Once a Runner: A Novel

This is the inspirational cult classic that Runner's World (and many others) have called "the best novel ever written about running". 
The Reno Gazette-Journal has also called it "a book so good, people will steal it." 
How often do you hear about someone borrowing a friend's book, then later buying their own copy because they liked it so much? Or a book so treasured that it gets passed from friend to friend until it simply falls apart from so many readings? Once a Runner is such a book. It has become a cult classic and our all-time best seller. It's been acclaimed over the years by Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar and many other top runners. 
Many regard the story of Quenton Cassidy's battle to the top as the most accurate portrayal yet written of the tiny universe of world class runners. And it's a great source of training inspiration and wisdom as well. Many readers say they learned more about running from this novel than from all the training books they have read. 
It has won Running magazine's award as the best book of the year, and has been highly acclaimed by Runner's World, Running Times, Racing South, and Track &amp; Field News, as well as by writers like Don Kardong, Kenny Moore Tom Jordan and Hal Higdon.

Literature & Fiction

John L. Parker

United States

Cedarwinds Pub Co

For the others, it may have been a race, but for Brad Townes it was a quest for salvation. He had run all the way from death's door and he had lost everything along the way. In the final mile, he had nothing left to lose except the race. You'll find your heart racing right along with the protagonist in this compelling story, beautifully told by a veteran runner.  The grand daddy of all marathons is the backdrop for this exciting story, with the chapters taking you right through the Great Race itself: Brookline to Hopkinton, Hayden Rowe Street, Hopkinton to Ashland to Framingham, Framingham to Natick, Natick to Wellesley, Wellesley to Newton Falls, The Newton Hills, Brookline, and finally Boston. When you finish, you'll feel as if you'd just run the race alongside Bradley Townes!  The scene shifts back and forth from the heat of the race to Bradley's secret past and the reasons for his impossible quest.   Tuckman's narrative keeps you right on the edge of your seat during the entire story. We've heard from some readers who said this book kept them reading all night, others who reported themselves in tears at the end.  Reading this book is a great way to prepare mentally and spiritually to run Boston.

Long Road to Boston

Sports & Outdoors

Tuckman, Bruce

Individual Sports

Parker's writing is as powerful as ever in this entrancing non-fiction collection of profile and essays. What really made Jim Ryun tick? Why did Jim Fixx really die? What is the Cinnamon Bun Theory and what does it have to do with Pat Porter, high altitude sickness, and four national cross country championships? Readers will find the answers to such questions and a great deal more in his latest work. This one is destined to become a cult classic like Once a Runner and Runners and Other Ghosts on the Trail. This collection of Parker's non-fiction pieces contains everything that originally appeared in the earlier Runners & Other Ghosts on the Trail plus much, much more. Profiles on Jim Ryun, Pat Porter, Barry Brown, Frank Shorter and others. Incisive essays on The place of sports in the post-industrial age, Comebacks, The Aging Athlete, and Missing the Poetry, all from his highly regarded Ultrasport columns. Lighter moments like The Great Dragon Run, The TeeVee Olympics, Training in Greece, and Getting Beaten by a Woman.

Runners and Other Dreamers

Parker, John L., Jr.

The best writers in the sport of running take up a fascinating subject, the last frontier of long-distance events: races longer than a marathon . 
Who runs these 50-milers, 100-milers, multi-day events, multi-event events? And why do they do it? And (okay, admit you're a little curious) what's it like to do one? 
James Shapiro, a long time ultra-runner, whose Meditations from the Breakdown Lane is a classic piece of running literature, begins by relating with heart-rending detail his experiences in a 6-Day Race in Swifts on the Wing. 
In To the Limit and Beyond, Kenny Moore takes you through a gut-wrenching experience in his first-person account of the Great Hawaiian Footrace, a horrendous 6-day ordeal that seemingly changes his life . 
Don Kardong, one of the wittiest and most personable writers in the sport, in Le Grizz goes the 50-mile distance at the infamous race that gives this piece its name. Along the way this former Olympic marathoner, like so many participants in these events, makes startling discoveries about himself. Ed Ayres, editor of Running Times, takes on the Western States 100 in Wings of Icarus, and the event turns out to be a kind of catharsis in his life. 
In Road Warriors, Hal Higdon's report on his group's informal attempt to run across the state of Indiana is another kind of ultra tale: a light-hearted, self-imposed challenge that turns, like most ultra events, into a revealing spiritual odyssey. 
Tom Hart's self-imposed challenge, to run a solo 37-miler on his 37th birthday, is the basis for his ultra story. He finds out, as do the others, that an effort on the magnitude of an ultra is more than a feat of endurance, it is a journey into self . 
John Parker ends with And Then the Vulture Eats You, an uproarious analysis of today's ultra runners (Mystic Ultras). Your sides will ache from reading his account of the war between the Track Men and the Mystic Ultras in the Jackson, Michigan Ultimate Runner contest, in which the entrants race a 10K, a 440, a mile, a 100-yd dash, a mile, and a marathon, all in the same day . 
If you are an ultra runner, have ever been even mildly curious about such events, or if you are just a lover of great writing, you will greatly enjoy this book.

And Then the Vulture Eats You

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Exercise & Fitness

The Olympian

This critically acclaimed novel, first published in 1969, has for years been regarded as one of the true classics not only in the literature of footracing, but in general interest literature as well. 
Glanville's beautifully portrayed relationship between runner Ike Low and the eccentric and charismatic coach Sam Dee has become a set piece in the tales of athletes: Rocky, Chariots of Fire, even Long Road to Boston owe a debt to this work. 
There are echoes of Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner as well. You will be captivated by the story of the working-class stiff, Ike Low, as Sam Dee discovers him thrashing through inconsequential races, a mediocre sprinter at a local running club. 
The first time I met him, I thought he was a nut case, said Ike of his coach. 
You are built to run the mile, Dee told him. You are the perfect combination of ectomorph-mesomorph; long calves, lean, muscular thighs and arms, chest between thirty-seven and thirty-eight, and broad, slim shoulders. A miler is the aristocrat of running. A miler is the nearest to a thoroughbred racehorse that exists on two legs. 
And thus begins the relationship that will transform Ike into one of the great distance runners in the world.

Glanville, Brian

Miscellaneous

Marathon: The Clarence DeMar Story

De Mar, Clarence

Biographies

Champion runner Kenny Moore describes his racing experiences and profiles famous coaches and runners, such as Roger Bannister, Grete Waitz, and Sebastian Coe

Best Efforts

Moore, Kenny

The Runners' Coach

Benson, Roy, Jr.

George A. Sheehan, M.D., was running best-loved writer and speaker. Before he died a few days shy of his 75th birthday, George said, "My daughter was asked if her father was disturbed about his cancer. She said, 'Oh, he loves it. He talks about it all the time.'" Cancer focused George Sheehan. Suddenly he found himself thinking about issues and personal situations that had been on the back burner. This book by his longtime friend and editor will enrich those millions of people who were touched by Dr. Sheehan's lifetime of running and writing, and will reach a new generation with his insights and inspiration.

Did I Win?

Ten Million Steps: The Incredible Journey of Paul Reese, Who Ran Across America - A Marathon a Day for 124 Days - at Age 73

Reese, Paul

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