I'll preface this review by saying that if anyone else would like to take a stab reviewing, go ahead. I felt in all honesty I didn't do the book justice.
This book, in comparison with Ultra Marathon Man and Born To Run, triumphs in being lined with quotables. It is the most poetic of the three. Born To Run is a mixture of a history book with a relatively new theory. Ultra Marathon Man, while being somewhat egomaniacal (what runner isn't), is an autobiography. Once A Runner is The Great Gatsby in its imagery and quotability while at the same time, if you never ran track or cross (like myself), the learning curve is steep at first in trying to decipher the book a la The Wire.
The pacing of the book in terms of the length of a chapter added to the feeling of a quick interval (but not the Da Vinci Code cliffhanging 2-page chapters which made you feel great for reading 50 chapters in under an hour).
The race report of the final race was the best that I have read so far.
Some of the quotes really were inspiring, like these:
The only true way is to marshal the ferocity of your ambition over the course of many days, weeks, months, and (if you could finally come to accept it) years. The Trial of Miles; Miles of Trials p.14
Training was a rite of purification; from it came speed, strength. Racing was a rite of death; from it came knowledge. p.122
What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared, to believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and sometimes heartrending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes. The Trial of Miles; Miles of Trials. How could they be expected to understand that?
p.229
Despite the praise I have showered this book with, I will have to say personally that I just couldn't get lost in reading this book which could possibly just be where my head is at right now. Maybe the book went over my head and I have lost my ability to read books over an 8th grade level.
I must be the reader's equivalent to an 80s action movie enthusiast: more action (running), less words.
There are definitely chapters I will revisit and I will have to re-read it with a different mindset at a later date.
that was quick Tang haha... I just finished running with the buffaloes too, it follows the Colorado Cross Country team when they had Adam Goucher. Pretty well done, and insteresting, mostly about their training routines (which are insane)..
ReplyDeletealso finished The Perfect Mile. Which is a little more of a history book than a running book. I feel like such a running nerd now. It follows three athletes including Roger Bannister that were setting out to break the 4 minute mile. Very interesting, but less inspiring than the others i've read.
I just ordered once a runner's sequel... I heard it wasn't as good, but I'll give it a shot. And I ordered Pre's biography. I guess I'm going a little overboard haha.