If you read this website regularly (and there is no guarantee that you do… I’ve seen my web page analytics), you know that I like to read running books as I consider myself a runner on sabbatical just waiting for that magical day when I am no longer birthing or breastfeeding humans and can devote time back to running. Good news, folks and fans, the end is in sight as I am pregnant with my fourth (and final!) tiny human, coming this fall. I hope to be running again sometime in the summer of 2018. These running books are intended to give me tips and motivation until that day actually comes when I can run instead of read about running. Sadly, this book did not do it for me.
This is a book about a nationally ranked cross country team in the late 1990s. I don’t follow college cross country though google just informed me that my own alma mater is ranked 4th! That is interesting news as it wasn’t ranked at all at the time this book was written. The Buffaloes (UC Boulder) are currently ranked 2nd, and they just go by Colorado in those polls… a little sports information for you. At the time Colorado was coached by Mark Wetmore (oh wow, google just informs me that he is STILL the coach, and his assistants are a bunch of people that were on the team when this book was written 20 years ago… how do you like that?). He had a fairly controversial coaching method which was just increase those miles, which flew in the face of the conventional coaching methods of the day which used a lot of interval training to increase dynamic speed. Fun running fact, while most running coaches now use a combination method, there is still a reliance on running intervals. And that is a little knowledge from yours truly, free of charge. Because Colorado could not offer the financial help to the big collegiate runners at the time (that may have changed, but I am NOT going to google anymore tonight, I promise) Wetmore cleverly used reserve runners who were not the stars of the track events to mould into distance runners. He had recruited locally almost exclusively, but during the 1998 season focused on in the book, there were a few hot shot runners from New Jersey vying for the squad. Chris Lear tagged along writing about the season because he had nothing better to do at the time. I am not sure if that is true, but he made it sound that way. He didn’t have any idea where the Buffaloes would end up in their quest to win the national title.
Lear’s book starts at the beginning of the season. He runs with the runners. He mingles with the coaches and staff. He has almost a friend relationship to the people he is writing about. As a reader, I have to wonder how objective this guy is because he appeared very close to his subjects. It doesn’t necessarily lead me to believe that he was dishonest in his narrative, but it makes me skeptical. What did he choose to edit out? Did he leave out portions that would shine an unfavorable light on either the coaches or the runners? How faithful is Lear to the truth? Lear starts in training camp and introduces the team a few times… I’m just going to interject here that a yearbook type picture page at the beginning of the book would have been much more helpful than the blurry snapshots that are featured at random spots throughout the book. So, future editions, if such things are in the works, please just do it. As we get to know the guys (not the girls, they are RARELY mentioned but I suppose the book is about the men’s cross country team…) some different personalities emerge as does the idea that UC is the scrappy underdog that doesn’t have the funding but knows how to utilize the talent. A huge focus is on Adam Goucher, who later became a professional (but not terribly successful) runner. This name might be recognizable to those who follow running. He was the undisputed star of the team and the benchmark that the other men measured themselves against. Injury stalks the season, and becomes a season ender for some, and then real tragedy strikes. One of the most well liked members of the team dies in a biking accident. Then the narrative doesn’t exactly shift, but there is a focus on loss, and how a team can stay cohesive and deal with that kind of trauma.
I won’t spoil the ending, check google and let the internet do that for you! I will say, that while the information was interesting, the narrative itself was cobbled together. It felt like the journal of a cross country runner rather than a cohesive story about the quest for a title. The subject matter was there. The writing wasn’t. In addition, Lear is a runner and understands the jargon and terminology. He makes no attempt to make this book accessible to anyone who doesn’t run. That is a disservice to a really interesting piece of history. Also, Lear doesn’t do overmuch in the setting of a scene. My husband is from the Boulder area, so I know the places that Lear spoke about and didn’t have to stretch my imagination. Someone who isn’t familiar with the geography might not come away with the same understanding of events.
RSS feed for comments on this post. / TrackBack URI