Bill, have you read it yet?

I'm at a loss. I'm not familiar with the book. Feel free to share. Bill

Whoa......... Bill

And i still need to read it...

I don't know, Janna, do you think that Jacob is ready to read it yet? hmmmmm. Bill

If I'm not ready now, I'll never be.... There ARE a lot of used bookstores around here...

Well, I had to reread 'once a runner' because I knew my copy of 'Again to Carthage" would be showing up. It was great. Wow! It's obviously too late to do anything about it now, but I guess I'm ready for a great winter of training. Today, my sequel showed up. I'm about four chapters in and it's going to be a good one. I'm curious to where Jacob is on the initial novel? Bill

Jacob, You weren't ready..... I understand all the instances that you've pointed out in the book. Most are very valid. However, the story is not meant to be read as just another story. What makes the book special to most, is the attempt to be better than one is suppose to be. Sure the overwriting does sometimes, tend to make it tough to reach the point in a quick fashion, but the story is there. The goal is for the reader to become Cassidy, if only for the duration of the book. It's a novel, and not a real sitauation. But, the path of the characters and their uniqueness only show that people are different. I tend to feel a connection more with the mizner character than with Quenton, but that really didn't change the story for me. The story being of a person who didn't become great because he was born to do so, but because he stumbled upon it, and because of unusual friends and bad luck was able to make the steps to reach his best. The story is suppose to show that commitment, regardless of the reason why you have it, can be the difference to reaching your goals. In order to get the message, you have to understand commitment. It doesn't mean that by having the commitment you will reach the goal, but it's nice to see that a person, if only a character, has the ability to reach excellence if they are willing to really see what they have. The parts of the story that you've described with the trial and some of the crap really only go to show that Cassidy is human, and not perfect. Let's face it, his girlfriend couldn't even stay around him. He definetly had problems. The story wasn't about the perfect individual that became the perfect runner, it was about an individual that figured that there was not a good reason not to try to go for the big prize. I, honestly, could tell that the book was not your cup of tea. All I have to do is look at your training log. The book should take 3 days, at the most, to read. If it takes four, something is missed. If a reader has to decide what they like or don't like, it's not a book that should be read. If a reader enters into the story looking for something that they can relate to, or dream about, or wish to develop goals of there own. That's the person who should read the book. That's why I continually ask if a person is "ready" to read the book. Now the marathon trials is a great specatator event. But, that's the problem. Unless you are running, or setting a goal to run in them, you are a have not watching what others are doing. 2:22 versese 2:19 is not that much of a difference, if it took a 2:19 to get in, those that do 2:22 would just train a bit harder. They'll make the grade just the same. It's always been 2:19 to get your way paid, The 2:22er's have just been allowed to fill the field on their own dime. Zach Feudenberg, the son of a running friend of mine from here in Kalispell ran in the race. He qualified by placing 19th in Boston. He was the fourth american at Boston in 2:21 and change. He ran about 18 miles of the race and dropped out. He said he was going for the gusto. He used to run with us in the summers back in the mid 90's. He was not a great high school runner. He attened school in Illinois where his mom lived, but he never placed at state in track, and placed iln the 80's at state in xc, but he stuck with it. He ran for a small NAIA college called Beloit College. He qualified to run at nationals a couple of times, but never was an all american. Then he spent time in Denmark, and married a Danish girl, and eventually made his way back to the states. In all that time he kept running and improving. I'm sure he did some of the running things that Cassidy did in tlhe book. I'm sure he felt some of the same frustrations. Now to the real problem....... "I don't have time for running" "I didn't feel good so I turned around" "The weather was crappy" "There is not team" "There is no program" Let's face it, your opportunities right now are better than just about any other runner that I know. You have an unbelievable city right at your doorstep. You can get into so many competitions with so many great runners that all you have to do is tie a rope to one of them, and you'll be making all of us back here look bad. Jacob, you just have to look at what you really want to accomplish. You don't have to give up everything, you just have to decide that the effort is worthy. What do you want from running. You have to write down the goals before you can lay out the plan to reach them. Quenton, from the book, didn't do anything that great until he was able to do it on his own. For you it's the same. Being in New York is the best thing you have going for you. It should be a motivating factor. You should be the best runner in your school, you should be the best runner in the races that you run. You should be in the olympic marathon trials in four years when they run it again, and since you train on the course, you should run it better than others. The only reason why it won't happen is because you don't believe it can. Well I believe it can. I read the book in one day, a couple of days ago. I made the time and I read it. I became even more motivated, and yesterday I ran nine, agonizingly slow miles in Seattle. I've been running in the mornings in the cold. I haven't missed a day in a couple of weeks, and plan on keeping that up. I plan an being able to race this coming spring, and I don't want to say I didn't because I was afraid to try, or that I didn't have someone to run with. Make your goals, send me an e-mail. Let's draw up the plan, and let's get you into the right frame of mind to finish the second half of the book, where it will all make sense, so that you can love the book, like every other great runner (not fastest runners) that has read the book in the past. Bill

Hey Ian, Is there any snow in Colorado? There doesn't seem to be much here in the Flathead Valley. Some op on the mountain, but none here in Kalispell. Regarding the book, You may find it in a Library, if no one else has found it yet. I think Janna mentioned that it is perhaps one of the most "lifted" books at any Library. Manly because only about 30,000 of the books were ever printed. That's not a lot. The author pretty much started his own publishing company to get it printed. The big publishers didn't want to print anything that wasn't a "how to run a marathon on twenty miles a week" book at the time. It is a fiction book, so you need to look for it in the general fiction section, under the Author's name, John L Parker. Typically, you won't find it in the sports section. Good Luck with the Marathon training. The running should be pretty much what you've been doing, the main thing will be to gradually work your ability to handle a longer run. If you can run for over three hours (at any speed), you'll be able to handle a marathon without totally dieing. by the way, a friend of your dad's, Tracy Harris said to say hi, if I talked with you. He was at the Nike Regional meet in Boise that we went to after the state meet. I think he's hoping that you'll go to a school that you can continue your running at. Bill