The Runner's Bible

The runner's bible- Once a Runner by John L. Parker, Jr.

There are several fiction and non-fiction books in the market on running. Domestic and International authors are writing educational and motivational books on running and some of them are pretty darned good.

However, Once a Runner is in its own league. For many runners, this is the bible (maybe even a replacement for the real one). This is the book from which lines are recited before, during and after runs. Certain parts of the book can give you goosebumps. Copies of the book are passed on as a right of passage!

There was a time when it couldn't be bought easily in the market but now it's readily available. Online purchase is a sure shot way of getting your hands on a copy since I was unable to find it at many book stores in Delhi.

If there is one book on running which can get me out of my slump; this is it. I can re-read it after every few months. Nevertheless, paras and lines are anyway read frequently. It is an over the top account of a runner's struggles and triumphs.

Read a few pages and then try putting it down. Towards the end you will feel that you're bidding farewell to a loved one because of the bond that you'll end up developing with the protagonist- Quenton Cassidy.

There are long discussions on it on Letsrun.com and the fanaticism (enthusiasm?) is mind boggling. It is just one of those books which takes running out of the realm of just exercise into something mystical and soul searching.

One read, can give you exactly what you are looking for, be it motivation, philosophy of running, empathy or a running hero.

It has inspired t-shirts with prints proclaiming, "Gaunt is Beautiful" and "The Trial of Miles; Miles of Trial".

"Until its re-release in 2009, the out-of-print 1978 novel was shared among track teams and passed between training partners. Used paperback copies sold for over $75 online. In 2008, Parker wrote a sequel, Again to Carthage, following an aging Cassidy’s quest to come back as a marathoner. The cult classic is a must read for all serious runners." (Source: runningcompetitor)

Without ranting too much, allow me to take you through a few passages.

“Cassidy's heart tried to leap out through his taught skin and hop into his wet hands. But outwardly it was all very calm, very serene, just as always, and it seemed to last a tiny forever, just like that, a snapshot of them all on the curved parabola of a starting line, eight giant hearts attached to eight pairs of bellows-like lungs mounted on eight pairs of supercharged stilts. They were poised on the edge of some howling vortex they had run 10,000 miles to get to. Now they had to run one more” 

“You don't become a runner by winning a morning workout. The only true way is to marshal the ferocity of your ambition over the course of many day, weeks, months, and (if you could finally come to accept it) years. The Trial of Miles; Miles of Trials.”

“Running to him was real; the way he did it the realest thing he knew. It was all joy and woe, hard as diamond; it made him weary beyond comprehension. But it also made him free.” 

“It's a simple choice! We can all be good boys and wear our letter sweaters around and get our little degrees and find some nice girl to settle, you know, down with... Take up what a friend of ours calls the hearty challenges of lawn care... Or we can blaze! Become legends in our own time, strike fear in the hearts of mediocre talent everywhere! We can scald dogs, put records out of reach! Make the stands gasp as we blow into an unearthly kick from three hundred yards out! We can become God's own messengers delivering the dreaded scrolls! We can race satan himslef till he wheezes fiery cinders down the back straight away... They'll speak our names in hushed tones, 'those guys are animals' they'll say! We can lay it on the line, bust a guy, show them a clean pair of heels. We can sprint the turn on a spring breeze and feel the winter leave our feet! We can, by god, let out demons loose and just wail on!” 

Don't even get me started on the sequel, Again to Carthage, where Cassidy who is a practising lawyer, reassesses his life's priorities and quits his comfortable job in a law firm, to train his 30 something aging body to qualify for the Olympic Marathon Team since his days of being a fast miler are over.

And in 2015 after seven years, a prequel has been written and published by John L. Parker, Jr. and I just ordered it today. It will take a while to reach me since it is not yet available in India. Shipping from USA to my rescue. I need to increase my weekly mileage to handle the book when it arrives.....haha!

Gaunt is beautiful :-)