While opening Christmas gifts I was pleasantly surprised to find the book "Once a Runner" among my gifts. It is the fictional story of Quenton Cassidy, a college runner specializing in the mile in the early 70's. The novel focuses upon the training of the young man to break the four-minute mile mark. The protagonist continually tells the people around him that running is all about time... your personal best determines who you are and a with a 4:01.3 mile he isn't near being the best.
Cassidy trains with with Olympic gold medalist Bruce Denton (remember fictional) in a college town that is reminiscent of Florida State. Denton runs every morning and welcomes others to join him. Eager to find out his secret to success they join him and quickly find out that there is no secret... its just constant training. These eager runners drop out except Cassidy and a friend of his. Over time Denton tutors him and then the story get good! The description of the rigors of training for a simple one mile race at the end is staggering. Dozens of miles in a single day! Nearly 200 miles in a week.
The book gives pause to the reality of hardship and strain of real distance runners. It also leaves a reader with a push to get themselves out there and run a little themselves. So here I am a week later entering week two of my training.
If you want some motivation to keep going pick up this book. It is well worth the read. You won't regret it.
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