Letters

DOWN ON DERDERIAN

Tom Derderian, the statistical stickler, was ready, willing, and able to rag on the BAA for its “premature party” in his March M&B article “Boston’s Pseudo 100th,” noting that the BAA wouldn’t quibble over one year. Neither, apparently, did Mr. Derderian, with the publication of his second edition Boston Marathon: The First Century of the World’s Premier Running Event right before the questionable anniversary. The book’s welltimed arrival allowed him to capitalize on the number of runners, who, afflicted with Boston Marathon mania, were on hand to diminish his supply of copies piled on the Boston Marathon Expo table. Cathy Troisi Seneca Falls, N.Y.

THE LAST PR

ultrarunner Jeff Hagen wrote a feature about how to cope with the realization that one’s PR days were in the past. Ironically, when it comes to his own running, Jeff may have been somewhat premature in saying that his own PR days were over, as excerpts from his fax indicate.—Ed.

Last weekend I accomplished the opposite of the scenario presented in my article, “The Last PR,” andestablished a new PR for a 24-hour run. It ocJuly/August 1997

curred at the Pacific Rim 24-Hour in Longview, Washington. The weather was horrendous, with rain and strong winds most of the day. Nonetheless, by sticking to my regimen of walking 3 minutes per mile, I covered 100 miles in 18:27 (also a new PR for 100 miles), which works out to a pace of 11:04 per mile. Then for the next 15 miles Iran at approximately 12:00 per mile. With two hours and 29 minutes remaining in the event, I did some quick calculations and realized that I could reach the 130-mile barrier if I ran 15 consecutive sub-10:00 miles. Then like a fool I decided to try to do it. The amazing thing was that I succeeded. I just dropped the walking regimen at mile 115 andran constantly for the last 15 miles. Of course, the only way I could have accomplished this feat was by doing all that walking earlier in the race. I finished with exactly 130 miles, which was a7-mile PR. Later I heard that I had finished only 2 miles short of the Washington state 24-hour record. Jeff Hagen Yakima, Wash.

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