Steve Prefontaine, Frank Shorter, Joan Benoit, Grete Waitz, and the Decade That Made the Marathon Cool
This decade of the 21st century has seen quite a few 40th- and 50th-anniversary events related to the rise and “boom” of our sport.
Events like the beginnings of the New York City five-borough marathon and the first-ever women’s Olympic marathon, alongside legendary names such as Steve Prefontaine, Frank Shorter, Grete Waitz, and Joan Benoit, all started to help light that fire in which masses of Runners came on down to join in during the 1970s and 1980s.
Now, longtime runner & writer Martin Dugard and his new book “The Long Run“ have literally corralled these events and legends together to show not only the impact on the millions of Runners who took up the sport in the 1970s, but also on the author himself.
Written very fluidly with an emphasis on his own life experiences, Dugard also captures the influences of runners like Shorter, Prefontaine, Waitz, and Benoit, along with the rising Bill Rodgers, in vivid interpretations and anecdotes that not only make these stories interesting reading but also inspirational.
In a way, readers might think that, like starting a long run after a hard workout the day before, the book might not tread new ground, and your body may feel that in the beginning.
But once the reader gets going, “The Long Run” becomes one of those experiences that puts one into a flowing movement where enjoyment, not drudgery, takes over the mental mindset, similar to that real long run one has been pacing through the miles!