter them into a lottery for 1,000 additional bibs. 

Certainly mixed emotions over this change in process:

1) Annoyed that it wasn't in effect for this year. I would have had a 10% chance of getting in, having been squeaked out.

2) Disappointed I won't be able to avail myself of it -- at least anytime soon. Now that I no longer have a streak to continue, I am not focused on securing a bib for Boston. So, my concentration is much more on pacing others in marathons. (And, if things work out well enough with my nascent local chapter for Achilles International, hopefully being a guide for some, too.)

3) Confused as to why they didn't simply expand the field by 1,000, thereby lowering the cut-off by about 20 seconds or so. (Not that that would've helped my situation.)

4) Happy that some more people who did everything right and BQ'd will be able to get in, despite not making the cut-off.

5) Curious what sort of emotions those who get in via the lottery will experience. Aside from being happy to get in, will they suffer from Imposter Syndrome? After all, they didn't get in via the regular time-qualifying method. Will that cheapen the experience for them?

2028 Los Angeles Olympics

Some people have been trying their hardest to get tickets to different events during the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics to be held mostly in the Greater Los Angeles area (but several other venues across the country, too).

Me? I just submitted my application to be a volunteer. I'm hoping that if I manage to get through the full process that at least part of the ten shifts will comprise volunteering on the course for the Olympic marathons -- naturally. Being at a couple of different spots on the men's Olympic Marathon course in Paris in 2024, and managing to be at one spot on the women's Olympic Marathon course the following day was very exciting. To be an active part of helping out in some way would be an even bigger thrill, I think.

Now to just wait until I hear if I move on to the interview portion of the process - likely sometime next year, I suspect.

Back to Basics

Today's run outside in the heat, with LOTS of other people on the W&OD Trail, had me wondering how some of the people I was seeing were actually running in the manner they were. So many people seem to have bad form in at least one respect. And it's possible there are some parts that are not even visible to the casual observer. (This one break in form is something I'm often guilty of.) 

• Keep arms bent at elbows (approximately 90-degree bend). 
• Don't have them flopping by your side, nor angled so sharply that you're in danger of punching/slapping yourself in face.
• Keep your shoulders loose/fluid.
• Don't tense up much. This will not only soak up more of your energy, but it will wind up making your shoulders and back ache a lot.
• Keep your torso vertical and square to the direction you are running
• On moderate hills, leaning forward a little bit helps
• On steep downhills, avoid sitting back on your heels too much
• Don't twist your torso with your arm swing
• Keep your hands as extensions of your arms.
• Don't have your hands flopping around, limp at the wrist. This will wind up hurting after a while.
• Don't make tight fists. Rather, keep your hands lightly open (unless you are carrying a water bottle or something else, of course)
• Try to use a cadence = 175 (i.e., 175 footsteps per minute)
• Breathe in a regular cadence -- ideally matched to the cadence of your footsteps
• I typically will think of songs with a 3/4 time signature (or modify ones with 4/4 to be 3/4) and match my breathing to that -- each downbeat is either an inhale or exhale
• Keep your toes extended; don't curl your toes inward/downward
• Often, if you curl your toes down while running, you can hurt your feet a little and/or get blood blisters under your toenails.

For the runners out there, let me know if you agree/disagree with some of these points. Or if there are other things you think that people should keep in mind regarding their form while running.

[Late addition] Oops, there were a couple of other things I had wanted to include in the list above:

• Keep your feet only a few inches off the ground within your stride.
• While everyone knows not to simply shuffle/slide your feet on the ground, potentially less intuitive is the fact that you shouldn't lift your feet up TOO high. After all, the point of the exercise if the forward movement. Keep the vast majority of the energy you are expending used in the forward motion rather than bringing your legs up. (In the extreme example, if you simply did "high knees," you wouldn't be moving anywhere, despite the cardio you'd be undertaking.)
• Keep your head up and your eyes focused in the distance. Having a perpetually updated goal of what you are running towards can be very motivating.
• Exception: During the Marine Corps Marathon, when running of the bridge to "Beat the Bridge," unless you have something else going on to distract you from the difficulty at that portion of the course, keep your eyes focused more on the painted line in the near- to medium-distance. Why? Because that bridge just goes on forever and a day, and by that point of the race, you are very overheated and tired. There is nothing in the further distance that is a motivator until you are pretty much at the end. (Think of the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the knight is charging the castle in the swamp and never seems to make progress until he is finally on top of the guards.)