Ben’s Comments (group member since Jun 14, 2010)

Ben’s comments from the Running, Track and Field group.

Thanks John, and Douglas, runners and writers, wonderbar.

And 99 Problems is live. Thanks all. http://www.cclapcenter.com/99problems/

Hey Doug, John and everyone else.

The collection drops tomorrow at cclapcenter.com, thanks much for the interest and support.

I look forward to your thoughts and I am definitely into discussing anything about the collection here for those who want to do so.

And now, some thoughts on the running books I love:

(1) What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami;

(2) Marathoning - Bill Rogers;

(3) Best Efforts - Kenny Moore;

(4) Flanagan's Run - Tom McNabb; and

(5) The Runner's Literary Companion: Great Stories and Poems About Running - Garth Battista

Hey Doug,

Thanks for checking-in and your timing is great, we have been editing and formatting and all that and it looks like the collection will be released some time in the next two weeks.

Please note, that it is being released "Radiohead-style" through the publisher's website, i.e., a high-quality, pay what you want, e-version of the collection that will be available for upload to iPhones, Kindle's or your desktop.

I will let you know the official date though when I know it and thanks again for the interest.

Ben

This is great, thanks, I will definitely be on the lookout for a copy. I also have to say, that as I read this post, I thought, I don't care how fast people get, even thinking about breaking four minutes will always be magical. Pretty cool.

Mary Decker Slaney, awesome. Grete Waitz pretty awesome as well. But what about Joan Benoit Samuelson? She's my favorite.

Wilma Rudolph is like the Glenn Cunningham of female sprinters and no doubt one of the greatest. And I love Flo Jo though wonder if she was truly clean. Personally though, my favorite just might be Evelyn Ashford.

There is no one like Nurmi. And I love Viren and Gebrselassie for their dominance. Pre owned the cool factor. But for me, it has always been Zatopek and it his performance at the 1952 Olympics that separates him from everyone else.

Beautiful, that was great, and it brings back a lot of memories. We will need to talk running books on here at some point. Also, at the risk of offending anyone, its an awesome coincidence that you invited me to join this group today, because I have been working on a collection of essays exploring/riffing on the intersection of running and writing and the publisher wrote me this morning to say that he is looking to release the collection next month, something I hope you all will enjoy and potentially be willing to help me hype.

Nice to see the reference to Pre. Pre, Alberto Salazar and Joachim Cruz are probably my all-time favorite runners. Wow, does that sound as dorky as I think it does?

I'm voting for Jim Ryun or Herb Elliot, though I have a real soft spot for American Glenn Cunningham. Meanwhile, can we talk Sebastian Coe and not reference his contemporary Steve Ovett?