Do college/mid 20s runners still relate to "Once a Runner"?

Does it still resonate with white boys? I'm sure it does...

Video was by Patrick Mouser who was a top runner at Auburn.

I was 13 in 1972 and I knew a lot of runners that age and I can relate. I think if younger runners now read it understanding that times were different and it's a real good reflection of the times then they can at least enjoy it if not relate.

I swear some of the stories they tell happened to my friends and me.

I've been out of the college running scene for a few months now and am still trying to hack it. I've been rereading OAR to find that extra bit of motivation and I have found its themes to be true under a new light.

The solitude of Cassidy in the dim Florida winter illustrates the common toil that every other running YouTuber tries unsuccessfully to portray. OAR remains one of the few relatable portrayals of the true grinder. The only other narrative that comes to mind is Running to the Edge by Matthew Futterman, but even that is nonfiction. OAR's prose is just real enough to inspire the dreamer, but fictional enough to keep the realist pushing.

For sure, it has some power in its prose. My pops got me an inscribed copy when I was in high school. I then picked up Again to Carthage and Racing the Rain in later years. Unfortunately, some of the snobbish elitism in the original proved appealing to outcast me and choosing to elevate that narrative ultimately held me back in certain ways. My boy is getting into running the past few years and I am reluctant to share these stories with him. I would rather he simply experience working hard and having a good time with friends.

My coach lent me a samizdat of "Once a Runner" and I loved it even though I was also getting into high brow literature at exactly the same time. At the time, the U.S. was not only a second-rate power behind Britain, as in the early 1980s, but deeply on the decline and it seemed to validate the idea that you could only be good at running if you went old school, 1970s training, became a hermit and ran huge mileage. No one seems to have taken that to heart and we didn't start to get a revival until the late 1990s at the high school level. Even that petered out short of World or Olympic golds until the 2010s and look at where we are now with quite a different training mentality.

I'm sure your perspective is the only valid one.

That is nothing remotely close to my actual statements. Do you need a friend?

Once a Runner is from a different era, but it captures something magical about being on a team and dreaming about accomplishing something meaningful.

I'm pretty sure that anyone reading Letsrun.com and then claiming that Once a Runner is poorly written is a moran.

Cult Member, what do you mean by "elitism" then? You claim that Vomit misread you...can you clarify your point?

Super cringe book.

I regret being a running nerd obsessing over training etc

Just go out and train right, run hard when it matters, enjoy it.