GREAT DEALS, GREAT STORIES, GREAT ADVICE

For the next three days,  my publisher, Lulu, www.lulu.com, has a great sale going on. They are offering 30% off all print books.

The cool thing about having written two books about running is that they are two contrasting works.

My first book, Running Shorts: A Collection of Stories and Advice for Anyone Who Has Ever Laced Up a Pair of Running Shoes, published in 2011, is a compilation of my experiences as competitive runner for 39 years, but many of these tales reflect experiences YOU have had during your years as a runner. As one of the Amazon reviewers stated, "It will make you laugh and it will make you cry." amazon.com/author/joemuldowney

Traveling the country, promoting my first book, prompted me to write, Personal Best, my second book, published in September 2014.

Runners told me what they wanted in a running book, and I tried to respond by writing a book that is instructive to runners of all ages and abilities.

Personal Best took a tragic turn in April 2013, soon after I crossed the finish line at the Boston Marathon. I devoted my first chapter, entitled "Was That Thunder," to the events, and my experiences of that day. I guarantee you, it is worth the read, and it is my fervent hope that I was able to capture the emotions of that fateful day in a manner in which every runner can relate.

If you would like read an electronic version of Personal Best, it is available for only $2.99 at Amazon, Lulu, iBooks, Nook, and Kobo.

You can visit my website: www,muldowneyrunning.com, and I will personally sign and send a book to you. You can go to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or take advantage of the sale at Lulu, to purchase running books that will positively influence your future running efforts.

And, it doesn't end there!

Read the books and stay in touch. email me here, look me up on Facebook at: Joe Muldowney Running, or on Twitter at: rdrunnr00. Tell me about your running, ask me questions, discuss training or injury issues.

I love this sport, and I love runners.

Let's get to the finish line together.

RACING AT AMERICA'S OLDEST AND BEST

We here in Pottsville, Pennsylvania have long been proud of the Yuengling Brewery. It is America's Oldest Brewery. The Yuengling family began brewing beer in Pottsville in 1829, and have been doing so ever since. Six generations of the Yuenglings have continued the family tradition of brewing beer.

Last week, it was announced that America's Oldest Brewery is now number one on the list of top craft breweries, based on sales volume. Yuengling moved more than 2.7 million barrels last year, taking over the top spot from Boston's Sam Adams Brewery.

The Yuengling family has always been very supportive of the running community. Virginia Beach's Yuengling Shamrock Marathon attracts over 30,000 runners to its annual race weekend.

Three years ago, Yuengling launched the Light Lager Jogger 5K. Yuengling Light Lager is a terrific beer. It is much more full-bodied than other light beers, yet it is low on calories.

Tomorrow, the third annual Yuengling Light Lager Jogger will be run through the streets of Pottsville, a small city of about 15,000 residents. A field (capped) of 3,000 runners will run the race and participate in the giant block party to be held at America's Oldest Brewery after the event.

The Yuengling Light Lager Jogger 5K sells out within about two weeks when registration opens in December, so if you want to run this race, you'll have to wait until next year. Go to www.lagerjogger.com for details.

And if you want to take an interesting and historic tour, and sample some Yuengling products (my favorite is Lord Chesterfield Ale) come to Pottsville, Pennsylvania and tour the Yuengling Brewery, anytime throughout the year. www.yuengling.com

Good luck to all runners participating in the Yuengling Light Lager Jogger 5K tomorrow.

www.muldowneyrunning.com

JUSTICE

America is a nation of immigrants.

In the 1600's, millions escaped religious, political and economic strife and came to America. Often they suffered unspeakable hardships in this rugged, harsh land.

Along with others from many different countries, my Irish ancestors came to the anthracite coal fields of northeastern Pennsylvania in order to escape the devastating Irish potato famine in the 1860's. They worked long hours for little pay, and labored under dangerous working conditions.

Today, the United States of America still stands as a beacon of hope and opportunity for oppressed individuals across the globe. It remains, in the words of Ronald Reagan, "That shining city on a hill."

In 2002, the family of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev came to America from Kyrgyzstan.. His father applied for asylum, citing persecution due to his ties to Chechnya. They were granted asylum, received welfare benefits, and his parents obtained jobs in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Upon graduation from high school, Dzhokhar Tsasnaev received a $2500 scholarship from the City of Cambridge. He enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. His brother, Tamerlan, became a boxer.

Again, America opened its arms, providing an oppressed family access to the American Dream.

On April 15, 2013, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his now deceased brother Tamerlan (Dzhokhar ran him over with his vehicle while escaping from the police) constructed two deadly pressure cooker bombs, methodically placing them in the jam-packed crowd of spectators on Boylston Street, near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. They detonated the horrible devices, killing three people and injuring nearly 300 more. Many of those individuals will be maimed for life. Later, he and his brother killed MIT police officer Sean Collier in cold blood.

When captured, Tsarnaev told the FBI that he and his brother were angry about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how Americans killed Muslims there.

A handwritten note, scrawled by Tsarnaev as he cowered, bloody, inside a boat, as he hid from the police and the FBI,  read, "The Boston bombings were in retribution for the U.S. crimes in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and the victims of the Boston bombing were collateral damage, in the same way innocent victims had been collateral damage in U.S. wars around the world."

The savage, uncivilized, wild animal-like behavior of these two disgusting individuals, who came to this country in order to escape savage, wild animal-like behavior in their own country, is astounding.

In their country, in their world, their crime would have been met with swift, ruthless justice. They would have been thrust into the bowels of a filthy prison, and IF they survived, they may have been publicly executed, possibly beheaded, after a sham of a trial.

But this is America.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arrested, read his rights, received a high-powered attorney to defend him, and, yesterday, was convicted by a jury of his peers, on ALL 30 counts.

Beginning on Monday, a week before the world's greatest footrace, the Boston Marathon, the jury will decide whether he should be executed or spend the rest of his days in prison.

The American dream wasted.

Some solace for his many victims, whose lives will never be the same.

Americans are strong, resilient, and just.

Justice has been served and we are all Boston Strong.

RIGHT ON HEREFORD, LEFT ON BOYLSTON

"It all begins here."

So says the sign outside of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, the sleepy New England village that becomes the center of the running universe, every year, on the third Monday of April.

A parade of yellow school buses descend, like honeybees, on the village just after dawn on Patriot's Day, turning it into a city of runners, all of whom have a single purpose: to make the right on Hereford and the left on Boylston.

They are there to run the world's oldest, most storied marathon footrace: The Boston Marathon.

Getting there isn't easy. One must qualify to run Boston. And when the gun sounds, the undulating nature of the course creates cramped quads, blisters and chafing, but the journey itself is worth it.

The start in Hopkinton, is incredible. It's a two-lane street, and its your first downhill portion of the course. A "sea of humanity," is not an exaggeration. A moving centipede of runners snakes through the quaint New England countryside. Families accept the fact that runners veer off the narrow road and trample their lawns over the first, fast downhill miles. Unlike the prototypical codger who warns, "Get off the lawn," to the neighborhood youth, residents greet runners with water, high-fives, and orange slices.

Fraternity houses, in full-party mode, feature speakers the size of compact cars, which blast ear-splitting choruses of Born to Run," Chariots of Fire," and, of course, the Rocky theme.

Crowds swell at Ashland clock tower at mile four, and at the Framingham train station around mile six.

At mile ten, spectators jam the town of Natick.

Then there's the prelude to one of the most electrifying moments a marathon runner could possibly experience.

Past mile twelve, one can faintly detect a higher pitch to the crowd noise. It comes from up ahead.

Suddenly, it happens.

Reminiscent of the grainy, black and white videos of the early Beatles American concerts, the women of Wellesley College, located exactly at the half-way point of the race, insanely cheer, scream and shout to runners as they pass. The course narrows, and it becomes truly a Boston "goose bump" moment. Women runners receive ear-splitting receptions, and more than one male runner hugs or kisses a coed or two.

The Wellesley euphoria remains for less than three miles before runners begin climbing the infamous Newton Hills, a series of four formidable inclines that challenge one's strength and stamina, between miles sixteen and twenty one.

The fourth and final Newton Hill is Heartbreak Hill. It rises eighty-eight feet between miles twenty and twenty one. Crowds expand on Heartbreak Hill. Most of them are there to encourage the runners; while some may possess a sadistic streak.

Boston's best is yet to come.

A downhill past Boston College, where at the 2013 race I yelled, "Go Jesuits" to a crowd of students, who responded with an enthusiastic roar.

The long stretch of Commonwealth Avenue, the "T," to your left; elegant brownstones to your right, crowds growing along the way.

In the distance, the giant Citgo sign looms. Located within the Green Monster of Fenway Park. When it is reached, there is one mile to go. Crowds leave the Red Sox game, which began at 11:00 a.m., and remain on the street to cheer for the runners.

Make the right on Hereford, and for a few seconds you are in the "Green Room." You know, the quiet area where celebrities wait before walking onto the stage.

The left on Boylston propels you smack on the 50-yard line of the world's largest stadium. To the crowd, you and your fellow runners are rock stars. You are just as as revered and respected as the winner of the race.The crowd noise is deafening.

The Boston Marathon is an incredible journey that begins on frigid winter mornings, on lonely 20-mile runs, and throughout the challenging race itself.

It concludes with a simple exhilarating finish.

A right on Hereford and a left on Boylston.

Check out the chapter, 'Boston,' in my first book, Running Shorts. www.muldowneyrunning.com

HAPPY...

The sun is shining brightly, the wind is calm, sweet aroma of home cooking fills my house.

It's a time of spring celebration.

A 5-mile run with a long-time friend, Eric Anchorstar, and the rest of the day will be spent with family.

Whatever you may celebrate: Easter, Passover, or just the arrival of renewed life that is brought by spring, from my family to yours, much health and happiness!

A PROUD TRADITION-THE GREATEST RACE

It began for me in 1978.

Having run my first marathon in the fall of 1977, I fell in love with the race itself. There's something about training for a marathon. It truly is an endeavor in which one gets out of it what one is able to put into it. There are no shortcuts, there are no excuses. Do the work or the marathon will humble you.

I quickly decided, after a marathon debut time of 2:49, that I wanted to run the Boston Marathon.

Over a span of five decades, I've run Boston sixteen times. In 1983, on one of those perfect race days we all experience on rare occasions, I ran my personal best marathon time, a 2:22:54, finishing eleven seconds behind Joan Benoit,  (Samuelson now) who set the women's marathon world record with a 2:22:43.

A back injury in 1981 sent  me to the Mass Pike, where I hitched a ride to the finish, and in the searing heat of the 2012 race, I bailed out at mile 18.

At the Centennial race in 1996, I participated on a team that finished second in the Master's Division.

The two 'Top 100' medals, along with the certificate memorializing my 1983 race adorn my wall, and are among my most prized running awards.

In 2013, I crossed the finish line in 3:04:13, began celebrating with my wife by quaffing a sip of Guinness, before terror struck the world's most iconic footrace.

Two torn hamstring tendons may prevent me from returning to the world's oldest marathon, but with two weeks until the 119th running of the Boston Marathon, I will share some of my memories of the race.

If you've run the Boston Marathon, you'll relate to many of my stories.

If you haven't run Boston, put it on your bucket list now,

There's no footrace like it in the entire world.

www.muldowneyrunning.com

A GOOD FRIDAY

Snow blanketed the ground on Tuesday, as March came in like a lion and, well, went out like a lion.

Wednesday remained cool, and then it happened. For the first time in over five months, the temperature topped the sixty-degree mark.

Today was downright balmy. There was humidity in the air.

Things just smelled like spring. A sleeveless compression shirt and a pair of shorts was the wardrobe, and it felt great to drip with sweat after turning in a hilly four-mile workout.

My dogs spent the day outside, I cleaned up some winter debris, and finally planted my spring onions.

Easter as well as Passover will be celebrated this weekend. Renewal, rebirth and resurrection will be the themes.

We will renew our training efforts after many dark months. Our fast workouts will be resurrected as our bodies will have more energy for running and less for fighting frigid temperatures and biting winds.

Enjoy the Easter and Passover holiday.

Spring has arrived.

It is a good time for all runners.