Comments on: What’s your favorite running book?

By: Joan

Joan — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 23:11:47 +0000

Sure, you can interview me for your website. I really enjoyed reading about Anne Audain on your page. I’ll never forget racing her when I first started the road race circuit back in the 80’s. She was like a rock star! She wouldn’t recall this, but when she told me she had purchased TWO houses with her race earnings, I knew at that moment I could actually make a living running.

By: sung nam jo aka jayson jo

sung nam jo aka jayson jo — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 20:35:59 +0000

hi there,

i enjoy reading your web blog every once in a while and today was no exception. the halberg and snell references caught my eye just because not many runners out there know who they are or what they have done for the sport of running. you on the otherhand are sharing your knowledge of them first hand. check out my website when you get a chance. i’d love to do an interview with you for it. would you mind?

By: pjm

pjm — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 12:11:55 +0000

A contact in New Zealand found me copies of both “A Clean Pair of Heels” and the analogous Peter Snell book, “No Bugles, No Drums” on used bookstore shelves, so I have both in my library. The Halberg book has the spine-label and plastic wrapping which show it spent part of its life in a school library! Both are fantastic books, even though they’re written for teenagers from another age; Garth Gilmour, the ghostwriter (who also wrote the “official” Lydiard bio, if I recall correctly) does good work.

My favorite is still in print and available: “A Cold Clear Day,” Frank Murphy’s “athletic biography” of Buddy Edelen. (You’re undoubtedly familiar with Murphy’s other book, which is also engaging and thoughtful reading.) The chapter where he describes Edelen’s Olympic Trials run in 1964 is positively breathtaking.