Best running books of all time?

"The loneliness of the long distance runner"

By: Alan Silitoe

The Bible. Read it, my son, and your soul will run for eternity.

I taught a course at Ole Miss last fall entitled "The Literature and Culture of Running." Here's the reading list I chose.

Required texs:

Bernd Heinrich, Why We Run: A Natural History

Christopher McDougall, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Henry Rono, Olympic Dream

John L. Parker, Once a Runner

Kathrine Switzer, Marathon Woman

Charles B. Kastner, Bunion Derby: The 1928 Footrace Across America

Garth Battista, The Runner’s Literary Companion: Great Poems and Stories About Running

Additional required readings [posted to Blackboard]

Robert Browning, “Pheidippides”

Alan Sillitoe, “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”

Dave Zirin and John Carlos, The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World

Tony Tanser, “A Typical Kenyan Training Run: On the Roads of Iten,” in More Fire: How to Run the Kenyan Way

Vincent O. Onywera et. al., “Demographic Characteristics of Elite Kenyan Endurance Runners”

Annemarie Jutel, “Running Like a Girl: Women’s Running Books and the Paradox of Tradition”

Thersa A. Walton, “Steve Prefontaine: From Rebel With a Cause to Hero With a Swoosh”

Daniel Wojcik, “Pre’s Rock: Pilgrimage, Ritual, and Runner’s Traditions at the Roadside Shrine for Steve Prefontaine”

Here's how we moved through the readings:

Tue 8/26: course introduction.

Thu 8/28: Homer, Iliad (Battista, 316-318; also on Blackboard)

Browning, “Pheidippides” [Blackboard]

Housman, “To An Athlete Dying Young” (Battista 319; also on Blackboard)

Tue 9/2: Sillitoe, “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” [Blackboard]

Thu 9/4: Heinrich, Why We Run (1-89)

Tue 9/9: Heinrich, Why We Run (91-185)

PAPER #1 ASSIGNED

Thu 9/11: Heinrich, Why We Run (187-267)

Tue 9/16: Orcutt, “Wheelbarrow” (Battista 23-38)

Coxe, “See How They Run (Battista 71-86)

Tuckman, Long Road to Boston (Battista 95-118)

Thu 9/18: Sylvester, “Going to Run All Night” (Battista 119-130)

Bambara, “Raymond’s Run” (Battista 131-140)

Edwards, Ten Seconds (Battista 141-144)

Tabor, “The Runner” (Battista 231-236)

Tue 9/23: Zirin and Carlos, The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World [excerpt on Blackboard]

“1968 Olympics The Black Power Salute” [YouTube video on Blackboard]

Thu 9/25: Parker, Once a Runner (1-96)

Tue 9/30: Parker, Once a Runner (97-176)

Thu 10/2: Parker, Once a Runner (177-272)

Tue 10/7: Without Limits (1999) [first 45 minutes screened in class]

Thu 10/9: Without Limits [final 75 minutes, to be viewed on your own – download from Blackboard]

Wojcik, “Pre’s Rock: Pilgrimage, Ritual, and Runner’s Traditions at the Roadside Shrine for Steve Prefontaine” [Blackboard]

Tue 10/14: Fire on the Track (excerpts viewed in class)

Walton, “Steve Prefontaine: From Rebel With a Cause to Hero With a Swoosh” [Blackboard]

Thu 10/16: Rono, Olympic Dream (vii-108)

Tanser, “A Typical Kenyan Training Run: On the Roads of Iten” [Blackboard]

Tue 10/21: Rono, Olympic Dream (131-235)

Onywera et. al., “Demographic Characteristics of Kenyan Runners” [Blackboard]

Thu 10/23: Switzer, Marathon Woman (1-121)

Tue 10/28: Switzer, Marathon Woman (122-292)

Thu 10/30: Switzer, Marathon Woman (293-400)

Tue 11/4: Maitland, “The Loveliness of the Long Distance Runner” (Battista 87-94)

Oates, “Running” (Battista 245-252)

I substituted another story: Cynthia Robinson, “Track and Field”

Piercy, “Morning Athletes” (Battista 297-298)

Jutel, “Running Like a Girl: Women’s Running Books and the Paradox of Tradition” [Blackboard]

Tue 11/11: Kastner, Bunion Derby (xi-98)

Thu 11/13: Kastner, Bunion Derby (99-192)

Tue 11/18: McDougall, Born to Run (1-106)

Thu 11/20: McDougall , Born to Run (107-183)

Tue 11/25: no class – THANKSGIVING BREAK

Thu 11/27: no class – THANKSGIVING BREAK

Tue 12/2: McDougall , Born to Run (184-287)

Thu 12/4: course review

I keep this older thread bookmarked, it has some good ones:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6151882

Why not add the perfect mile?

Hi friends, I love to read books and mostly I read the novels and nowadays I am making my interest in reading other types of books also. Well, I am not so good at grammar and that's why I always give pressure on my reading because it helps me to do my English skills good and nowadays I am reading about https://freebooksummary.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird-themes-ignorance-627 which is a great software and with the help of this I can kill the mockingbird themes and it helps me to browse very sharply and fastly. I think you should also try it once.

Shakespeare can eat a fat one. I want that class

Nice post.

My favorite running writer is Frank Murphy.

A Cold Clear Day (about marathoner Buddy Edelin(

The Silence of Great Distance (about women's running)

Bowerman and the Men at Oregon

Lee Evan's the Last Protest

Each different and great, my favorite is The Silence of Great Distance

coach wrote:

My favorite running writer is Frank Murphy.

A Cold Clear Day (about marathoner Buddy Edelin(

The Silence of Great Distance (about women's running)

Bowerman and the Men at Oregon

Lee Evan's the Last Protest

Each different and great, my favorite is The Silence of Great Distance

"A Cold Clear Day" is a great book.

My fav works are the Quenton Cassidy trilogy - Racing the Rain, OAR, and Again to Carthage, - Running with the Buffaloes, Life at these speeds, The Perfect Mile, Long Road to Boston, Pain, and Duel in the Sun. The further I get from college, the more Again to Carthage has grown on me.

Hey thinks for the syllabus, that's really cool. Any reason why the Olympian by Brain Glanville didn't make the cut? What about running with the Buffaloes?

"Pre" by Tom Jordan