2010 NYC Marathon Report: Form Analysis



The last rolling hills before the finish

 Thanks to my friend and first time marathoner, Heather, my family and I had the privilege to watch this year's race from the bleachers right before the finish line and had a great angle on the runners so I decided to snap some pics and see if I can identify some common traits in the pros's form. After all good form makes a world of a difference and quite often, in any distance running race, the one who can maintain perfect form wins over competitors who might have the same aerobic conditioning but who's form is compromised by the end of the race. So what is good form? Well let's see how certain runners looked at the very end of their race.

The winner, Gebrmariam, had an awesome kick despite having over a minute on the second place runner. From this picture I think we can see how he uses loading his arches and elasticity to propel himself rather than laboring and pushing forward using the mainly muscle power. According to my favorite running coach, Bobby McGee, the ratio of elastic return to power (muscles) should be 5:1. This guy may have an even better ratio than that.

This is Mutai, the 2nd place finisher. I was able to capture him in a perfect moment. We can see his upper body is gracefully upright (not arched) and his forward lean is perfect.

Shalane Flanagan is one of the most beautiful runners I have seen. So fluid and graceful. Proud posture, arms in same relaxed position when she started the race. By the time she makes contact with the ground the "power move" or the push is already done. The contact with the ground seems like a mere scrape. Full extension of the legs backwards and loading of the arches creates the elastic snap back to the front. It seems she's pulling her knees up, but it's mostly that elastic snap that gets her knees forward and ready to push back again.

In this picture Meb Keflezighi, the fastest American and last year's winner, was captured in a great position to see the shoulder movement. Some people say running is in the arms. What they mean by this is that the movement of the arms dictates the turnover of the legs. Also, the slight counter movements with the shoulders adds to the utilization of the muscles' and ligaments' elastic nature.

Another similarity among these runners is the slight forward lean. As we can see, they don't lean from the hips but rather the ankles. The center of body is right over the point where the feet meet the road. This is almost always true of the elite runners whether they have a slight heel strike, toe strike, or most commonly mid foot strike.

Now let's see how other runners fared.

Corn Man here fell behind a little. Maybe the weight distribution of the corn threw him off, but it seems he had lots of fun anyway.

El Matador definitely kept his form all the way to the finish. Here he is trying to get somebody from the crowd to challenge him. He didn't have to contend with any bulls so I'm not sure how valid this result will be back in Spain.

Gene Simmons had a great race. Decent form right? Even his wig and makeup stayed on. Quite impressive!

The Orange Lightning celebrates his finish. Not sure what he has or doesn't have on his back but the guy behind him is clearly turned off by it. Whatever it is, it cannot be good form.

Hats off to this amigo.

Finally I have to make a special mention to a couple of friends.

Lisa kept her great form all the way, and as usual she negative split the course to match her PR. Great job!

At last but certainly not least, GREAT JOB AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATHER!  She's doing great at the end of her first marathon, form intact. She even threw a party at her house afterwards!

Heather's fan club.

Apologies to those friends I didn't take pictures of. It was hard to spot everybody especially when the crowds got dense...

Thoughts on Le Tour, Tomba and a Movie Invite





One of my favorite sporting events to watch on TV is the Tour de France. I just love everything about it: the individual and team competitions, the strategy, the characters, the drama, the climbs, the landscape, the sprints, etc... And somehow my enthusiasm hasn't been deterred by all the doping scandals. Of course I despise the cheater, but to me that’s part of the drama. The pressure of winning makes humans do weird stuff. Whatever winning means, that’s a subjective matter. In sports psychology they always stress the importance of focusing on process rather than outcome. When the prospect of achieving the desired outcome starts slipping away, desperate minds tend to choose the straightest line between point A and B, and then walking the dark side becomes a tempting option.

One day I would love to be one of those fans following the race with their RV’s, camping out on mountainsides, riding the course and just being close to the action. Seeing the stages on TV brings you all the action, but to be inches away from the riders, to get just a glimpse of the battle and feel the energy of the race up close is totally different. Especially if you wear a superhero outfit and speedos to run along with the pack.

One of my favorite ways to stay motivated during training and racing has always been watching videos of the greats. Thank NBC for Universal Sports. By the way, they are eating Versus’ lunch, since Versus was the first, at least on Time Warner Cable, to bring cycling and triathlon to the TV screens on a semi regular basis. But now, Universal Sports has far surpassed Versus in covering endurance events. What’s with Versus anyway? It’s 99% fishing and hunting shows. Are hunters really interested in cycling races? Maybe secretly hoping to have them as targets one day? Or do cycling fans hunt and fish between interval workouts for recovery? It’s a mystery to me.



 Anyway, watching videos is a great source of inspiration for me. When I was a downhill ski racer I watched and replayed Alberto Tomba’s races ALL THE TIME. In Hungary, the quality of ski instruction at the time (1980’s) was probably even surpassed by bobsledding instruction in Jamaica. Regardless, I loved my coaches. They tried. Tomba had the most amazing carves, and that was before shaped skis were invented. His style and motion was burned in my memory chips and served as a standard that I had to get to. Science has proven that such mental “training” helps improve technique, mechanics and imagery.

Ok, here I have to make a side note. Tomba has to be one of my all-time favorite athletes. His success speaks for itself. He wasn’t the fittest or the most diverse skier. He didn’t do so well with downhill and super G, but was the best in slalom and GS. His super fluid, seemingly effortless style was captivating. He carved those straight skis like they were shaped. What was his preparation like? Well he had to have trained a lot, obviously. But the funniest thing about his preparation was revealed during an interview in the Winter Olympics in Albertville. The interviewer asked him what he did differently as opposed to four years prior in Calgary. Tomba’s response was something like this: “In Calgary the night before the race I partied with four women till 5 in the morning, but now I only partied with two women till 3 in the morning.” Age takes its toll… We all know skiers at all levels are party animals. Just ask Bode Miller or think back to that college trip to Killington.

While at this subject, apparently cyclists are no different. Recently, teammates Andy Schleck and Stuart O’Grady were thrown out of the Vuelta de Espana cycling race by their team because they went out for a few drinks one night. In one of the comments the team manager said - "Whether it's one glass or ten, at 5am, it's inexcusable.”  Aha! They do party hard in racing season. I have suspected this for a long time. I remember when Floyd Landis tried to explain high EPO levels in his blood sample after a spectacular stage win in the Tour, by saying he had “a couple of shots of whiskey” the night before. That must be a default explanation for out of the ordinary situations so it follows that going out for drinks the night before a hard stage is normal. He knew he couldn’t get in trouble for that. But even I, who barely made it through high school chemistry, knew he was bluffing with the whiskey trick. But I’m getting away from my point.

Last time I saw Tomba on TV was at the ITU race in Kitzbuhel just about a month ago. This little ski town in Austria is best known for the toughest downhill race in the world, but in recent years the summers have been also sizzling with professional and age group triathlon races. The sight of Tomba making rounds among the triathletes gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling. In a way my past and my present were converging. I felt the same way when I was at Lake Placid for the Ironman race this past July. It was a regular winter destination until my son was born eight years ago. We found it too long a drive for little kids so we haven’t returned until this summer. As I entered Mirror Lake for the swim start of the Ironman, that special race feel became extra special. The energy of racing success of the past and my present, with my two fantastic kids and a wonderful wife cheering while getting soaked, filled up my fuel tanks and got my psyche ready for anything. I fed on that energy for the next 10 hours and 34 minutes and I can’t wait to do it again.

I still watch sports videos and I record all the triathlon, running, track, cycling, swimming and skiing that Universal Sports puts on their programming. Just like when I was a kid I fantasize about being at the big races, doing what the champions do so one day, I may actually be one of those guys. So just recently I found out that Symphony Space will show a new movie about the Tour de France called “Chasing Legends”. This is a must see for me, especially because I live 5 blocks away. I hope they get a good turn-out; we need more public showings of sports videos. From the look of it this movie is right up my alley. Click here for more detail.

I hope to see you there!

Nature's Gel-Pack



 Ever since I’ve read Christopher McDougall’s awesome book Born to Run, not only my approach to running and eating has changed but my approach to life in general. Of course the book came at a perfect time when I was ready to make big changes in my life, and I considered the book to be a sign that I was making the right decisions . I would love to do a review of it here but there’s so much good stuff written about it by more ‘qualified’ reviewers that I will skip it. If you haven’t read it yet, if you are in anyway interested in running and what running means for different people, different cultures, it is a must read. I love to read and hear about ways that introduce a new paradigm that is one way or another better than the old. While none of what McDougall writes about is new for some, I think it’s safe to say that it is new for most of us, especially those who are somewhat removed from the ultra running world. I have done marathons, ironmans and have been mostly self trained using mainstream training and nutritional methods. I have been a slave to sports nutritional products, especially if they were endorsed by the likes of Armstrong and Contador. Here I mean the commercially available products, which I assume were legal. Then I came across Born to Run and read about ultra distance runners eating pinoles and beans and normal foods to fuel up before and during their grueling long runs. The author also highlights a superfood that has been used in Central and South America for centuries, the chia seeds.



 When I first came across the word chia, the image of a chia pet popped in my head and I had to put the book down for a second to laugh. As I read on it became clear why this funny sounding seed is considered a super food and would be an ideal supplement not just for endurance athletes but anyone striving for a healthier diet.
Chia seeds contain all essential amino acids, omega 3 fatty acids, fiber, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, iron, potassium, zinc, magnesium, antioxidants (myrecetin, quercetin, caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid), and lots of vitamin C. Did I say quercetin? Isn’t that the magic ingredient of Lance Armstrong’s secret supplement? Maybe, but the other ingredients to me are just as important. It seems like this chia pet could be more than just my six year old’s favorite decorative toy. Isn’t it comical that chia was commercialized in the western world as a toy? Talk about paradigm shifts, this world badly needs one!



 The most intriguing characteristic of Chia is its time release quality. They can absorb a lot of liquid. If you mix a spoonful of the seeds with a cup of water, in about 30 minutes it turns into gelatin. When eaten, the gelatin coats the stomach and allows for gradual digestion of carbs which prevents insulin spikes. It also releases water along with its own nutrients gradually, keeping you constantly hydrated. That’s why chia works so well for people with hypoglycemia and diabetes. And we all know diabetes is becoming and epidemic all around the world, soon to be the single biggest healthcare cost for our society. But that’s a different topic for a different time. For our purposes all we need to know and understand from the above is that it gives you many of the necessary nutrients for endurance and it gives them to you over time. Those Aztecs a few thousand years ago were onto something when the women gave their brave warriors a handful of chia before they went on an all day march to battle for more arable land for chia plantations. Then the Spanish came and changed things a bit… Hay carramba!



 Needless to say, I ran to my local organic nutrition store (a place where I usually get very confused about what to buy and life in general), this time with a sense of purpose, and bought a pack of chia seeds. After I got past my initial fear of growing green grass on my chest, I sprinkled some in my cereal. While chia doesn’t have any particular taste, it actually brings out the taste of the food even more. Another great quality! It just keeps getting better. Now I include chia in my breakfast religiously. It’s been 3 weeks since my first dose of magic, and at this point I’m not sure I am feeling a placebo effect or real changes in my body but I do feel less hungry, more hydrated and overall lighter physically and mentally. Oh, I forgot to mention chia’s effectiveness against depression. For a Hungarian, that is heavenly news! I can finally give up drinking Red Bull!

Another question I wanted to find the answer to was whether this gel like substance can be used during exercise, replacing the ever popular gel-packs stuffed with simple carbs and sugars? I did another search on my pc and noticed chia’s popularity among barefoot runners. Can we call barefoot running a cult? Or is that too harsh? Is community better? It seems a lot of barefooters (but of course not only them) use the seeds regularly before and during runs. Runner’s World has a forum on exactly this topic, check it out . The only complaint I came across was that if you mix them in your water bottle, the gelatin like texture of the water is a little unpleasant while drinking it. Otherwise you’re good to go. No downside. Just eat’m and fugettaboudhit. Say good bye to bonk. Just make sure you take a lot of liquid with it. Chia seeds absorb water up to 10 times their weight!
So is this what’s called a free lunch? (No pun intended.) No risk, just upside? People on Wall Street pay big bucks for free lunches. Sounds weird but they do! That’s net of commissions of course…



 Well I hope this little piece was informative and you had some fun with it too. Of course if you wanted to learn more you could find scientific papers (both independent and from suppliers) on all this on the internet, except the Wall Street stuff, a bunch of recipes, videos, and different shapes and forms of chia pets, if that’s what gets you going. I am yet to test chia’s power in a long race, but it’s coming and I will give you and update. For a detailed nutritional breakdown of chia click here.

Here we go...

Another blog... Blogs on the net are like stars in the sky. The more you look the more of them you find. And only upon closer inspection do they appear different. Of course in New York you're lucky to see A star on a clear night, while blogs are literally countless. Sports blogs are fewer. So there's room for one more perhaps. While most of my sporting interests are gear heavy I am not a techie nor a gear head in a sense that I need to know about and have the latest and best gadgets. So unless something really peaks my interest I will not comment much on that must have stuff. My main interest is in writing about people, stories, events and anything that could inspire and help us enjoy an active life in the big city and not let the grind get to us (too much). Being a competitive athlete in New York is nuts but we do it and we love it. We get up at 5am for a workout, have full time jobs, kids, family, client dinners and whatnot, then somehow many still manage to fit in a second workout for the day. The next day we do it again. The more 'normal' people ask: why? What makes you get up so early to kill yourself? And then we get the type A explanation, or that we need to prove something to somebody, or that we really need a break from our spouses, or just that we are plain crazy. While all these may be true, although I am very happily married, I think it's that deep human instinct to push ourselves past our boundaries, discover something new about ourselves, about each other, about humans. This unstoppable drive is what separated us from the animals back when, it's what put man in space, it's what gets me up at 5am every day. I know I'm not saying anything new here but we have to keep it in perspective, which is hard once the daily grind carries us into a different reality. Setting previously unthinkable goals and achieving them makes us human. It makes us happy. And there's scientific evidence to that! (That will be something I will continuously come back to.)


With that, I wish you happy training and racing, and hope to see you back on this page soon.