Running to the Edge tells the story of distance running coach Bob Larsen through two distinct phases of his career. Futterman uses Larsen’s career to examine both why we run and how we should train to run further and faster.
Larsen was a high school and collegiate athletics coach who was obsessed with finding ways to run long distances faster. He developed his ideas of ‘running on the edge’ – now generally known as tempo running – in the 1970’s.
It is very much a book of two halves. Firstly, Futterman examines Larsen’s early coaching career in California high school and junior college jobs. Larsen became obsessed with exploring the concept of running on the edge and became convinced he could turn a bunch of young runners from San Diego into an elite team that could claim national titles. Futterman tells this narrative entertainingly and paints a vivid picture of the underdog ‘Jamal Toads’ running team and the key runners who brought Larsen success. He captures the joy and heartbreak of competitive sport as he traces the ups and downs of this fascinating cast of characters.
The second part of the book skips ahead to the 2000s. Larsen had spent many happy years at UCLA with much less focus on distance running. However, Larsen was determined to improve American distance running (which appeared in terminal decline) and set out to develop a training system and camp for elite athletes. Futterman traces the success of Larsen’s unorthodox methods through the careers of two American distance running Olympians. It’s a story I was totally unaware of and a fascinating journey of triumph, despair and every emotion in between.
In addition to the main narratives, Futterman interweaves a short history of the science behind distance running (which will be familiar to fans of Born to Run or The Sports Gene) and his personal running journey. I’m not sure how much the personal material added but, as someone trying to get back running afters years of inactivity, I found them interesting.
Overall, Running to the Edge is a really enjoyable book. The narrative flows and the characters are vividly brought to life – I found myself nervous about the results of races from nearly 50 years ago as Futterman brilliantly told the long forgotten careers of many unknown runners.
All Sports Book Reviews 