"It captures the deeper joy of watching young athletes embrace unfashionable ideals of commitment, sacrifice, courage, and faith."-Sports Illustrated

"Marc Bloom coaches as every coach in the sport should. I recommend this book without reservation. Read it, commit it to memory, and you will be better for it."-American Track & Field

"At its core a spiritual book. It will inspire the reader who values small works of goodness and the courage to face big challenges."-Jewish Book World

"More than a story of different religions, Jewish and Catholic, meeting on the cross-country course. There is an even more eternal struggle: old versus new. Bloom preaches the value of pain, hard work, suffering, and delayed gratification. His cross-country kids are, well, kids. They want to have fun, chase girls, and enjoy the loosey-goosey life. In Bloom's inspiring tale, both coach and kids learn surprising lessons from each other."-Amby Burfoot, executive editor of Runner's World

Marc Bloom, an observant Jew, winds up the coach of a local Catholic high school cross-country team. The common ground he finds between the two faiths helps to propel his team to a state championship.

Marc Bloom, an award-winning journalist, is a features writer for The New York Times and a contributing editor of Runner's World.

The Tao of Running brings a fresh and unique perspective to the topic of running. It offers readers multiple ways to significantly deepen, enlighten, and enrich their running experiences Introduces a unique and bold new treatment of the topic of running

Triathlons - three separate and gruelling tests of endurance in their own right, all rolled into on epic test of mind, body, and determination. Comprised of long distance running, swimming, and cycling, triathlons are the pinnacle of human endurance, taken on by men and women with a burning ambition to push themselves to the very limit. In the pages that follow you will discover inspirational quotes and words of wisdom that will make you smile and reach for your running shoes/swimming gear/cycling helmet with renewed vigour, learn need-to-know stuff, history, and tips from the experts. It might also become your passion, as you discover what it really takes to become a triathlete. The Little Book of Triathlon is a journey on to a path that is less trodden, but rich in fulfilment, self-discovery, and everything in-between. On your marks, set... and on we go.

Ever been tempted to try a marathon? Maybe you've just started running, perhaps you're gaining confidence, or are you already well on your way to conquering the iconic distance? Whatever stage you're at on your journey, join marathon man Vassos Alexander as he shows us why we shouldn't be afraid of the big 26.2. Every marathon runner's journey is different. You might have caught the bug after experiencing that adrenaline rush of completing your first 5k; it might be a desire to finally cross something off your bucket list; or, perhaps it was a bit of an absentminded afterthought while watching TV, crisps in hand, and a niggling voice saying 'maybe I could do that' - it was for Vassos, at least. However far along you are in your journey, How to Run A Marathon shows us that absolutely anyone can take those first steps to defeating the distance. In fact, you'll probably end up enjoying it a lot more than you think. Including inspiring interviews with runners from all walks of life, delightful tales of remarkable marathons all over the world, crucial training and nutrition tips and so much more, Vassos shares all the lessons he's learnt - from start line to finisher's medal. Funny, candid and motivating, this book will not only help you succeed in your marathon quest but empower you to complete the distance any way you want. Whether that's achieving a particular time or simply finishing in one piece, How to Run a Marathon will guide you through.

Mental Toughness for Runners gives the reader highly effective methods for successful mental training, including self-coaching, well-founded training psychology, and thought-provoking strategies for self-reflection. The mental training presented in this book has been proven successful by numerous coaching sessions and by endurance athletes throughout the world who have achieved significant and often dramatic achievements after improving their motivation, performance, and well-being with this mental training. In addition, the exercises are supplemented with case studies from various coaching sessions. The book also delves into the science of mental training so that the reader may understand the reasons behind certain training concepts, but always the focus remains on practicing and directly applying the methods to the runner's training. This book will guide the reader through a personal assessment of his training so that he may develop an individually tailored mental training plan which can then be integrated into everyday sports life. Every runner who reads this book will improve his mental training and ultimately his running performance. The book presents in a unique way the experiences and the know-how of a sports psychological expert, who coaches numerous runners and other endurance athletes psychologically, who also researches psychological aspects in running, regularly reports on his work in lectures, at scientific congresses and in magazine articles and who repeatedly achieves top 10 placings in international (extreme) races.

Running is one of the world's most widely practiced sports and recreations but until now it has intended to elude serious study outside of the natural sciences. John Bale brings the sport into the realm of the humanities by drawing on sources including literature, poetry, film, art and sculpture as well as statistics and training manuals to highlight the tensions, ambiguities and complexities that lie hidden beneath the commonplace notion of running.
The text explores both local and personal, as well as communal and global aspects of running and its practitioners. It examines the streets, tracks and stadiums where athletes run, the races in which they compete, and the running relationships such as exist between the athlete and the coach, between runners and between the athlete and spectator. It discusses the importance of speed and records, how running has been used to symbolise resistance and transgression, and the extent to which it can be associated with a healthy lifestyle.
Running Cultures provides new ways of seeing a familiar sporting phenomenon. it will appeal to both students and researchers with an interest in running in particular, and sport and leisure cultures more generally.

Two accounts of one twenty-nine day 854 mile run from John O'Groats to Land's End in aid of The Cure Parkinson's Trust. 'The hard training is done, the organisation complete, the big day has arrived. Let the nerves settle, eat well, think of the challenge ahead, the money you will raise, the experience of a lifetime, the long hard road, the challenge of the goal, getting up tired every morning, collapsing every night knowing that you are a day nearer achieving your dream. There will be hard times, fun times, painful times, and pleasure times. Go and live your dream, run well, run easy and the joy and satisfaction of finishing will live with you forever.' - Sharon Gaytor

You're 43, cruising through life when suddenly you're diagnosed with cancer. What do you do next? When Paul Smith found himself facing that question he decided to swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 more and then run a marathon. There are tears and laughter in this brutally honest, good-humoured and intensely personal account of Paul's inspiring journey from being at death's door to conquering a triathlon. Join him on a life-affirming mission encompassing exhilarating highs and painful lows. After his devastatingly rare one-in-a-million bowel cancer diagnosis and his time in hospital confronting an operation ominously dubbed the 'Mother of all Surgeries', Paul has just ten months to train his broken body to peak fitness and fulfil his dream of completing one of the world's toughest and most intimidating triathlons, Ironman Wales. Paul lays bare his physical and mental battles in vivid detail. If you think completing an ironman triathlon is an impossible dream, read this truly inspirational story and think again.

Running Everest tells the story of a group of adventurers from around the globe who embark on a remarkable journey through the Khumbu Valley of Nepal, battling high-altitude sickness, deplorable sanitary conditions, freezing temperatures...and enjoying every minute of it! When they reach their destination, Mount Everest Base Camp, they turn around and run a marathon, the highest marathon in the world, back to civilization. Are they extremists? Or the new generation of ordinary people? Written with humour and passion, Running Everest explores the culture, inhabitants, and the delicate balance of Hinduism and Buddhism in the breath-taking Himalayas, topped off by an exhilarating race over glacial moraines, high altitude plateaus, and steep rocky climbs, all in the shadow of the highest mountain on earth. Holly Zimmermann, the first international woman to reach the finish line of the 2018 Mount Everest Marathon, recalls her incredible Himalayan journey. Fans of her first book, Ultramarathon Mom, will be thrilled to be reunited with some familiar names in this next narrative, including her running accomplice, Beatrice, a Zurich-based fashion-blogger who is equally tough in running shoes as in high heels, and Kyaron, a young Nepalese environmentalist. This book is for everyone: runners, trekkers, mountain lovers, Everest fans, and anyone who adores a good story. But be warned, after reading Running Everest, a part of you may long for adventure.

The Mountains Are Calling is the exhilarating story of the runners who go to high places. From its wild origins in the Highlands, hill running in Scotland remains as pure and traditional as sport gets. Jonny Muir explores the history and culture of the sport, and meets the legends of hill running who are revered for their extraordinary endurance. As he discovers the insatiable lure of the hills, a calling leads him to the supreme test of mountain running: Ramsay's Round - a continuous loop of 23 of Scotland highest mountains, to be completed within 24 hours. This book is lavishly illustrated with maps and two sections of delightful colour plates.

Running is not just a sport. It reconnects us to our bodies and the places in which we live, breaking down our increasingly structured and demanding lives. It allows us to feel the world beneath our feet, lifts the spirit, allows our minds out to play and helps us to slip away from the demands of the modern world. When Vybarr Cregan-Reid set out to discover why running meant so much to so many, he began a journey which would take him out to tread London's cobbled streets, climbing to sites that have seen a millennium of hangings, and down the crumbling alleyways of Ruskin's Venice. Footnotes transports you to the cliff tops of Hardy's Dorset, the deserted shorelines of Seattle, the giant redwood forests of California, and to the world's most advanced running laboratories and research centres, using debates in literature, philosophy and biology to explore that simple human desire to run. Liberating and inspiring, this book reminds us why feeling the earth beneath our feet is a necessary and healing part of our lives.

Providing exactly what the fastest growing segment of the triathlon world yearns for, Melanie and Don Fink have created a complete training guide for women triathletes with highly efficient, easy-to-follow, multi-distance training programs. Women encounter all the same challenges as men in their triathlon training and racing, but there are a host of issues unique to them, issues about which most men don't have a clue. From the stay-at-home mom to the professional woman, female triathletes face societal expectations, and unique physical and emotional concerns. Until now, there has been never been a go-to source of information and guidance. "IronFit Triathlon Training for Women "arms the woman triathlete with everything she needs to know to persevere and lays out exact step-by-step training programs to help her to achieve her goals. This book includes three training programs designed for women at the Sprint/Standard (a/k/a "Olympic") Distance, Half Iron-Distance, and Full Iron-Distance. Each program is presented at three levels: Competitive, Intermediate, and "Just-Finish." The reader can select the program for the race distance she wants to train for and the exact level, based on her individual competitiveness, experience, and available training time.

100 Trailblazers: Great Women Athletes Who Opened Doors for Future Generations shines an admiring spotlight on the accomplishments of women in sport whose life stories are important but not necessarily well known. Research and personal interviews reveal the groundbreaking work of effective administrators, dedicated coaches, determined reformers, and spirited athletes who excelled in tennis, golf, skating, swimming and diving, gymnastics, track and field, soccer, softball and baseball, basketball, volleyball, and motor sports. These fascinating profiles chronicle the achievements of women who overcame innumerable obstacles, broke down walls, and opened doors for future generations.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Thwaites Wainwright prize for nature writing Richard Askwith wanted more. Not convinced running had to be all about pounding pavements, buying fancy kit and racking up extreme challenges, he looked for ways to liberate himself. His solution: running through muddy fields and up rocky fells, running with his dog at dawn, running because he's being (voluntarily) chased by a pack of bloodhounds, running to get hopelessly, enjoyably lost, running fast for the sheer thrill of it. Running as nature intended. Part diary of a year running through the Northamptonshire countryside, part exploration of why we love to run without limits, Running Free is an eloquent and inspiring account of running in a forgotten, rural way, observing wildlife and celebrating the joys of nature. An opponent of the commercialisation of running, Askwith offers a welcome alternative, with practical tips (learned the hard way) on how to both start and keep running naturally - from thawing frozen toes to avoiding a stampede when crossing a field of cows. Running Free is about getting back to the basics of why we love to run.

With his sixtieth birthday looming, Colin Renton decides that it’s time to escape office life and focus on achieving some of his unfulfilled goals.  He embarks on a year-long adventure that takes him from the busy streets of Edinburgh to the traffic-free roads, sodden fields and dusty paths of Europe’s winemaking regions. He laces up his running shoes and joins thousands of fellow athletes in races that test him over various distances, degrees of difficulty and levels of seriousness. His schedule, which culminates with a marathon debut, takes him to places he would otherwise not have visited. On his travels, he seeks out local wines that deserve a place in a carefully chosen twelve-bottle case, a process that throws up some fascinating insights and introduces him to a vintage crop of engaging characters. The crossover between running and wine uncorks a tale of endurance, curiosity and discovery, told in an accessible style and served up with a splash of local colour and a drop of wry humour.

It is probably not surprising to learn that the modern craze for running is not new: our species has been running since we were able to stand upright. What may be surprising, however, are the many ways and reasons we have performed this painful, exhausting and yet exhilarating activity down the ages. In this original, humorous and almost improbable world history, Thor Gotaas brings us many unusual and curious stories showing the remarkable diversity of running, from earliest times to the immense popularity of running today at athletics meetings, world championships and Olympic games. Amongst the myriad characters the author describes are King Shulgi of Mesopotamia, who four millennia ago boasted about his ability to maintain high speeds while running long distances, and once claimed to have run from Nippur to Ur, a distance of not less than 160 kilometres, and Norwegian Vikings who exercised by running races against animals. There are also the little-known naked runs, backward runs, monk runs, snowshoe runs, the Incas' ingenious infrastructure of professional runners and the running culture of Native Americans. This unique book will be a revelation to everyone who reads it. It will appeal to all who wish to know more about why the ancients shared our love, and hatred, of this physically demanding yet spiritually rewarding pastime.

Swim. Bike. Run. If the combination of those three words gets you excited, then you need Train to Tri: Your First Triathlon. Written by experts with USA Triathlon (USAT), the largest multisport organization in the world, this book provides proven strategies, secrets, and advice to gear up for your first sprint-distance or standard-distance event. This is not another one-size-fits-all program. Train to Tri is designed so you can focus on the training you need most. You'll establish a baseline in each of the three phases: running, cycling, and swimming. You'll find bronze, silver, or gold levels of training for each phase, which can be combined and customized to your needs, your goals, and your lifestyle. Train to Tri is more than just training. It's total preparation. Featuring expert advice on selecting gear, staying motivated, overcoming challenges, preventing burnout, determining nutritional needs, and achieving recovery, it's a multifaceted plan for multisport success. If you're ready to go from athlete to triathlete, let Train to Tri and the experts at USAT lead the way.

'We're not at parkrun any more,' I mutter to myself, quietly longing for the presence of nice marshals in high-visibility vests. Failure is an Option is the story of an average runner who sets out to discover just how far he can go. With the support (and misgivings) of his family, and aware that his quickest years are behind him, Matt Whyman leaves the Saturday morning 5K to push towards 100-mile ultramarathons and beyond. By slowing things down to run a very long way, he joins a growing number of men and women from all walks of life striving to do something extraordinary. A newcomer to a world that can often seem off-limits, Matt finds his feet as an ultrarunner by learning the hard way. He battles monster hallucinations on endurance races spanning day and night, loses himself on tantalising trails across landscapes far from home, and forges bonds with fellow competitors in which small, kind gestures mean more than any medal. Determined to touch the boundaries of his running world before it starts to shrink, ultimately Matt sets his sights on a six-day mountain ultra that even hardened veterans consider to be the most formidable on earth: the Dragon's Back Race. Brimming with good humour, honesty and joy, Failure is an Option pits ambition against ability to uncover human truths that resonate with us all. A mid-pack competitor who could win prizes for enthusiasm - if nothing else - Matt takes us on a journey far beyond his comfort zone and with no guaranteed outcome of success. The results are entertaining from start to finish, often very funny and at times deeply moving.

'Women's sports have needed a manifesto for a long time. With Good for a Girl we finally have one' Malcolm Gladwell 'The invitation to have a long overdue conversation for a long overdue cultural shift' Alysia Montano, Olympian, co-founder of &Mother, and author of Feel-Good Fitness 'This is the book we've been waiting for' Kate Fagan, author of What Made Maddy Run Lauren Fleshman has grown up in the world of running. One of the most decorated collegiate athletes of all time and a national champion as a pro, she was a major face of women's running for Nike before leaving to shake up the industry with feminist running brand Oiselle and coach elite young female runners. Every step of the way, she has seen how our sports systems - originally designed by men, for men and boys - fail young women and girls as much as empower them. Girls drop out of sports at alarming rates once they hit puberty, and female collegiate athletes routinely fall victim to injury, eating disorders or mental health struggles as they try to force their way past a natural dip in performance for women of their age. Part memoir, part manifesto, Good for a Girl is Fleshman's story of falling in love with running as a girl, battling devastating injuries and self-doubt, and daring to fight for a better way for female athletes. Long gone are the days when women and girls felt lucky just to participate; Fleshman and women everywhere are waking up to the reality that they're running, playing and competing in a world that wasn't made for them. Drawing not only on her own story but also on emerging research on the physiology and psychology of young athletes of any gender, Fleshman gives voice to the often-silent experience of the female athlete and argues that the time has come to rebuild our systems of competitive sport with women at their centre. Written with heart and verve, Good for a Girl is a joyful love letter to the running life, a raw personal narrative of growth and change, and a vital call to reimagine sports for young women.

THE UPDATED, AUTHORITATIVE GUIDE TO SPORTS FIELD MANAGEMENT THAT INCLUDES THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN, AND ON, THE FIELD The updated Third Edition of Sports Fields: Design, Construction, and Maintenance is a comprehensive reference for professionals who are responsible for the design, construction, renovation, and maintenance of athletic facilities. This book contains illustrative examples of specific design elements of the most popular sports facilities. This Third Edition contains new chapters on safety, public relations, and professionalism for future sports field managers, as well as fresh drawings and photos that highlight innovative field layout, grading, irrigation, and drainage. All-new case studies review best practices and techniques for sports fields ranging from youth and high school fields to fields that are designed for professional athletes. This text is also an ideal resource for anyone studying for Sports Field Manager Certification (offered by STMA). Features new case studies that include design and management best practices for all levels and types of sports facilities Offers new chapters on safety, public relations, and professionalism for future sports field managers Includes new illustrations and photos of innovative field layout, grading, irrigation, and drainage Contains the most recent information on sand-based field systems and synthetic turf Presents discussions of a range of fields including baseball, softball, football, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, tennis, and track and field Sports Fields: Design, Construction, and Maintenance, Third Edition is a blueprint for field managers, designers, and builders for successful sports field projects.

"Lore of Running" gives you incomparable detail on physiology, training, racing, injuries, world-class athletes, and races.

Author Tim Noakes blends the expertise of a physician and research scientist with the passion of a dedicated runner to answer the most pressing questions for those who are serious about the sport:

-How your body systems respond to training, the effects of different training methods, how to detect and avoid overtraining, and genetic versus trainable potential

-How to train for the 10K up through ultramarathon with detailed programs from Noakes and several leading running experts

-How to prevent and treat injuries, increase your strength and flexibility, and use proper nutrition for weight control and maximum performance

You'll also find a candid analysis of supplements and ergogenic effects and training aids. The book includes new interviews with 10 world-class runners who share their secrets to success and longevity in the sport. Features on legendary figures and events in running history provide fascinating insights.

And that's just scratching the surface. "Lore of Running" is not only the biggest and best running publication on the planet. It's the one book every runner should own.

The story of Ben Smith, who decided to run 401 marathons in 401 days. People thought he was mad, until they heard his story, then they began to understand. Having endured years of bullying as a child, Ben tried to take his own life. In adulthood, Ben struggled to feel content with the life that was mapped out for him. But having found his passion in running, Ben sold his possessions, escaped his old life and set off on what seemed like an impossible mission - The 401 Challenge.

During his 10,506.2-mile odyssey criss-crossing the UK, Ben ran in 309 different locations, accompanied by more than 13,500 people. He visited 101 schools, burned an estimated 2.4 million calories, wrecked his back and braved every extreme of the British weather, while raising £330,000 for charity, touching the lives of millions.

This is the inspiring journey of a previously lost and broken man who discovered that anything is possible, if only you choose to search for what makes you truly happy.