Once A Runner

The following are some quotes from a great book called "Once a Runner" by John L. Parker. I remember reading this book and thinking it is the closest thing I have ever read that explains what it is like to run competitively like we do....

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

"What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared to believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes. The Trial of Miles, Miles of Trials."

“You see, the actual thing itself is so competitive and serious, I don’t think anybody really has a good time right while they are competing. Oh, they like it all right, they like going to the meets, and they like being on a team and the general hullaballoo of being a jock. But when you get right down to it, right while you’re doing the thing itself, it ain’t much fun. I can’t remember a mile in my life that was even mildly amusing”

(right before the gun went off to race) "And Cassidy stood tall there in the dark,while a cool breeze ruffled the ragged lock of hair on his forehead, knowing that for one instant there would be a kind of calm in the midst of all that pounding, roaring furor, a moment of serene calm before an unholy storm.There would be a single instant of near disbelief that it would finally be happening in a fraction of a second; finally happening after the months, the miles, the misty mornings;finally happening after the eight or ninth now forgotten interval along the way somewhere that broke your heart once again.He would be leaning over tensely with the rest of them while the white lights burned down on them and for an awful split-second he would feel as if his legs had no strength at all.But then his heart would nearly explode when the pistol cracked"

"If he could conquer the fear, the cowardice in himself; he would not worry about the rest. It would come."