If you are looking for an injection of motivation to stick with your running program this fall, here are my Top Five Reading Suggestions that offer a dose of inspiration for every level of runner:
1. “Olympic Collision” by Kyle Keiderling
For those who watched it live, the LA Olympic Games of 1984 will be forever remembered for the tragedy involving two fierce rivals in the women’s 3000 meters.
Never before had a host nation so universally condemned a rival for an accidental collision with one of their own.
Even Zola Budd, the teenage barefoot South African perpetrator representing Great Britain, was shocked, horrified and overwhelmed by the events of which she was eventually exonerated.
Budd, along with American sweetheart, Mary Decker, were the two medal favorites to win, with two billion people tuning in from across the globe, making it the most watched sporting event in history, witnessing Decker and Budd collide on the track with three laps to go in the seven and one half-lap race.
Both of their dreams of Olympic gold were shattered and replaced by an infamous series of finger-pointing accusation.
2. “The Miracle Mile” by Jason Beck
The book recaptures ’54 Games magic from the 1954 British Empire Games in Vancouver, which changed both the city and world sport forever. Published by Caitlin Press Inc. Beck, curator and facility director of British Columbia’s Sports Hall of Fame shares why he wanted to publish a book on the “The Miracle Mile” which is a riveting account of the 1954 British Empire Games in Vancouver.
Highlighted by the historic men’s mile event, it featured the only two men on earth to have broken the four-minute mile, who then broke it together in the same race for the first time.
3. “Runner in Red” by Tom Murphy, also the author of Just Call me Jock
The story of what many believe to be the first woman to run in the world’s most iconic race.
No one knows for certain whether or not the subject of Runner in Red actually finished the 1951 Boston Marathon as some Canadians claim.
Yet the story was also the first reported attempt by a woman to prove that she could do it too, just like a man. It was a mid-20th-century women empowerment story long before the phrase was ever coined.
4. “When Running Made History” by Roger Robinson
The memoir is Robinson’s account as a spectator at twenty-one running events that made history, from the 1948 Olympics when London financially struggled to put on the games after World War II, to his work as a journalist at the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013.
Robinson also writes what it was like to be in New York after 9/11 running in Central Park.
5. “Marathon Woman” by Kathrine Switzer
This memoir is about Katherine Switzer, who was the first woman to officially finish the Boston Marathon in 1967 and where she had to fend off the race director, Jock Semple, who attempted to drag her off the course while enforcing the “males only” rule of competition.
The memoir chronicles her passion for running, to winning the New York City Marathon in 1974, to spearheading the first women’s marathon in the 1984 L.A. Olympics.
These are just a few books about running history and women’s running that I hope will inspire you to start running or keep at it through the rough weather.
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