Books: Jotters’ World

Publishers on a long-distance relay

Next to listening to someone describing his most recent operation, perhaps nothing is more boring than hearing a runner discuss 1) his daily mileage, 2) the differences between Adidas running shoes and Nikes, 3) the arcana of training diets and carbohydrate loading or 4) all of the above. Unless, of course, it is reading books written by runners, some of whom seem convinced that something as simple as placing one foot in front of the other for a few miles a day really requires some metaphysical—as opposed to metatarsal—underpinnings.

One who has read Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s books on aerobics would assume that everything about the subjects of running and conditioning has already been written at marathon length. One would be wrong. For those who have not been rendered glassy-eyed by The Complete Book of Running, fuzzy-brained by Running and Being or stultified by indistinguishable issues of Runner’s World, there is a whole new crop of books on running and walking. All amply demonstrate that whatever exercise does for the heart and lungs, it does little for literary skills.

The Traveling Runner’s Guide (Dutton; $5.95) is a rather straightforward listing of safe, scenic places to run in 21 cities around the country and may, for the dedicated, be worth carrying along on a business trip. The Runner’s Guide to the U.S.A. (Summit; $12.95 hardcover, $6.95 paper) offers information on some 200 distance races, from four miles on up, with evaluations of the courses, the facilities available and the prizes awarded finishers. Target 26 (Collier; $4.95) provides some practical advice for anyone interested in marathons. The book is written in the same style as FM 22-5, the Army field manual that explains, among other things, how to turn left while marching. In addition, Target 26 trudges far too long through the minutiae of long-distance running. The authors remind readers unnecessarily that runners’ “arms should move in a pendulum fashion, bending at the elbows with a smooth rhythm that matches the cadence of the stride,” or, after an overlong section on diet, conclude that foods that tend to make runners sick should be avoided before races. The two walking books, both titled The Complete Book of Walking (Simon & Schuster; $10, and Farnsworth; $9.95), have been padded out with chapters explaining such obvious things as the need to wear well-fitted shoes or to pay attention to traffic while walking along highways.

Less instructive but more inspirational is Jim Lilliefor’s Total Running (Morrow; $7.95), an examination of the “mental and spiritual side of running” that contains such lines as “running as spiritualism is the lifting from your shoulders of an insoluble puzzle.” On the Run, by Marty Liquori and Skip Myslenski (Morrow; $9.95), shows the great miler and distance runner to be as dedicated and self-critical as every top athlete must be. But Liquori is more instructive on television. Running Back, by Steve Heidenreich and Dave Dorr (Hawthorn; $11.95), is nondramatic; it describes how Heidenreich slogged his way back to health after an auto accident in 1976 nearly killed him.

Writing about running seems to be as addictive as the activity itself. Even as we gasp, publishers are readying even newer jogging books. It is time for the reader to put his foot down. —Peter Stoler