Robinson takes readers on a globe-trotting tour that combines a historian's insight with vivid personal memories going back to just after World War II. From experiencing the 1948 ""Austerity Olympics"" in London as a young spectator to working as a journalist in the Boston Marathon media center at the moment of the 2013 bombings, Robinson offers a fascinating first-person account of the tragic and triumphant moments that impacted the world and shaped the modern sport. He chronicles the beginnings of the American running boom, the emergence of women's running, the end of the old amateur rules, and the redefinition of aging for athletes and amateurs. With an intimate perspective and insightful reporting, Robinson captures major historical events through the lens of running. He recounts running in Berlin at the time of German reunification in 1990, organizing a replacement track meet in New Zealand after the disastrous 2011 earthquake, and the triumph of Ethiopian athlete Abebe Bikila in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. As an avid runner, journalist, and fan, Robinson brings these global events to life and reveals the intimate and powerful ways in which running has intersected with recent history.

Beijing 2008, the 100 metres final: Usain Bolt slows down, beats his chest, metres clear of his nearest rival, his face filled with the euphoria of a young man utterly in thrall to his extraordinary physical talent. It is one of the greatest sporting moments. It is just the beginning. Of the ten fastest 100-metres times in history, eight belong to Jamaicans. How is it that a small Caribbean island has come to almost totally dominate the men's and women's sprint events? The Bolt Supremacy opens the doors to a community where sprinting permeates conversations and interactions; where the high school championships are watched by 35,000 screaming fans; where identity, success and status are forged on the track, and where making it is a pass to a world of adoration and lucrative contracts. In such a society there can be the incentive for some to cheat. There are those who attribute Jamaican success to something beyond talent and hard work. Award-winning writer Richard Moore doesn't shy away from difficult questions as he travels the length of this beguiling country speaking to anti-doping agencies, scientists and sceptics as well as to coaches, gurus, superstar athletes and the young guns desperate to become the next big thing. Peeling back the layers, Moore finally reveals the secrets of Usain Bolt and the Jamaican sprint factory.

Whether running is your recreation or your religion, Adharanand Finn's incredible journey to the elite training camps of Kenya will captivate and inspire you, as he ventures to uncover the secrets of the fastest people on earth. Finn's mesmerizing quest combines a fresh look at barefoot running, practical advice on the sport, and the fulfillment of a lifelong dream: to run with his heroes. Uprooting his family of five, Finn traveled to a small, chaotic town in the Rift Valley province of Kenya-a mecca for long-distance runners, thanks to its high altitude, endless paths, and some of the top training schools in the world. There Finn would run side by side with Olympic champions, young hopefuls, and barefoot schoolchildren, and meet a cast of unforgettable characters. Amid the daily challenges of training and of raising a family abroad, Finn would learn invaluable lessons about running-and about life.

Fatima Whitbread had the worst possible start in life. Abandoned as a baby, she spent much of her childhood in and out of children's homes. A brief, disastrous stay with her birth mother saw her raped by her mother's drunken boyfriend -- while her mother held a knife to her throat to 'quieten her down'. Fatima was only twelve at the time.
Athletics was her saviour: local athletics coach Margaret Whitbread took the young Fatima under her wing, eventually adopting her. Fatima competed in three Olympics, winning bronze at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. In 1986 she set a world record, and the following year in Rome became world champion and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year. But then Fatima faded from the public eye, leaving many to wonder where she had gone.
After the cheering stopped, Fatima faced prejudice, penury, scandal and heartbreak. "Survivor" describes how she defeated all her demons to rise triumphantly from the ashes once again, this time as queen of the jungle. Almost 13 million people watched her on "I'm a Celebrity," and after surviving 20 days in the Australian heat, she has millions of new fans eager to know more about Fatima the woman: the forthright, focused, slightly bossy, charismatic single mum who knows how to transform even the most devastating experiences into lessons in life. This is the unforgettable story of a true champion, who triumphed against the worst hardships imaginable.

This unique sports and labor history charts the revolutionary transformation of track and field over the past thirty years. In this time, the sport has changed from an amateur effort whose governing bodies unfairly controlled its athletes' lives to a professional arena in which athletes have the power to make decisions in their own best interests. While historians have chronicled labor history in team sports such as baseball and football or have lumped track and field into larger studies of Olympic history, Joseph M. Turrini is the first to scrupulously detail the efforts of athletes to reorder labor relations in track and field and to end their decades-long power struggle with governing bodies.

Combining social and institutional history and incorporating the recollections of the athletes and meet directors on the front lines, "The End of Amateurism in Track and Field" shows how the athletes thoroughly transformed their sport to end the amateur system in the early 1990s--changes that allowed the athletes to market their potential, drastically increase their earning possibilities, and improve their quality of life.

This book reveals how athletes in the 1950s began to harness the courts, legislature, and little-known underground labor relations systems that grew within the sport to untangle the distribution of power and decision-making by the 1990s. Enlivening the narrative with stories such as runner Wes Santee's battle with the Amateur Athletic Union and revelations about the actions of college coaches and rivalries between the NCAA and AAU, Turrini examines the effects of amateurism on athletes and explores how changes in the economic context of track and field and the role of the government helped leverage the end of the 100-year era of amateur track and field.

Dedication, passion, obsession--for serious endurance athletes, coaches, duathletes, and triathletes, the quest for improvement never ends. Knowing they can shave time from the previous performance, they seek out the latest in research and training techniques.

In "Championship Triathlon Training," renowned experts George Dallam and Steven Jonas provide you with the same advanced conditioning concepts and programming used by today's elite triathletes.

By understanding the science behind the principles, you will incorporate physiology, biomechanics, nutrition, and injury prevention into your regimen to address your specific needs and the demands of competition. Specifically, you'll learn these techniques:

-Use weight training, plyometrics, and core development to accelerate skill development in all phases of swimming, running, and cycling.

-Apply metabolic training to improve endurance and race speed.

-Combine sport-specific skills, such as mounting and dismounting, with metabolic training to improve transition times between phases.

-Develop more efficient movement patterns for increased performance potential and reduced injury.

-Assess health and physical status to avoid overtraining.

Complete with sample programs for each triathlon distance, technique analysis, training- and race-specific fueling strategies, and tips for motivation, focus, and goal setting, "Championship Triathlon Training" will optimize your training and maximize your results.

Whether it's surfer Jamilah Star riding an unprecedented fifty-foot wave, Olympic marathoner Deena Kastor winning the bronze in 2004, or top-ranked climber Lynn Hill facing a tough climb at Joshua Tree, one thing is certain: These women have game. What's more, these amazing athletes capture our imagination. How do they do it? What motivates them to win and to become the best in their sport? In Women Who Win, adventure writer Lisa Taggart takes us behind the scenes, deep into the training regimens and the ultimate victories, to see what makes these women--and some of their fellow female athletes--tick. Whether their sport is soccer, cycling, mountain biking, or volleyball, these athletes will inspire you to pursue your athletic dreams, whether it's running a marathon or catching your first wave.

Longtime runner Scott Douglas marshals expert advice and a growing body of research to show how a consistent running routine can make us happier - and enhance the benefits of talk therapy, antidepressants, and cognitive behavioral therapy. The therapeutic power of running lies in its lasting physiological effects: It induces changes in brain structure and chemistry that other forms of exercise don't. Douglas presents methods we can all use to live happier - in and out of running shoes.