And here's the second part.
(Have you read the 1st part yet?)
In the 1st part, I argued who was best--Lasse Viren or Mo Farah.
Also, Who was or is the Best High School PRO T&F Athlete?
Finally, I gave a list of my CURRENT picks for the AOY Top 10's for the World and US.
In THIS part, I will tell you--IMHO--which are the Best T&F or Running-related Movies.
And which are the Best T&F & Running-related Books.
These lists will be formed from MY opinion, not from Awards won, Who the actors or authors are, or from any other measurement of whether they're the "Best"!!
I will list the Books in 3 categories--Statistical works and Histories, Biographies, and Fiction (Novels).
In the Movies section, I will cover Movies I OWN on DVD.
Anyway, I'll begin with Books.
Statistical and Historical T&F Books
Track and Field News & Track Newsletter
This is NOT a book--it's a magazine.
But I've read EVERY word of EVERY issue since January 1957--as well as the OG issue of 1956.
(1957 through 1961 was read retrospectively--through those years's Bound Volumes.)
It has lists, results, interviews, meet stories, gossip, news briefs, injury updates, Letters to the Editor, and on and on.
Athletics Annual & FAST Annual & HS Track
These 3 annuals are invaluable, and should be on EVERY stat freaks bookshelf!
HS Track (Jack Shepard, Ed.) comes out around December every year.
A-A (Peter Matthews, Ed.) and FAST (Tom Casacky, Ed.) arrive around May or June.
Shepard's book covers HS Track (AND Field, sic!) like no other!
Results of the year's major HS meets (NBN, NBIN, Golden West, etc), deep year lists (Top 40 or 50 in most events), and A-T lists.
He covers both OUTdoor and INdoor T&F the same!
Also offers HS Age Records (14-18), and Class Records.
Matthews's book is over 600 pages of all kinds of stuff.
Year lists, A-T lists, athlete statistical biographies, a long diary of the past year, FULL results from the major meets of the past year, XC and Road results, lists of T&F people who died , interesting articles on various subjects about our sport, and on and on and ON!!
(Oh yes, it also includes THAT year's INdoor lists! So the 2015 book, out in June, includes the lists from the 2015 INdoor season!!)
FAST is--in SOME ways--similar to A-A, in that it has deep lists from the past year.
But it's BEST section--IMO--is its Index!
It has year-by-year progressions (over ALL the events that person competes in!) of over 2000 athletes!!
Of its 606 pages, the Index covers about 340 of them!
An EXCELLENT source of sometimes obscure information!
(The Index changes from year to year, but includes everyone who made the Top 40 or so in an event in the past year! And it includes ALL the years of an athletes career, even going back to their PRE-HS years, in some cases!!)
The R L Quercetani Histories
There's 4 or 5 of them, I believe, but I own 2--Athletics: History of T&F 1860-2000, and A World History of Long Distance Running 1880-2002.
The former covers EVERY event of both Track and Field, while the latter covers mainly the 5000 and 10000 meter TRACK events (not the Road versions!).
It has detailed stories of races (with splits!), what an athlete did before and after the OG or WC, lots of photos and "sidebar" bios and features on many athletes, plus a solid appendix with many interesting lists and facts.
"Athletics" goes back to ancient times, exploring the very birth of our sport!
Both are MUST HAVE's for your T&F library!
Other interesting Stats and Historical books are:
World Record Breakers in T&F
It's by Gerald Lawson, and dates from 1997.
It tells the story of EVERY WR holder in most events, since the first WR's were kept!
It also predicts what the WR's would be in 15 or 20 years.
You can check to see if Lawson was right!
The 100 Greatest T&F Battles of the 20th Century.
This book, by Jeff Hollobaugh, has stories on--in HIS opinion!--the greatest races, duels, etc of the past century.
And he RANKS them, 1 through 100, in inverse order, so you get to count them down.
(Don't peek!!)
Runners and Races: 1500 and Mile
The late Cordner Nelson's great history of this famed event.
And it is COMPLETE---through 1984.
Every year, every important race, all the great "milers", going back to the 19th century, INdoors and OUTdoors!
Now on to Biographies (and Auto-Bios, Memoirs).
I'm a distance person (although I love the ENTIRE sport!!), so the following list are mainly about middle and long distance runners.
The Gerry Lindgren Story and Gerry Lindgren's Book on Running.
The former is a short work put out by Runner's World.
They did a few of those--others are about Jack Foster and Frank Shorter--and they're great.
The GL work has his complete running career detailed, with photos, etc.
Lindgren's "memoir" is, um, interesting!
As is the man himself.
My first running "hero", these books are all GERRY!
Ron Clarke Talks Track and The Unforgiving Minute
(See my Clarke eulogy post for more details on these. But both are GREAT!)
The Four Minute Mile, by Roger Bannister.
The Jim Ryun Story, by Cordner Nelson.
No Bugles, No Drums, by Peter Snell.
Three memoirs or biographies by or about 3 Milers.
All "strongly recommended", as they say!
PRE!, by Tom Jordan.
THE book on Steve Prefontaine.
His (too short) life story, his (too short) athletic career, with lots of photos, an appendix with a list of ALL his races, from HS on!
Anyone who has NOT read this (and OWN a copy!) is NOT a legit T&F fan!!
My opinion.
Running Tide, by Joan Benoit Samuelson.
Finding Their Stride, by Sally Pont.
The Silence of Great Distance, by Frank Murphy.
Three books by or about FEMALE runners!
And they're all unique--as is every woman I've ever known!
LOL
Joanie's memoir dates from 1985, but it covers her fabulous "elite runner" career.
(Of course, she continues as an "elite" runner today. She intends to run within 30 minutes of her 1985 Chicago Marathon time of 2:21:21 in this year's Chicago race--on that year's 30th Anniversary!!)
Pont's book is probably similar to the current movie, "McFarland USA" (which I haven't seen yet, but fully intend to!).
She was the coach of a girl's XC team back east (Pennsylvania??) in the 90's.
They were an "average" "rag tag" group of young girls, with dreams and aspirations like all other HS athletes.
It tells the complete story of one of their XC seasons, race by race!
Murphy's book is another MUST HAVE for anyone female, or who follow and appreciate the female side of our sport!
Its main focus is on Stephanie Herbst, former Collegiate Record holder in the 10000, of Wisconsin.
A secondary focus is on a race she had with Kathy Ormsby, who took a potentially fatal leap off a bridge DURING the 1986 NCAA 10K race--which Herbst won in CR time (See above!).
But it's so much more!
It goes through almost the entire Post-Title IX history of Women's Middle and Long Distance Running--meaning from the early 70's onward.
It features stories (and detailed historical accounts) about such greats as Kazankina, Heritage, Larrieu, and Slaney, and Suzy Favor Hamilton.
It also delves into the psychological musings of women while they run.
Can't recommend this book enough!!
And then there's the latest bio/memoir I've read!
It's "Life Outside the Oval Office" by Nick Symmonds.
This guy is full of himself--and full of shit!
But he's also a FASCINATING dude!!
As they say, you won't be able to put this one down!!
(Beware: It's R-rated--for Cussing, Sexual Content, and Beer Mile stories!)
As for Fictional Books?
Here's a few I've enjoyed.
Random Walk, by Lawrence Block, is NOT about Race Walking!
It's basically about a guy who starts walking from his home one day, and doesn't stop, gathering a group of fellow pedestrians along the way.
(Think Forrest Gump's long run!)
The Miler, by Cordner Nelson.
This late co-founder of T&FN wrote some EXCELLENT books!
(See some listed above!)
This is a novel about a boy Miler---maybe inspired by Jim Ryun?
Others in the male runner category are...
The Front Runner, by Patricia Warren
Pain, by Dan Middleman
Once a Runner, by John Parker
(For those who MIGHT be offended, Warren's novel is about a gay runner! But I hope you're NOT offended! It's a GREAT novel!!)
Middleman's book has a great sense of humor.
(Read the back cover quotes about the book! Hilarious!)
The Games, by Hugh Atkinson
This book dates from 1970, and is a fictional account of an Olympic Games Decathlon.
It's in the Arthur Hailey, Irving Wallace tradition, so beware!
But it IS riveting--as they say!
Another--much newer!--in the same tradition is Hal Higdon's "Marathon".
Higdon wrote another book with the same title, but THAT one was a "how to" on running the 26.2.
This one--dated from 2007, I believe--is a novel about the final 72 hours leading up to a MAJOR Big City Marathon (in Higdon's case, the "Lake City" Marathon!), and the race itself, practically minute-by-minute.
Like Hailey's "Airport" or "Hotel", this is a multi-character novel.
It even has a LIST of all the characters in the front of the book, with a brief description of their role in the book!!
I THOUGHT I wouldn't like it.
But I was RIVETED!
It's one of those novels that, once you start reading, you can't put it down until the last page!!
STRONGLY recommended!!
Another good novel is Pepper in the Blood, by Brian Tyson.
It's about DRUGS!!
A very "modern" novel---sad to say!--but written about 30 or so years ago!!
Signs Unseen, Sounds Unheard, by Carol Norris.
The Chain, by----ME!!
Norris was a friend of mine from Humboldt County in California.
I liked her book, not just because I knew her, but because it's a good story of a deaf runner, and it has GREAT descriptions of locations and events in Humboldt County, where I lived (and RAN!!) for 15 years!!
MY novel will NEVER be published.
But after I die, and if it's not destroyed, please come here and CLAIM it from whomever!
It's also located in Humboldt County, and was written over the 3 months of Summer 1977.
It describes the relationship between Blaine Rincon (me) and Martha Dean (Marilyn Taylor, my real-life friend and runner, who actually RAN in the initial Olympic Trials Marathon in 1984!!).
She's a runner at HSU, and I'm a "slacker" student/runner there of sub-elite status.
I become her unofficial coach, and she becomes the....well, I won't give it away.
It describes actual races that take place in Humboldt County--the Avenue of the Giants Marathon, and the Trinidad-Clam Beach Race.
It also has scenes from Eugene's Hayward Field!
One UNIQUE aspect of the novel?
It tells the story of an attempted BOYCOTT of the 1980 Moscow OG--but this fictional one if driven by a British female marathoner, in the Grete Waitz mold.
Martha Dean, and a few other characters, becomes involved in "Marietta McCormack's" boycott attempt.
Remember, this book was written in 1977--3 years before the ACTUAL boycott of the Russian Games--albeit for different reasons!!
Before we turn to Movies, I'll list the titles of a few Books I've either begun reading, or INTEND to start reading! (I own all of them, but for one reason or another, haven't read them yet, or finished reading them!)
American Women's Track and Field, by Louise Tricard.
This is actually TWO books!
They're divided by time--the first covering the years 1895 to 1980, and the sequel covering the years 1981 to 2000.
These are EXTREMELY detailed accounts of meets, races, events dating from the 1800's forward.
It includes Women's results from 19th Century College meets between "Women's Colleges", stories from the Millrose Games and the US Nationals, as well as numerous other meets!
All--and I mean ALL!!--of the names, places, races--are included here.
A History of INdoor T&F: 1849-2013, by Grant Birkinshaw.
He's from New Zealand, but this covers the ENTIRE WORLD's history of the INdoor side of the sport!
Like Tricard's works, this is FULLY detailed, with tons of photos, lists, results, stories, etc, etc!
And it goes through the 2013 INdoor season, so includes a bit of stuff on Mary Cain's phenomenal season!
Bowerman (and the Men of Oregon), by Kenny Moore
The Chicago Marathon, by Andrew Suozzi
Kings of the Road, by Cameron Stracher
Moore's book is a lengthy biography of the famed UO coach, and all the athletes he brought to greatness.
Suozzi's book is a history of this great race.
Stracher's is about the 70's "running boom", inspired by the exploits of Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, and---Alberto Salazar!!
But it features these 3 A-T greats!!
Now we'll move on to---Movies!
Here's a few I recommend--for different reasons.
This is NOT a complete list, nor does it include all the "usual suspects".
In fact, 1 or 2 of them you might not have even HEARD of!!
Two documentaries are Fire On the Track and We Grew Wings.
"Fire" is, of course, the GREAT doc on Prefontaine!
If you haven't seen it, please DO!!
"Wings" is another doc about some University of Oregon Ducks--but these are all Women!
The movie was released in 2011, I believe, and covers two seasons in UO's women athletes's history--1985 and 2011.
So you see and hear such A-T greats as Claudette Groenendaal and LeAnn Warren and Kathy Hayes from 1985, and English Gardner, Melissa Gergel, and Jordan Hasay from their 2011 squad!
Good doc!
Personal Best, starring Mariel Hemingway, and some REAL elite athletes playing "fictional" roles, dates from 1982.
Warning!
This one is about lesbian athletes, and includes swearing, sex, and nudity.
Without Limits, starring Billy Crudup as Prefontaine, and Donald Sutherland as Bill Bowerman.
There were TWO Pre flicks released in the 90's.
The other is "Prefontaine", starring Jared Leto as Pre.
I STRONGLY recommend "Limits".
It's by FAR the better of the 2.
Besides, Sutherland as Bowerman MAKES that movie!!
Wild and Tracks.
They're similar---and they're not!
Wild is the best known, probably because the book of the same name (by Cheryl Strayed) is a MONSTER best seller!
And because Reese Witherspoon plays Cheryl.
Well done flick, but a bit disjointed, with several flashback scenes.
Laura Dern's portrayal of Strayed's dying mother is FANTASTIC!!
But Reese does a great job too!
(Cussing, drugs, sex, and nudity.)
Tracks is basically an Australian woman's version of Strayed's story, and is also auto-biographical!
And IMHO, a better movie, with at least equally good acting.
Both are "riveting", to say the least!
Running Inside Out
This is a "sleeper".
It's really an AWFUL movie--in its acting and dialogue especially.
It's basically a "Christian" movie, and has a few scenes wherein religion becomes the focus.
But overall, religion stays on the sidelines.
It tells the story of a young college girl who runs---she's NOT an elite athlete---she's one of those 4-hour marathoner types--who becomes pregnant after starting a great job shortly after graduation.
She was just starting to train for a marathon when she got the news.
What to do?
Well, since this is a movie with Christ as a "character", we can imagine how it ends.
Her "salvation"---in life, and in running---is based on a true story!
I liked it---and watch it often!!
Then there's Fast Girls.
You've probably seen it, or at least heard of it.
It's one of those "so bad it's good" movies.
At least, that's what the critics said upon its release in 2012.
It's about a fictional British Women's 4X100 Relay team hoping to win the "2011 London World Championships".
The featured "athletes" are a white snobbish sprinter controlled by her domineering father, and a black girl from the London "ghetto" who has a wild (and even hilarious!) fight with the white girl.
It includes blaring hip-hop music (or is it Rap??), and "amateur" acting, and pretty BAD running scenes!
But you know what?
WATCH IT!!
(I have-----MANY times!!)
Finally, there's a NON-running movie I'll include here---for 3 reasons.
1. It stars the late and great John Candy!
2. It somewhat reminds me that Lolo Jones became a Winter Olympics Boblsledder!
3. It's about a WINTER Olympics Boblsed team from----JAMAICA!!!
Of course, I speak of "Cool Runnings".
Hey, it has the word "running(s)" in the title!!
LOL
See you next after Monaco!!
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