Harriers

Took a dnr today as I had a "retreat" (not in the "go out into some pastoral setting" sense, but in the "spend a good part of the day in a conference room" sense) that started too early to be able to fit a workout in without risking a major case of the nods.

So I need to find something else to write about.

I committed to running the USA Masters 5 km Cross Country Championships (mid October in Saratoga Springs) as part of the PACTC team. This came last night thanks to Chuck putting the squeeze on me to run this just as I was flush from exuberence after last night's 5000m run.

I never ran cross country in high school, as I went to a small prep school (my graduating class numbered 15) that had no team. I ran for half a season freshman year in college, but quit after a miserable bout with shin splints. I am old enough now to look back on life and identify regrets, and fortunate enough to only have a few sofar. However not getting the chance to run cross country is one of them.

So perhaps its in the spirit of better late than never that I'll fit some cross country events into the fall schedule this year. I'm fortunate to have a good team - in the sense of both speed and cameraderie - to run with, but also realistic enough to know that it will be a different experience than the one I missed back in the day.

And that makes for a long segue into riffing a little on a book I just read called Harriers. Acquiring this book, in the interests of full disclosure, has been the first and only material gain of any kind I’ve ever gotten from this blog. Lora, a publisher’s rep, emailed me a few weeks ago about the book:

"[Harriers was written by] a couple of high school seniors about their quest for a state cross country championship.

While the book was originally written for the young adult market, it is getting positive reviews from adult runners. One customer mentioned it brought back all the memories of being on the cross country team in high school. One small newspaper said that the book captures the essence of running. The book is getting good reviews from running coaches at Amazon.

Since this is a high school project with limited funds, the authors are hoping to generate some buzz in the blogosphere about the book. If you think that you have time to read the book and then offer a review in your blog, I would be happy to send you a free review copy of the book.

I said sure, wondering if she knew that, on a good day, maybe ten people read my blog. But, on the other hand, except for my mother, everyone else who reads this blog is geeky enough about running to where this book is the sort of thing they might read.

I’ve got to admire anytime two high school students collaborate to write a book, and the book is not badly written. On the other hand, it is about, well, high school, and it makes me realize (and appreciate) how far removed I am from that scene. What is striking about the account is the ordinariness of the story. There are no larger than life characters in this book or any efforts at generating profundities. Save for their march to the state championship, which provides the narrative structure for the book, the cross country team could have been any of a thousand high school teams around the country, with more or less typical boys facing typical high school pressures and issues in addition to their participation on the cross country team. The authors go out of their way to explain many details specific to the place and setting that don’t go much beyond being descriptive of stuff that seems strikingly mundane. I quickly learned to skim these parts, along with most of the stuff that didn’t pertain to things directly related to running and cross country.

But the running and cross country stuff was engaging. I’m not sure how the authors got their information, but their narrative profiled each of the boys on the team and explored, in depth, their intentions, motivations, and frustrations related to running and running on the cross country team, in the context of the progression of the two seasons. Here the themes get more universal for us runners – things like how to keep up training intensity, decisions over how much priority to give running, and coming to terms with bumping up against one’s limitations. Another central theme is what it means to the boys to be on a team, and to be working together as a team for something as palpable as a state championship. This is captured well and, to the authors’ credit and my relief, with an absence of the corniness that usually accompanies such forays into the meaning of teamwork. Finally, for running geeks like us, the racing accounts are generally well done.

The price listed on the book is $5.95 (I think I was in high school the last time you could get a new paperback for that price). Both the publishers, who seem to be doing this on a shoestring, and the guys who wrote it are certainly worth supporting. If you’re not into running, this book won’t be for you. But if reading about cross country is something you’re into, this book is worth checking out. The book has a webpage here, and the Amazon link is here.

Kinda made me wish all over again that I had run X-C. But stay tuned here this fall and you can see how my belated foray into running over hill and over dale goes. Hey, its better than being out looking for a sports car.