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Have any of you read Once a Runner by John Parker?

I commend it to all devotees of running and track competition. Many of you may have heard of it, and probably read it, as this book has been a "cult classic" among runners since 1978. When Mr. Parker could not find a publisher, he self-published it and sold the book from the trunk of his car at track meets and road races around the country.

For those of you have read Once a Runner or will read it, let's start a discussion about it right here. We all should share our reactions to this insightful work of fiction.

I read the book about a year or two after it came out. I'm guessing 1980, when I was working at the Phidippides warehouse in Atlanta. Phidippides was a retail company developed by Jeff Galloway, an Atlanta runner who is still involved in popularizing running and the sport of track and field. The reason I mention this is that the book was much discussed at the warehouse, where just about all of us employees were runners to one degree or another. I thought the book pretty much captured the essence of the 1970's running mind set, especially at the collegiate level and remember it pretty fondly.

Some more comments on Once a Runner: A Novel by John L. Parker. I remember there was some discussion at the time the book came out, as to whether it was a realistic depiction of the life of a collegiate distance runner. The consensus seemed to be that it was, although not everybody that I worked with agreed on that. One bone of contention was that some thought the main character went out drinking beer too often. As one who lived through the 70's I can say that going out after running to "have a beer" was pretty common. I remember the New Zealand runners such as John Walker and Rod Dixon were fairly famous about it. On a personal level most of the cross country runners I knew at Georgia State University and the more prominent road runners that I knew in Atlanta went out to drink beer on a fairly regular basis. These were mostly young people, in the liberal 70's, and the drinking age was 18, so I think the book is fairly realistic in it's depictions, at least for the time.
Another aspect of the book that I found interesting and saw some evidence of was that the track and cross country runners were basically considered step children by the bigger programs such as Football and Basketball at the collegiate level. The pressure from the football coach in the book regarding forcing the track runners to cut their hair and conform to the same dress code as the football players is similar to several real life episodes in the news at the time. The main one I remember was where javelin thrower Bill Skinner of Tennessee ( a 31 year old former veteran at the time) was kicked off the Volunteer track team in the early 70's for having a mustache.
Here's a couple of links:

Steve,

As you probably know, we had a Phidippedes store in the famous Five Points area of Columbia, South Carolina. In fact, I shopped there during law school and through the 1980s.

One aspect of Once a Runner that appeals to those if us who competed as runners is the contempt of training hard in idyllic, pastoral surroundings, free from all distractions. No work, no school, no girlfriends, no drama, no smog, no traffic, no drunken red necks throwing beer bottles from passing cars. We all wonder what we could have achieved under similar circumstances.

Meanwhile, another part of the book I found completely incredible. What human being could run SIXTY 400s (well, 440s in the story) on an interval basis, in one afternoon?!?

Otherwise, I found the book enjoyable and realistic.

I should have mentioned the intensity of training the lead character did. He was "in the zone" as we used to say. And yes, it's been a while since I've been able to run roads, but I remember cars/trucks running you off the road (in the South it seems there are no sidewalks or even level shoulders to the sides of most roads! ) and dogs and items thrown...sheesh.
I wonder that America has any young distance runners...people just don't know what it takes to train.
While sixty 400's sounds like too much to me, my college cross country coach was a former champion marathoner and I could see Coach L thinking that was doable...
I prefer the Rick Wohlhuter method of less is more. Some long running, but for milers and 800 men cutting back and working on speed as the season progresses. Course I haven't coached in a long time and I haven't kept up with things other than to check meet results and cheer on current athletes vicariously (if that's the right word).

Steve,

Two good books about current training techniques and philosophies are and , both by Chris Lear and both on our Group's boookshelf. The Michigan and Colorado coaches concentrated on endurance building in the preseason, then as meets came, emphasized speed work for the milers and cross country runners.