If you live in the LA area, please come join us for our next Natural Running Symposium at Runnergy in Sherman Oaks on Wednesday, June 2. Newton Running’s Director of Education, Ian Adamson (who is also a 7-time adventure racing world champ), will lead a discussion on how to run faster, stronger, more efficiently and with less injury. Immediately following the Symposium, Ian will take the group outside for a running form clinic, offering individualized advice and feedback to participants.

Oh, and a bag o’ Newton bling to the first 30 people at the Symposium plus a free shoe raffle! Hope to see you there!

And here’s a quick look at some of our upcoming Natural Running Symposia (had to look up the plural of symposium) around the country. More details here.

June 12th: Newton Running  Symposium, Newton Running Lab, Boulder, CO 5:30-7:30pm

June 13th: Running Form Clinic, Newton Running Lab, Boulder, CO 9am-10am

June 15th: Newton Running Form Clinic, Central Park, NY Meet at the Boathouse 6:30pm

June 16th: Newton Running Symposium, The Track and Field Store (997 Madison Avenue, NYC) 6:30-8:30pm Symposium, Q and A

June 17th: Runner’s Edge, Farmington, NY 6:30-7:30pm Symposium, Q and A 7:30-8:30pm Form Clinic

Newton Running is proud to support some of the world’s best triathletes like Craig Alexander, but we also have an amazing team of amateur and semi-pro triathletes across the globe. In what we hope will become a regular feature, here are some of Team Newton’s recent results.

Tatiana Vertiz raced the schwag-filled IronGirl 10K in Del Mar CA, finishing third overall and first in the 20-24 age group with a time of 40:22.

XTERRA specialist Rachel Cieslewicz had an uber weekend of training and racing starting with the 5k Law Day on the University of Utah campus, followed by a hard core hill climbing day on the bike and a Sunday morning 22 miler training run. Perfect weekend for her half marathon next weekend in the La Sportiva Mountain Cup race series.

Triathlete Anthony Lee was 15th overall last weekend at the REV 3 Triathlon in Knoxville in the Half Ironman distance, running a 1:26 half marathon at the end of a very tough bike for a total time 4:51. This weekend, Anthony was 2nd in the duathlon race at the Cascade Lake Triathlon, finishing the 3-mile run, 15-mile bike and 3-mile run in a time of 1:15.

Anthony Lee with tri legend Natascha Badmann

Joe McDaniel took second place at the Littlefoot Triathlon in Morrison, Colo. on Sunday – a great way to start his race season.

On May 1, Julia Eyer raced the Avia Wildflower Triathlon, a very competitive California race with thousands of athletes competing in Sprint, Olympic and Half Ironman distances. Julia placed first among under 16 year old females and fifth overall in the Sprint distance for a fantastic win.

And Nato Amarl raced in the International Sao Paulo Marathon in Brazil.

*Update* Guy Petruzzelli had what can only be described as a burly weekend of racing at the Starkerman Challenge in Michigan (4 events in 3 Days) On Friday he placed 2nd in the 5K run with a time of 15:32. Saturday morning there was a reverse triathlon which he won (4.4 mile run, 20 mile bike, 400 meter swim) Later that same afternoon, he won a 40K bike time trial on a “nasty, hilly course.” His weekend finished with a 5K/30.5K duathlon, in which he finished 5th.

Nick Stanoszek raced the Orlando 70.3 and placed 7th in his age group.

Tell us about your race results this weekend. We’ll send a Newton hat to our favorite commenter.

Can you spot the Newton footprints in the Saharan sand?

A few things you should know about the Marathon des Sables in the Sahara Desert of southern Morocco:

-At 250 km over 6 stages, the race was referred to by CNN as “The hardest stage race in the world.”
-All competitors must carry all of their own food and supplies
-Temperatures can reach 120°F around midday

Given those facts, we would like to congratulate Newton Athlete Gary Guller after finishing in 65 hours, 25 minutes for being so coherent in this post-race video:

Gary with his Newtons in the finish area (oh, and did we mention Gary only has one arm and he’s also summited Everest?).

First of all, for those of you running in the 114th Boston Marathon next Monday, congratulations on qualifying! There are enough pre-race guides and preparation materials out there that I get butterflies in my stomach just skimming them, but we’ve got one more terrific resource you should really check out before Monday. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve heard us talk about Dr. Mark Cucuzzella before. He’s an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at West Virginia University and an expert in exercise physiology and running biomechanics (to be clear, he is not on the Newton Running payroll). He has run over 50 marathons and competed at Boston 16 times, finishing 5 times under 2:30.

The good doctor just sent us a detailed and thoughtful document entitled “How to Run the Boston Marathon.” Whether you’re running Boston on Monday, a marathon later this year, or even just a local 5K sometime soon, Dr. Mark’s guide is a very insightful tool you shouldn’t miss. Click the following link to download the pdf guide and by all means, pass this along to anyone you know racing on Monday: How to Run the Boston Marathon.

The team from Newton is on it’s way to Boston right now. If you’re in the area, please come by and say hello at the race expo. It’s free and open to the public. Also, don’t miss Dr. Mark, Dr. Dan Lieberman, Warren Green and Amby Burfoot from Runner’s World leading a seminar called “Shoes, Barefoot, Pose, Chi: How Should You Run?” on Saturday at 3pm presented by Runner’s World. Details here.

Otherwise, good luck to everyone at Boston. We’ll be cheering you on!

Another great message from Danny Abshire’s inbox:

Danny-

How does it feel to race the 50 degree banked turns at Talledega Superspeedway three abreast at over 200 miles an hour in a stock car? Not a clue. How does it feel to race a half marathon at Talladega Superspeedway with 700 of my now best friends? Wow! Racing on the track, above the track, through the grandstands, and around the grounds was quite a treat at the Talladega Half Marathon April 11, 2010.

My Newton campaign is completing the first year with space for my post-race hardware becoming an issue. Taking a minute per mile off my times from 9, 10, and 13 miles; and with 2-3 minutes coming off the total 5 km and 10 km times has made running fun again. Training distances are up and injury is virtually nonexistent. I never expected this type of results at 59 years old, especially after 45 years of racing experience. Not getting worse had been the challenge over the past 10 years.

Proud to part of the tribe.

Dave Black
Gainesville, Florida
photos by L Black Photography

At last year’s Ironman World Championships in Kona, the team from Newton Running was on hand cheering on all of the athletes who worked so hard to get there – especially the ones wearing Newtons! At our booth we set up a guestbook of sorts, inviting all the Newton athletes to share their thoughts before the race. We also did our best to get pictures of as many people running the race in Newtons as possible. The end result is Newton’s 2009 Kona Competitor book – 40 pages of photos and quotes capturing the spirit of the race and the determination of the athletes. We’ve sent out these books to everyone at the race who shared their contact info with us, but we still have a handful left.

If you’d like to have one of these books, please leave us a comment below or send a note to media@newtonrunning.com and we’ll send you one, while supplies last.

**NOTE: All books are now sent out, sorry if you missed out!**

Craig Alexandar once again used his dominate running speed and textbook form to pass all challengers and claim a repeat victory at the Ironman 70.3 Singapore this weekend. Check out that photo on the right….he’s just flying. Caroline Steffen from Switzerland won for the women. Read the full race report here.

Crowie is off to a terrific start on his march to a third Ironman World Championship title this season. We saw lots of you this weekend in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Boston – thanks to everyone who came to see us! Now we want to hear how your weekend of racing went?! Post your results in the comments section below.

Last year at Ironman China, Hungarian triathlete and Newton pro team member, Jozsef Major, struggled through the race on a borrowed bike after his was lost in transit. This past weekend at the race in Haikou, China, Major was bent on redemption. Australian Luke McKenzie won the race and set a new course record, but Major combined the fastest bike split of the day with the second fastest run, to finish second overall. Congrats Jozsef! What a great start to the season!  Read a full recap here.

Also this weekend, Newton’s very own Heather Fuhr (Ironman World Champion and a five-time Ironman USA winner), demonstrated her running prowess at the 33rd annual Catalina Marathon. Heather completed the 26-miles trail race in three hours and seven minutes, breaking the previous record of 3:15:20 set by Danelle Ballangee in 1997. Impressively, Fuhr placed third overall in this beautiful but tough trail marathon. Nice job Heather! More here.

Tell us about your weekend of racing in the comments section below and we’ll send our favorite entry a free Newton hat and socks!

Our first Natural Running Symposium in Dallas was a huge success (read about it here and here) and now we’re bringing the roadshow east to Boston. Next Friday, March, 19 at 6 p.m. we’re teaming up with Marathon Sports to host our symposium at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge. Then, at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, Danny, Ian and Dr. Mark will lead a free form clinic at the MIT track followed by a Newton Campus Run race. Finally, we’re hosting a second natural running seminar at the Multisport World Expo at the Zesiger Center at 12:15 p.m. Click the image above for all the details. We hope to see you there!