Thanks, Brian

Brian Gallagher drew my attention to a book called 'The Marathon Makers' by John Bryant that he had got from the Clydebank Library. It is basically the story of three runners from the London Olympics in 1908 - Dorando Pietri, Johnny Hayes (both marathon men) and the Scot Wyndham Halswelle. It is a lot more than that - it covers the races in the Olympics and the careers of the runners thereafter. I found the bits about the marathon runners the most interesting - following their careers and races against each other after the Games. It's a book that I would recommend heartily to anybody.

I used to runa t least five days a week with Cyril O'Boyle. One year his daughter gave him a subscription to 'Runners World' magazine as a present. We had both read it off and on prior to that and talked about it on the run. After the sub started we discussed each issue as it appeared and many a good argument or discussion we had. We also bought some of the books produced by the magazine such as 'Running After Forty' by Hal Higdon. This week I came across a book called 'Ultra Marathon Man - confessions of an all night runner' by Dean Karnazes. It reminded me of the old RW books even although it was published by Tarcher Penguin. It dealt with the career of an ultra marathon runner who had been good at school and high school but stopped running until he was 30 when he took it up again in an idiosyncratic way. The book covers his run in the Western States 100 (a 100 mile race covering several serious mountains), a race through Death Valley and then a 199 mile relay which he ran as a single race. For freaks like me he even discusses his diet and there is a Food Log from the 199 miles run. He has a website called www.ultramarathon man.com that might be worth a visit. I haven't checked it out yet but I will as soon as I finish this post.