Archive For The “Running Free” Category
He once read a survey of Olympic aspirants that reported 80% would take an illegal drug that would enable them to win a gold medal, even if the drug would kill them within two years. Chapter Eight MARY SANGER Jeremy thought he might never fall in love. Actually, it was unimaginable anyone would fall…
“Grab them with a word or a picture,” Beckwith told John. “Then make your ad dazzle. Remove them from the world for a moment. Imagine your reader is standing in a basin of ice water. Distract him so much he forgets his cold feet.” Chapter Seven HARRY BECKWITH John Corbin’s importance to Harry Beckwith…
On February 28, 1970, Caroline Walker set a world best in the marathon with a time of 3:02:53 at the inaugural Trail’s End Marathon in Seaside, Oregon. She was sixteen-years-old. My first marathon hero was a woman – Nina Kuscsik, the women’s winner at the 1972 Boston Marathon. Back when you could afford a hotel room. Thought if she could do it,…
“If you feel that you’re running, no matter how slow you’re going, no one can say you’re not.” Here’s my take on Jim Fixx and running. He got up off his fat ass and the activity became a sport which became a lifestyle and then he became himself. I was surprised when he dropped dead,…
Three laps to go. Jeremy accelerated purposefully now and moved within ten meters of the leaders. O’Neal dropped the last two pretenders over the fifth water jump and relaxed. But as he passed the finish line with two laps remaining, the announcer’s message unnerved him. Chapter Six JEREMY STANFIELD Wellston and its surrounding…
Our destiny is to run to the edge of the world and beyond, off into the darkness. – Thomas Aquinas THE FRONT RUNNER… You yawn.You always yawn before a race. Every race, but you yawn a little longer and a little yawnier before this race, today’s race.Can’t help but notice the breeze. The trees bold…
The Demon was a Natural. He floated around the track, surging, easing, making a mockery of the pitiful mortals who tested their limits of oxygen uptake, lactate tolerance, and muscle fatigue. At some point in every race, the Demon of Pain cast his net over the field of runners. All felt it. Chapter Five JOHN…
Wouldn’t it be great, if we could all remember that we come away from each new experience… a different person? We are changed by each experience just as each person we react with is changed by us; that each new encounter frames the arch through which we see our world and therefore shapes what we…
Every time I fail, I assume I will be a stronger person for it. I keep on running figuratively and literally, despite a limp that gets more noticeable with each passing season, because for me there has always been a place to go and a terrible urgency to get there. – Joan Benoit So, anyway,…
Alamosa, Colorado, hosted the Olympic Trials marathon in August 1968. Because its 7,544-foot elevation was nearly identical to that of Mexico City, no qualifying standard had been set. Fears that runners might die in the rarified air seemed unfounded, but nevertheless, racing at that altitude caused loved ones to pause and athletes to wonder. Chapter…