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There aren't that many great books about running that aren't written like manuals. Running isn't generally like a team sport. Football has stories to tell because there's a story behind every player and a story can be told about every play. Same w...moreThere aren't that many great books about running that aren't written like manuals. Running isn't generally like a team sport. Football has stories to tell because there's a story behind every player and a story can be told about every play. Same with soccer or baseball. Running involves one person putting one foot in front of the other for a specified distance as quickly as possible. In any race, there are less than a handfull of opportunities for strategy to come into play. It's a sport that does not lend itself to being written about in the long form. Running with the Buffaloes: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and the University of Colorado Men's Cross-Country Team is a notable exception to this rule. It's a great running book that both captures the imagination and sparks the flame inside a runner to excel.
The year was 1998 and the Colorado University cross country team, the Buffaloes, were determined to win the NCAA national championship. Chris Lear, a runner himself who competed for Princeton at the national championships, set out to document the day-to-day struggles of the Buffaloes, their highs and their lows. The team included Adam Goucher, considered one of the best collegiate runners at under 5000 meters, who was trying to win first place at the NCAA Championships, as well as stellar runners from all walks of life.
I had a hard time with the book at first. The structure is odd. Each chapter is another day in the August to November cross-country season, and there are only a handful of days that are skipped. Lear writes in the immediate, in the present tense, making the work read more like a journal entry than a story. And then there's the lingo, the terminology, some of which I'd never heard of. (AT's are referred to often and it took me half the book before I figured out what that meant.) I found myself frustrated with my lack of knowledge within the first twenty-five pages. I was looking up something every page. Then it happened. I began to understand what was going on. I began to understand the speed work and the long runs. I appreciated the pain these runners felt after a grueling speed workout and cringed when Coach Whetmore made one of his inspirational speeches that ended with, "If you're not puking at the end you didn't run hard enough." Magnolia Road (Mags) and all that course meant. More importantly, I developed an interest in the runners themselves. Goucher and Severy, Johnson and Roybal, Batliner and Slattery. These guys ran for each other and ran for themselves. They ran because it was what they loved, what they had a passion for. They ran because running gave them hopes and dreams and inspired them to be more than they thought they could be.
The book charts a course, like a cross-country course, that starts off with incredible promise. The Buffaloes had a stellar squad who were training at upwards of 100 miles per week before the season even started. The coach, Mark Whetmore, was determined to win the national title. But like any great course, the hills came suddenly after a sharp turn. The team became plagued by injuries: stress fractures and sore muscles and just plain exhaustion. Then came the big slug and the sudden loss of a teammate. Despite their devastation, the team continued to run. Through the tears and anger and sadness and acceptance, they ran.
I didn't know the outcome of the 1998 cross country season before I started this book. I didn't know if the Buffaloes won or lost. It would take a quick Google search to find out, and I think that knowing the end doesn't take away from the joy of the middle. This book shines and will probably wind up being one of the few books I read a second time. If you like to read books about running, add this one to your list.(less)
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In early May, Dean Karnazes finished his triumphant run across America live on national television. “Seventy-five days ago I dreamed of standing right here,” he said inside the television studio of the show that had sponsored his trek. By any accou...moreIn early May, Dean Karnazes finished his triumphant run across America live on national television. “Seventy-five days ago I dreamed of standing right here,” he said inside the television studio of the show that had sponsored his trek. By any account, his was an amazing run. He traveled more than 3000 miles on foot on the official route, not counting multiple fundraising 5Ks and a visit to the White House. His journey was well documented by the folks at the Regis and Kelly show, blogged and Facebooked and tracked by millions of Americans. It also coincided with the release of Dean’s third book, “Run! 26.2 Stories of Blisters and Bliss.” The book delivers exactly what the title says: stories of running. Specifically, stories of Dean running. From his early days running with his friend Topher to the “Best Race of My Life”—running a 10K with his daughter, Dean recounts some of his biggest successes, and some of his most daunting failures. One of the most spectacular ones came when he ran the Leadville 100 "Race Across the Sky." Somewhere around mile 61, the altitude finally got the better of him and he collapsed on the course with potential high altitude edema. He was rushed to a lower altitude and was unable to finish the race. "Failure rocks!" he writes. "You cannot grow and expand your capabilities to their limits without running the risk of failure." Which is what Dean does. He tests the limits of his own power, of his own body, of his own will. He pushes himself beyond what most of us think is even possible, and then he pushes further. As an ultrarunner he's had tremendous success. As a person, he's at a place in his life many of us only dream of being. He does exactly what he loves to do, he gets paid to do it, and he's quite successful at it. Run! is not as good as Confessions, in my opinion. It's more disjointed, and he writes a lot about his friend and protege, Topher. While Topher's story is compelling, it's not enough to drive the book. For those of you who are or want to be ultrarunners, there's a great chapter written by Dean's wife, Julie. It's required reading for the non-running spouse of a runner. Still, there is something missing in this book that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it's the idea that the book just seems like more publicity for the man, which means publicity for the America run, which means publicity for the book. I'm a big fan of Dean, not only for his running but also for the message he seeks to share that has nothing to do with running. His message is simple: pursue your dream. Find what you love and do it, give it everything you've got. You can be successful at anything you do, as long as you work hard and train hard to do it.
Marshall Ulrich's book is not as uplifting as Dean's. Ulrich is a legend in the ultrarunning and adventure race community. He famously ran the Badwater Ultramarathon four times at once (he refers to it as his Badwater Quad). Ulrich has run across the Sahara and been capsized in a boat on the first day of an adventure race. Plagued all his running life by toenail problems (common for runners), he had them surgically removed. Problem solved. Sometimes referred to as "the tank," Marshall is a machine when it comes to running. And this book shows just how much of a determined machine he is. Ulrich's book is not so much about the run as it is about why Marshall Ulrich runs.
Contrasting these two books is easy. Within the first ten pages of Ulrich's book, I was in tears. This is not an uplifting tale of man overcoming obstacles to achieve greatness. This is a cautionary tale about a man running to escape his demons, running to escape himself. When tragedy strikes Marshall Ulrich, he does the only thing he's known how to do for years: he runs. It's an out that served him well, until he decided to run across America. Unlike Dean, who performed his run with the full support of a well financed crew of at least 15 people, Ulrich operated on a shoestring budget. He rented his RV himself, and though his run was sponsored by sports companies and therapeutic device manufacturers, the fact is that Ulrich ran across the country on a tight budget. He had a small and unpaid crew working for him, led by his wife, Heather, without whom Ulrich states throughout the book he would not have been able to finish the run. Early on, he intimates at the interpersonal difficulties that arise towards the end of the run. However, when that climactic scene finally takes place, when the two runners confront each other, the details are decidedly lacking. At that point, Ulrich had run nearly 3/4 of the way from San Francisco to New York and his brain probably wasn't functioning at a level that would have allowed him to remember word-for-word the conversation that transpired. (Ulrich states that since the run was being filmed for a documentary, the conversation can be seen there and there's no need to rehash it here. I disagree.) Once Ulrich makes the decision and starts planning the run, he talks about a lot of drama that takes place, but he doesn't show any of it.
What the book lacks in drama, though, it certainly makes up for in the compelling tale of Marshall Ulrich the man, his body and his record-breaking run across America. Where Dean ran 40-50 miles per day, Ulrich tackled upwards of 60 miles per day. Unlike Karnazes, Ulrich pays a hefty price. He suffers from plantar fasciitis, tendonitis, sore back, sore knees, sore quads, sore hamstrings. After stepping wrong off a curb, Ulrich's leg is manipulated by the doctor on his crew, Dr. Paul, who adjusts something and then much later informs him that he had dislocated his fibula and that Dr. Paul had "relocated" it. For Ulrich, running across America meant pain so bad that at one point he simply decided to disown his own foot, to ignore the pain. It was the only way to go on.
Ultimately, Ulrich learns that he can't run away forever, that running only prolongs the agony. His realization of all that he's been running from, and the amazing love and support he received from his wife, Heather, during the course of his journey, help him to stop running--at least emotionally.
If Karnazes's book is about chasing your dreams, Ulrich's book is the warning the government makes companies apply to those dreams. It's the tale of Icarus who flew too high. "Yet how else would he feel the warmth of the sun?" Ulrich writes. "Half the fun [of life] is venturing into the unknown, taking on the difficult task that yields new knowlede, doing more and testing your limits."
Therein lies the similarity in these books. Both men want their readers to push themselves and to see how far they can take their bodies and their spirits. That's what living is all about.(less)
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In early May, Dean Karnazes finished his triumphant run across America live on national television. “Seventy-five days ago I dreamed of standing right here,” he said inside the television studio of the show that had sponsored his trek. By any accou...moreIn early May, Dean Karnazes finished his triumphant run across America live on national television. “Seventy-five days ago I dreamed of standing right here,” he said inside the television studio of the show that had sponsored his trek. By any account, his was an amazing run. He traveled more than 3000 miles on foot on the official route, not counting multiple fundraising 5Ks and a visit to the White House. His journey was well documented by the folks at the Regis and Kelly show, blogged and Facebooked and tracked by millions of Americans. It also coincided with the release of Dean’s third book, “Run! 26.2 Stories of Blisters and Bliss.” The book delivers exactly what the title says: stories of running. Specifically, stories of Dean running. From his early days running with his friend Topher to the “Best Race of My Life”—running a 10K with his daughter, Dean recounts some of his biggest successes, and some of his most daunting failures. One of the most spectacular ones came when he ran the Leadville 100 "Race Across the Sky." Somewhere around mile 61, the altitude finally got the better of him and he collapsed on the course with potential high altitude edema. He was rushed to a lower altitude and was unable to finish the race. "Failure rocks!" he writes. "You cannot grow and expand your capabilities to their limits without running the risk of failure." Which is what Dean does. He tests the limits of his own power, of his own body, of his own will. He pushes himself beyond what most of us think is even possible, and then he pushes further. As an ultrarunner he's had tremendous success. As a person, he's at a place in his life many of us only dream of being. He does exactly what he loves to do, he gets paid to do it, and he's quite successful at it. Run! is not as good as Confessions, in my opinion. It's more disjointed, and he writes a lot about his friend and protege, Topher. While Topher's story is compelling, it's not enough to drive the book. For those of you who are or want to be ultrarunners, there's a great chapter written by Dean's wife, Julie. It's required reading for the non-running spouse of a runner. Still, there is something missing in this book that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it's the idea that the book just seems like more publicity for the man, which means publicity for the America run, which means publicity for the book. I'm a big fan of Dean, not only for his running but also for the message he seeks to share that has nothing to do with running. His message is simple: pursue your dream. Find what you love and do it, give it everything you've got. You can be successful at anything you do, as long as you work hard and train hard to do it.
Marshall Ulrich's book is not as uplifting as Dean's. Ulrich is a legend in the ultrarunning and adventure race community. He famously ran the Badwater Ultramarathon four times at once (he refers to it as his Badwater Quad). Ulrich has run across the Sahara and been capsized in a boat on the first day of an adventure race. Plagued all his running life by toenail problems (common for runners), he had them surgically removed. Problem solved. Sometimes referred to as "the tank," Marshall is a machine when it comes to running. And this book shows just how much of a determined machine he is. Ulrich's book is not so much about the run as it is about why Marshall Ulrich runs.
Contrasting these two books is easy. Within the first ten pages of Ulrich's book, I was in tears. This is not an uplifting tale of man overcoming obstacles to achieve greatness. This is a cautionary tale about a man running to escape his demons, running to escape himself. When tragedy strikes Marshall Ulrich, he does the only thing he's known how to do for years: he runs. It's an out that served him well, until he decided to run across America. Unlike Dean, who performed his run with the full support of a well financed crew of at least 15 people, Ulrich operated on a shoestring budget. He rented his RV himself, and though his run was sponsored by sports companies and therapeutic device manufacturers, the fact is that Ulrich ran across the country on a tight budget. He had a small and unpaid crew working for him, led by his wife, Heather, without whom Ulrich states throughout the book he would not have been able to finish the run. Early on, he intimates at the interpersonal difficulties that arise towards the end of the run. However, when that climactic scene finally takes place, when the two runners confront each other, the details are decidedly lacking. At that point, Ulrich had run nearly 3/4 of the way from San Francisco to New York and his brain probably wasn't functioning at a level that would have allowed him to remember word-for-word the conversation that transpired. (Ulrich states that since the run was being filmed for a documentary, the conversation can be seen there and there's no need to rehash it here. I disagree.) Once Ulrich makes the decision and starts planning the run, he talks about a lot of drama that takes place, but he doesn't show any of it.
What the book lacks in drama, though, it certainly makes up for in the compelling tale of Marshall Ulrich the man, his body and his record-breaking run across America. Where Dean ran 40-50 miles per day, Ulrich tackled upwards of 60 miles per day. Unlike Karnazes, Ulrich pays a hefty price. He suffers from plantar fasciitis, tendonitis, sore back, sore knees, sore quads, sore hamstrings. After stepping wrong off a curb, Ulrich's leg is manipulated by the doctor on his crew, Dr. Paul, who adjusts something and then much later informs him that he had dislocated his fibula and that Dr. Paul had "relocated" it. For Ulrich, running across America meant pain so bad that at one point he simply decided to disown his own foot, to ignore the pain. It was the only way to go on.
Ultimately, Ulrich learns that he can't run away forever, that running only prolongs the agony. His realization of all that he's been running from, and the amazing love and support he received from his wife, Heather, during the course of his journey, help him to stop running--at least emotionally.
If Karnazes's book is about chasing your dreams, Ulrich's book is the warning the government makes companies apply to those dreams. It's the tale of Icarus who flew too high. "Yet how else would he feel the warmth of the sun?" Ulrich writes. "Half the fun [of life] is venturing into the unknown, taking on the difficult task that yields new knowlede, doing more and testing your limits."
Therein lies the similarity in these books. Both men want their readers to push themselves and to see how far they can take their bodies and their spirits. That's what living is all about.(less)
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Hello, this is wrtsmith, and I'm going to they to tell you about a wonderful book I just read by Nicholson Baker called The Anthologist. What a great name, Nicholson. I wonder if his friends call him Nick.
Baker is a writers writer and he has writt...moreHello, this is wrtsmith, and I'm going to they to tell you about a wonderful book I just read by Nicholson Baker called The Anthologist. What a great name, Nicholson. I wonder if his friends call him Nick.
Baker is a writers writer and he has written in this lovely little novel what the narrator would call a plum. Paul Chowder is a poet who is struggling: with his house, his lawn, money, his enormous collection of poetry anthologies, his girlfriend of eight years who just recently moved out, and most pertinently with the writing of the introduction to an anthology of poems he has edited. Without the introduction, there is no book. Without the book, Paul Chowder wonders if there has been any point to his life at all.
The Athologist is, basically, a series of drafts of the introduction in which he tells us everything he knows about poetry, told haltingly, humorously and often depressingly self-reflectively in journal format. He writes, though, as if he were talking t the readers of his anthology, as if they were there in the upper floors of his barn with him, watching him sweep away the cobwebs and box up is collection of poetry anthologies for storage. Along the way we learn about his dog, Smacko, and his recently ex-girlfriend, Roz, and his next door neighbor, Nan, and her boyfriend and his friend Tim and Chowder's trouble with teaching and why he could never do that again. Chowder's life is a mess and the only way to put it back together again is to finish that introduction.
What makes this book something special--the reason you should read it--is Baker's way of turning mundane topics into subjects you don't want to stop reading about. "I'm going to tell you everything I know about poetry," Chowder tells us on the first page, and Bake proceeds to fulfill that promise. He teaches us about meter and rhyme and scanning lines and beats and rests and the truth about iambic pentameter (though here Baker/Chowder violates his own rule: "If you have something to say, say it. Don't save it up."). He offers advice on writing poetry. Mostly, he takes us through the history of poetry in the English language and especially how rhyme came to be and how it fell both into and out of fashion. He even manages to scan some rap because that is the poetry of the next generation, rap. Rhyming poetry with a beat.
Baker writes with a wit and grace that probably belies the work that he puts into his novels. The research alone must have taken a year to undertake, unless Baker already has a PhD in poetry. I won't give away whether or not Chowder finishes his introduction, or whether Smacko learns to leave the badminton birdies alone. But by the end you'll be glad you followed Paul Chowder on his journey. (less)
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Quite simply, Once a Runner is a novel about running. Originally self-published in 1978 and sold by the author at foot races across the country, the book became a cult favorite among high school, college and professional runners of all abilities. I ...moreQuite simply, Once a Runner is a novel about running. Originally self-published in 1978 and sold by the author at foot races across the country, the book became a cult favorite among high school, college and professional runners of all abilities. I was skeptical when I first heard about it. What does it mean to be a novel about running? Seems like saying John Grisham's oeuvre is about law, or that Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series is about politics. The only novel I could think of that used running as a metaphor and plot element is The Marathon Man by William Goldman, which contains the best passage about running I have ever read. Seeing as much of my writing as of late has been focused on running, I decided to give this book a read.
The story is simple: Quenton Cassidy, captain of the track team at the fictional Southeastern University in northern Florida, longs for track glory. He has dedicated himself to breaking the elusive four-minute mile, and maybe even going further. Along the way he gets caught up in a scandal involving a new dress code issued by the head of the athletic department and head football coach. What makes this novel special is not the story, it is the characters and it is the way the author managed to capture the feeling of running. I am a marathoner now, but in junior high school I was a miler. I too dreamed of running a four-minute mile, though that dream was never realized. (Now I dream of a sub-three hour marathon and a fifty mile finishers medal.) Cassidy rises early and runs in the pre-dawn hours, rain or shine, tired, hungry, hungover. Doesn't matter. He lives to run. It is his all-consuming passion. His girlfriend doesn't understand it. Even he doesn't completely understand it. It's not something that can be explained in so many words. Parker, though, manages to capture the feeling, the desire, the dedication that comes with becoming a runner. "There was no alternative, it just had to be done." "Let others flail; the runner runs truly to the end." "He was not a health nut, was not out to mold himself a stylishly slim body." "Running to him was real; the way he did it the realest thing he knew. It was all joy and woe, hard as diamond; it made him weary beyond comprehension. But it also made him free."
This is the best quote about running in the novel:
A runner is a miser, spending the pennies of his energy with great stinginess, constantly wanting to know how much he has spent and how much longer he will be expected to pay. He wants to be broke at precisely the moment he no longer needs his coin.
The novel is not without its faults. Some of the language is stilted and cumbersome, and the opening chapters left me confused and feeling like my copy was missing pages. Though Parker wonderfully captures the feeling of being a runner, the sub plots are thin and weak and sometimes unnecessary. (I'm talking about you, Andrea.) Other stories seem to just fade away. (What ever happened to young Mize?) That doesn't mean you shouldn't read this book, especially if you run. Heck, it's a good read for anyone who has a passion and a dream, one that consumes them and one that their friends or family think they are crazy for striving towards.
The title of the book seems to refer to two ideas. One, that Cassidy was once a runner and in the beginning of the book (most of the story is told in flashback) he seems to have decided that his running days are over. The other meaning behind the title, it seems to me, is the old adage, "Once a runner, always a runner." Parker is telling us that we are all runners and that once we become that thing that we are, we can never go back to being what we were before. In fact, the title word "Runner" could be replaced with almost any other profession. In the end, what makes this book so good is that, while it is a book about running, in effect the novel is more universal than that. It's about all of us and all of our dedications.(less)
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I first became aware of Dean Karnazes a few years ago shortly after moving back to New York. That was when he came into the spotlight for a lot of people, shortly after he won the Badwater Ultramarathon. In my small running circle, I spread word of...moreI first became aware of Dean Karnazes a few years ago shortly after moving back to New York. That was when he came into the spotlight for a lot of people, shortly after he won the Badwater Ultramarathon. In my small running circle, I spread word of his infamy, of the man who ordered pizza for delivery on his all night runs. How he would run a hundred miles just to get to the start of a marathon. How he ran a 200 mile relay race--by himself. Most of what I knew of him came from short articles in running magazines or interviews on NPR. In gearing up for this year's marathon season, I borrowed this book from a friend to find out more about the Ultramarathon Man--who in 2006 ran 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days; who was the first person to run a marathon to the South Pole--in running shoes; who ran 350 miles without stopping. I wanted some inspiration to get me through the dark moments of my running, when the pain sets in and I feel like I just can't move any further. It helps me in those times to think of someone who went further, who did more, who ran faster or harder and dug deeper to keep going even under the most dire conditions.
Karnazes talks about his early life as a runner, his introduction to the sport by his first track coach, Coach McTavish. Coach's advice was simple: "Go out hard and finish harder." That would be a mantra that Karnazes would take with him throughout life. He seems to be a man full of energy and determination. An <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/health/nutrition/19best.html?emc=eta1 target="_blank">article</> in the New York Times before the 2010 New York Marathon talked about the determination of professional runners. "Mental Tenacity separates the mortals and the immortals in running," the article says. Karnazes must have more mental tenacity than anyone on earth. He pushes himself to extremes just to see if he can. When he feels himself unable to go on, he digs deeper inside himself and finds strength where mere mortals would falter. As a runner, he has pushed the limits of what a human can do. He's pushed the limit so far it seems unlikely that anyone will challenge his feats anytime soon.
What makes this book stand out, though, is the humility with which Karnazes tells his story. He writes with an unexaggerated, self-depracating style that belies the feats he has accomplished. He's the first to admit that he is only human, that he too falls sometimes. One of his most spectacular falls occurs when he runs his first 50 mile race to qualify for the grueling Western States 100. Karnazes describes the events immediately following that race with objective clarity, as though he were telling the story of what happened to a guy he knew. The pain he puts himself through would make most of us cringe in terror, but to him it is just another day. He's a normal man with a normal family and kids who want him to play with them. Immediately after running 200 miles, his kids drag him to an amusement park and he spends the next several hours riding roller coasters. I can't imagine that. After running that distance, I can imagine that all I'd want to do is collapse in a bed.
For all the humility with which he recounts his story, he is seemingly not a very humble man. In recent years he has made very public his aspirations, from running 50 states in 50 days to his very public declaration of wanting to be the first person to run 300 miles non-stop. (That feat was thwarted by Pam Reed, who for two years won the Badwater Ultramarathon and quietly and without much fanfare ran a 25 mile loop 12 times shortly after Dean attempted his record breaking run.) The ultrarunning community is small and rather protective of itself. Dean is an everyman who seems to believe that anyone can run these distances. He has opened ultrarunning to the wider world.
None of that changes the power of this book, though. While it may be ostensibly about running, it is more deeply about following your dreams. Karnazes wants each of us to realize the power of our dreams, to not just have them but to strive to attain them--no matter what they be. For Karnazes, the dream and the passion meet at running. He wants to push his body and his mind to the limit and he works hard every day to do that. It's not easy. I think he makes clear how hard it is to run the distances he runs. But that is the point, he says. "Dreams can come true," he tells his kids, "especially if you train hard enough."
That may be the best takeaway from any book I've read.(less)
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
The conceit of the novel is a good one, a good idea well executed. But this finished product just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. A sourness that makes me want to read about the real story of Lincoln so I can forget the part here that was made up.
Though I enjoyed this book as a light, fun read, it glosses over a significant part of American history and turns one of this country's greatest struggles into a parody. Grahame-Smith tries to take his subject seriously, but how can one take the idea of the Civil War as ultimately a battle between humans and vampires seriously? And on some level I take umbrage with turning one of the greatest presidents in history into a hunter of vampires. As though anyone could be reduced to such simple motivations. If this were completely fiction, if the main character were completely made up, I would have less of a problem with the vampire hunter. As it is, the novel goes so far as to suggest that Lincoln's victory in 1860 was due to the influence of vampires.
Perhaps I missed the point. Perhaps this novel is simply what it is: a fictional account of a man who spent his life trying to eradicate vampires from American soil. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that this whole fad of adding zombies and vampires to history or to classic works of fiction really is a fad that will (I hope) soon end. There is a suggestion on the last page of this book that another will follow: "[M:]illions gave their lives defeating the second vampire uprising between 1939 and 1945." I just don't think I want to read that book.(less)
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