Once a Runner: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

The undisputed classic of running novels and one of the most beloved sports books ever published, Once a Runner tells the story of an athletes dreams amid the turmoil of the 60s and the Vietnam war.

Inspired by the authors experience as a collegiate champion, the novel follows Quenton Cassidy, a competitive runner at fictional Southeastern University whose lifelong dream is to run a four-minute mile. He is less than a second away when the turmoil of the Vietnam War era intrudes into the staid recesses of his schools athletic department. After he becomes involved in an athletes protest, Cassidy is suspended from his track team. Under the tutelage of his friend and mentor, Bruce Denton, a graduate student and former Olympic gold medalist, Cassidy gives up his scholarship, his girlfriend, and possibly his future to withdraw to a monastic retreat in the countryside and begin training for the race of his life against the greatest miler in history.

A rare insiders account of the incredibly intense lives of elite distance runners, Once a Runner is an inspiring, funny, and spot-on tale of one individuals quest to become a champion.

Reviews

Part training manual, part religious tract, part love story, and all about running, Once a Runner is so inspiring it could be banned as a performance-enhancing drug. Benjamin Cheever, author of Strides
By far the most accurate fictional portrayal of the world of the serious runnera marvelous description of the way it really is. Kenny Moore, Sports Illustrated
The best piece of running fiction around. Beg, borrow, or buy a copy, and youll never need another motivator. Dave Langlais, Runners World
"The best novel ever written about running."--Runner's World

Author Bio

John L. Parker, Jr. has written for Outside, Runners World, and numerous other publications. A graduate of the University of Floridas College of Journalism as well as its College of Law, Parker has been a practicing attorney, a newspaper reporter and columnist, a speechwriter for then Governor Bob Graham, and editorial directorof Running Times magazine. The author of Once a Runner, Again to Carthage, and Racing the Rain, he lives in Gainesville, Florida, and Bar Harbor, Maine.