Once A Runner…

The Purple Runner Is Home

My librarian friend has worked her book preservation-restoration magic and The Purple Runner is back in my hands. There was very little she could do to make it much better, but it’s serviceable and fit enough for reading. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for a copy in better shape in the future, but this copy will suffice for reading the story –finally!

I’ve only just started reading it and I like it fine so far. I’ll have a bit more to say on it as I go along, I’m sure.

The Purple Runner — Gone to the “Book Doctor”

The copy of The Purple Runner I found on Amazon was supposed to be in “Used - Good” condition, but my estimation of “Good” for even a paperback never includes a broken spine and pages taped back in to keep whole sections from falling out while you’re reading. Also, the spine has been torqued in a couple of places so that it’s in sorry shape structurally. The pages are clean and the print is in good shape, though.

Regardless, I now have a copy where I didn’t before, so it’s all good in the end.

Before I read it, though, it’s going to be “restored” so I can be certain that it will be in shape after one reading to be read again and again. That’s where a librarian friend stepped in. (She’s the one who alerted me to it being available on Amazon in the first place.) I delivered it to her on Thursday and she’s promised to soon have it in good, serviceable condition for years of reading pleasure.

Now, to find a copy of Long Road to Boston…

I’ve Finally Found The Purple Runner

I was lucky to finally stumble across a copy of The Purple Runner for sale on Amazon, so I bought it. It should be here sometime next week, I think. “Used, Good Condition” was the description provided by the seller, so I hope that was accurate. I’m kind of anal about the condition of my books, I guess, but you don’t have much choice with long out-of-print titles sometimes.

Regardless, ever since I first heard about this book — ignore for the moment that I had a chance to buy it years ago and for whatever reason didn’t — I’ve wanted to read it. The mysterious, disfigured, and reclusive runner turning in electrifying workouts but avoiding contact with the other runners just kind of stuck with me as someone I wanted to know more about. The idea just fascinated me. Who wouldn’t want to be The Purple Runner? (Minus the facial disfigurement, of course.) He’s out there withering and blistering the trails and leaving everyone who sees him scratching their heads, trying to figure out what makes him tick so? It just seems to me that would be delicious fun, I reckon.

Well, soon, I get to find out who he was and why he runs as he does. I can hardly wait.

Finished Again to Carthage — It’s A Keeper

Well, in the first night, I got two-thirds of the way through Again to Carthage, John L. Parker, Jr.’s sequel to his cult classic novel, Once A Runner. And then I finished it last night. I was pleased with this novel. It’s a keeper. I will read it again.

Now, to be honest, it does spend more time off in places that don’t pertain directly to Quenton Cassidy’s running and the goal he sets for himself than did Once A Runner. But there are very good reasons for this, and reasons that someone as old as I am can truly appreciate. The demands of a career, deaths of friends and family, facing the finite mortality of others and yourself, and the even more finite limits to the athletic potential of others and yourself, are all things that someone my age really knows of from a very personal perspective. In other words, I can definitely relate.

I can also, very definitely, relate to the dream Quenton latches onto, how it drives him, and why. I will never run like Quenton, but I know why he wants to and why it motivates him to go for it with everything he has within him and more. I got swept up into the whole flow. I laughed at times. I cried at times. But always, I understood.

I was a little let down about Jerry Mizner, especially, and about Bruce Denton, but I was pleased that Brady showed up where I least expected him to and that even Jack Nubbins played a role in Quenton’s big race.

Once A Runner Never Fails to Deliver

I just finished Once A Runner for the God-only-knows-how-many-th time I’ve read it. By the time the duel between upstart Quenton Cassidy and world record-holder John Walton reached its fever-pitched climax, I was ready to throw the book down and blow out the door for a burn-down-the-demons run myself. Ah, if only I could.

Regardless of the fact that I can’t run right now, reading Once A Runner seriously makes me want to run again all the more. Yeah, it was nice to get swept up into and carried along by the excitement of John L. Parker, Jr.’s writing. He does a damned fine job of describing the racing, for sure, and he gives a very good picture of the training involved in just getting to there to toe the starting line for the race, too. It’s a cult classic for a damned good reason. It speaks directly to the runner. And I hope I never wear out my copy.

So, I picked up my ordered copy of Again to Carthage from the local Borders last night, but I had to finish the obligatory rereading of Once A Runner before I dove into his new novel. I’m really looking forward to seeing how Quenton turned out after all these years, and I hope Bruce Denton and Jerry Mizner show up so I can find out how things turned out for them, too.

I’ll probably not comment on the book until I’m finished. Maybe not until I’ve read it twice. If Again to Carthage delivers a marathon race anything close to Once A Runner’s mile, I’ll probably love it.

Reading Once A Runner for the Umpteenth Time

Again to Carthage is on order from Borders, so I’m rereading John L. Parker, Jr.’s excellent Once A Runner again. You know, I’m not sure when or where I bought my copy of Once A Runner, but it’s from the Third Printing, November 1978, and it has a Cedarwinds price sticker inside the front cover — $8.95. It seems I’ve owned it forever. I remember reading it many times throughout the 80’s, so I reckon I’ve had it a long, long time.

Anyway, after reading Tom Jordan’s Pre, Amby Burfoot’s The Principles of Running, and thumbing through Hal Higdon’s How to Train, it’s rather pleasant to kick back and visit with Quenton Cassidy again while my homemade beef jerky slowly dries out in the oven over the next six hours.

I need to study Jack Daniels’ “White Starting Plan” with a calendar at my elbow to plan out completion of that program with a sensible flow into following-on with the “Red Intermediate Plan.” Then I can start looking at a reasonable train-up for the Cowtown 10K, but right now I just want to sit here and relive the old days through reading of Quenton’s running.

Yeah, yeah, I’m getting a little antsy after the success of yesterday’s little bit of jogging. I’m feeling pretty enthusiastic, I guess, and maybe a little bit cocky, sitting here comfortably in a pair of Levi’s 501 jeans I couldn’t even begin to button up just a month ago. But — dammit — the legs felt great after yesterday — not a peep out of the knees today — and I’m starting to think this is looking very doable right now. And that is encouraging.

Honestly, I’ll never be even as fast as I once was, nor become as fast as I once had (and wasted) the potential to be, so I’m not pretending I ever will. But I’m feeling very optimistic about just being able to run again within the very near future, given a reasonable period of building up, of course, and keeping my head on straight about properly progressing.

Oh, I just thought of another book I once had the chance to buy but for some odd reason never did — Paul Christman’s The Purple Runner. I’ve been scouring the Internet here and there for it, and even have the local library hunting for it, but I still haven’t found it available at all, much less at a reasonable price.

I’ll probably remember some more books I once read and would like to get my hands on again, but for now it’s time to get back to Quenton teaching Jack Nubbins an important lesson about racing the morning training runs.