"Wannabe Distance God"

Bump this up. More people need to read this book.

read some of this on Amazon. Terrific stuff, can't believe I've never heard about this book before.

Bought and looking forward to reading it. Thanks for the recommendation.

As I said, it's the best book out there for "wannabe distance gods," which applies to almost everyone on this forum. Except for Craig Virgin, the only actual great world-class runner who I've ever seen post on here. Are there others? Anyway, winning World Cross Country twice forever made Virgin a true distance god.

Shawn H wrote:

As I said, it's the best book out there for "wannabe distance gods," which applies to almost everyone on this forum. Except for Craig Virgin, the only actual great world-class runner who I've ever seen post on here. Are there others? Anyway, winning World Cross Country twice forever made Virgin a true distance god.

This thread has a lot of great runners (and others) who have posted here.

BTW -- I have read "Wannabe" and agree it is very enjoyable. Other under-published books you may want to check out are "A Cold Clear Day" by Frank Murphy, "Chasing Ghosts" by Philip Reilly, and "From Last to First" by Charlie Spedding.

Rono posted here? One of the loftiest distance gods ever.

I'm gonna bump this one up again because it's a great book recommendation that most of the people on this forum need, and because it goes so well with the current big topic of another thread regarding amateurs calling out the elite.

Rono, Malmo, a lot of greats. Others post and you'd never know it's them. Many just read and get a kick out of the losers who are so negative- this I've been told by a few world and national class runners.

Shawn H wrote:

I mentioned this book in another post (the one about an amateur calling out elite runners), but I thought I'd post it here. Some of you may have read it, but for those who haven't this is the best book about competitive running dreams from a talented runner who never quite made it big in the sport he loved so much. Most of us who have been young, semi-talented competitive runners can really relate to this. Check it out because it's a great read:

http://www.amazon.com/Wannabe-Distance-God-Passion-Running/dp/1479118834/ref%3Dsr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406650629&sr=8-1&keywords=wannabe+distance+god

Thanks for mentioning this I was thinking the same when I read that quote on the front page. Here are a few more:

From Last To First

Charlie Spedding is the English record holder for the marathon, a winner of the London Marathon, and the last British athlete, male or female, to win a medal in the Olympic Marathon.

When Charlie first went to school he was almost bottom of the class, and he was even worse at sport. He and his teachers shared a very low opinion of his abilities, but then he found something he was good at. As he devoted himself to it, he gradually improved. After years of dedication he eventually became world class. He literally went from last to first.

This book is about running, because it was running that Charlie was good at, but the story he tells has a message for everybody: find what you are good at, and then become the best you can - at whatever it is.

From Last To First is Charlie's story in Charlie's own words. It is a story full of setbacks and adverstiy, of determination and commitment, and of love for the sheer joy of running. It is a story to fascinate anyone who enjoys sport.

(To order book)

On The Wings of Mercury : The Lorraine Moller Story

Lorraine Moller is a living legend in the world of New Zealand running and athletics. Four times Olympic contender, Commonwealth Games medal winner, Boston marathoner, World Track and Field Champion, three times winner of the Avon Women's World Marathon. This is the remarkable story of the making of an Olympian. One who as a schoolgirl, ran barefoot with her father through the pine forests near her home in Putaruru, in the Waikato, and went on to win a bronze medal in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. It is also the candid story of Lorraine's own struggles and challenges as she dealt with a sporting world that wasn't quite ready for her. In her own words Lorraine looks back on her development as a world class competitor, the people she raced and trained with -- Arthur Lydiard, Dick Quax, Rod Dixon, Anne Audain, Alison Roe, to mention a few, along with those who helped her reach her dreams. Lorraine reveals the strategies and coping mechanisms required to compete at the highest level.And she gives, in On the Wings of Mercury - The Lorraine Moller Story, an insider's view of the amateur versus professional athlete controversy, and her involvement in overturning the authorities when it came to women competing in the marathon at the Olympics. Here is a portrait of an extraordinary life: intense, highly entertaining, intelligent and very funny. Like a novel, with Lorraine as the heroine, and the Roman god Mercury as her guide, On the Wings of Mercury will redefine sports autobiography.

Lorraine Moller is one of New Zealand's greatest women distance runners. Four times an Olympic contender, winner of three Avon Women's Marathons, winner of the Boston Marathon, three times the winner of the Osaka international Ladies' Marathon, and a Commonwealth Games medallist, she is indeed a living legend of the runn ing world. Lorraine began running barefoot with her father near her home in Putaruru and went on to win a bronze medal in the marathon at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympic Games. Here, in her own words, Lorraine looks back on a golden era of athletics in New Zealand and the personalities she ran with -- Arthur Lydiard, Dick Quax, rod Dixon, Anne Audain, Allison roe and others. She traces her development as a world-class competitor and reveals the strategies and coping techniques that took her to the world stage. A longtime battler for equality and professionalism in distance running, Lorraine is upfront about her struggles with officialdom. With the roman god Mercury as her guide, Lorraine competed with immense courage and determination at the highest level. Here is a candid, personal story of an extraordinary life: intense, insightful and highly entertaining.

Thanks for the other book referrals. I'm going to bump this again because I still think there are a lot of people who are just like this author. Tays was a much better runner than most of us ever were or ever will be. He made running his life, as many of us did for at least some time in our lives. He never became a "distance god," although his achievements are enviable to most of us. The desire to be great never really dies with competitive distance runners, but eventually reality sets in for most of us. Tays now has a very successful career, and he's an ever better writer than he was a runner. Read up, dreamers. Enjoy running and even racing, despite your limitations. So you'll never be a distance god? So what? Someday you'll be ok with that.

Just ordered it. Just the online reviews gave me shivers..

good so far after three chapters but it's evident that the author still has quite the ego, as evidenced by his overly "bro-like" writing style with colorful adjectives.

The book by Charlie Spedding is very inspirational and I would urge those training for marathons to read during their build up.

Logic Wins wrote:

good so far after three chapters but it's evident that the author still has quite the ego, as evidenced by his overly "bro-like" writing style with colorful adjectives.

Show me a successful athlete at any level, from high school to world class, who doesn't have and NEED "quite the ego." Yes, some are better with the humble act than others, but the fire burns underneath. Tays had to have that ego to go as far as he did, and if you want to be successful in any challenging endeavor, you better develop "quite the ego" of your own. You're also missing something in your reading: Tays is humorously self-deprecating in his display of ego. You see, ALL of us runners who have had any success in running at any level go through stages of ego. When we are young and winning most of our races, our ego grows, but as we grow older and finally, painfully accept, if nothing else, our inferior genetic hand when compared to the "distance gods," our ego is either destroyed or we learn to live with the realization that we can actually be happy in our "victories" on lesser stages or alternate "races." What I love about Tays is that he gave running his all, came up shorter than he dreamed, but can live with that and even joke about it. Of course, Tays knows, as all of us who have had some of our illusions crushed, that the fire inside never really dies. Tays' book speaks to all runners--even the great ones--eventually. If you don't believe that, read some of the quotes from the likes of Bill Rodgers, Billy Mills, etc. at the front of the book. Even the great ones recognize their limitations and always believe they could have done better. As Pre said, "If you're a runner, you're never really satisfied unless you break a world record."

Well said Shawn. And lets be honest.. Pre only said a runner would be satisfied with a WR because that was most likely one of his biggest goals. If he were to have set a WR his goal would immediatly shift to running a faster time.

CH wrote:

Well said Shawn. And lets be honest.. Pre only said a runner would be satisfied with a WR because that was most likely one of his biggest goals. If he were to have set a WR his goal would immediatly shift to running a faster time.

Absolutely. Pre would have wanted to push that record as far out-of-reach as possible. How does it feel to be Kenenisa Bekele or El G and hold onto your record for years or even decades? I'm in my 50s now, and I can honestly say that I still love and enjoy running even though I never was and never will be a "distance god." But what wouldn't each of us current or former competitive runners give to be able to look back on our lives and say that for just one day we were the best in the world? That is true distance godhood.

Tim understates how good he was as a runner at Kansas. Just to survive the training is an indication of the quality of runner he was.

Logic Wins wrote:

good so far after three chapters but it's evident that the author still has quite the ego, as evidenced by his overly "bro-like" writing style with colorful adjectives.

That is sarcasm. He is humorously reflecting on how obsessed he was and how he used cockiness to cover up insecurity. Tim also posts on here. Loved the book.

Sounds like an interesting guy. I'm not going to read the book, but what was this guy's training like and what were his PRs?