What is the best book on jim ryun?
What is the best book on jim ryun?
definetly "the jim ryun story". lots of details on training for track geeks, etc.
Hard to say, as the two main books, Cordner Nelson's "The Jim Ryun Story" written in 1967 and Ryun's own "In Quest of Gold" written in 1984, are apples and oranges. Nelson's book is more of a fan book, with a statistician's orientation, focusing largely on Ryun's amazing race-by-race progession as a youth (he was only 19/20 years old when the book was written), culminating in his world record and ending before the 68 Mexico Olympics. As a high school kid I was truly inspired by it (and awed by his training), but looking back now it gives little in-depth analysis of Ryun or the times.
Ryun's book is more about his spiritual journey than it is a sports book. He writes about how he found little satisfaction from the public fame he got in 66/67, how he had to deal with his crushing (and unfair) losses at the 68 and 72 Olympics, and how he ultimately found meaning and inpiration through a deep-seated belief in Christianity. You can't really compare the two books.
A great book about the tradition of running of the mile in America and about the legacy American milers remains to be written.
well, from what i hear, there is one actually in the works. rumor has it that jim's son drew has gotten ahold of the actual diaries/logs of steve scott (3.47?), jim spivey, his father ('66 season?), marty liquori, joe falcon (dream mile/3.49), alan webb (his hs sub 4 season), and many others. apparently the book will be a full year of each of their logs during the best seasons of their career. also, (and again through the grapevine) i have heard that there will be personal pictures from the athlete's own personal collections. sounds pretty amazing. though, like i said, i haven't heard or seen anything about it on here. maybe it is just all rumor and talk. if you're reading this drew, give us the scoop!
the big swede wrote:
if you're reading this drew, give us the scoop!
that would be great. i know he posts on here at times (although i don't know why considering the extremely disrespectful posts about his father that show up here).
I know for certain that he posts on here.
BUMP
Not only is Cordner Nelson's "The Jim Ryun Story" the best book on JR, it, in my opinion, is the best book on running period (with Kenny Moore's recent "Men of Oregon" a close second).
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