THE LONG RUN

A fittingly fast-moving account of the rise of modern marathon and distance running.

Perhaps best known as a co-writer with James Patterson and Bill O’Reilly, Dugard breaks away to chart the fortunes of the fleet of foot. In 1970, on the occasion of the groundbreaking first New York City Marathon, just 127 runners turned up, paying a $1 entry fee. Most of these “odd fitness enthusiasts” were about 35, with only one woman among them, and most of them, by Dugard’s account, were not running for glory. A marathoner himself, he then turns to the long history of the event, tracing it to ancient Greece and then to the modern Olympics—at the inaugural games, a single Greek woman turned up, only to be turned away from a contest ruled suited only for males. (Ironically, in those days, runners smoked cigarettes before the race, believing it opened up their lungs, while “wine is the Gatorade of these Games, gulped by depleted runners for its sugars and hydration.”) Dugard moves on to the incremental advances made throughout the 20th century, a narrative that leads to the ground zero of Eugene, Oregon, and the influence of Nike cofounders Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, the former of whom was also an early apostle of jogging. There are plenty of detours in Dugard’s informal history, taking in such things as the Cold War promulgation of the President’s Physical Fitness Award, fierce rivalries between runners, and the explosion of books about running in the 1970s as the sport became broadly popular, in part thanks to now-legendary runners such as Steve Prefontaine and Joan Benoit Samuelson. Distance running has changed markedly, Dugard concludes: “Runners are younger,” the tracks and trails filled with Gen Zers, while at last count, the New York City Marathon boasted “55,646 finishers.”

A welcome book for running fans, and an inspiration to lace up and get moving.