My Best Race

Fifty runners, from the world's elite to passionate amateurs, share the races they'll never forget.Such wonderful and inspiring stories by a diverse group of runners - bravo! -Ryan Lamppa, Media Director of Running USA.MY BEST RACE is a fascinating and fresh look at competitive running. The book surprises and motivates with a lesson in every chapter. A brilliant idea for a book, it's well written and a compelling read from start to finish. -Jon Sinclair, former USA Cross Country and 10K champion, RRCA Hall of FamerEvery runner that enters a race has a unique reason for competing: racing for the challenge, for the achievement, for the health benefits, or for more personal reasons. But whether they are twenty-mile-a-day elite marathoners or twenty-mile-a-week recreational runners, each of them can invariably point to a singular performance as the best race I ever ran. MY BEST RACE is a collection of those singular performances. In this inspirational collection, fifty runners, from Olympians and World Champions, to courageous disabled athletes and middle-of-the-packers, share their personal accounts of what they consider the best race they ever ran...and why.Contributors include:Jeff Galloway: A top marathoner sacrifices his place on the Olympic marathon team by pacing his friend to the third and final qualifying spot at the Olympic Trials. Trisha Meili: The woman once known only as The Central Park Jogger crosses the finish line in the race she founded to benefit disabled athletes, fourteen years after being left for dead from a brutal attack that gripped the nation. Ed Eyestone: The unheralded runner comes out of nowhere to beat a previously undefeated state champion in a high school cross-country race, giving him the confidence to eventually become a four-time NCAA champion and two-time Olympian. Kathrine Switzer: The woman they tried to physically remove from the male-only Boston Marathon in 1967 had no one but herself to blame forty-three years later as she struggled through the 2,500th anniversary of the original marathon in Greece.Through interviews with the author, fifty runners recount their inspiring races and personal achievements with excitement, laughter, and sometimes tears. What a fascinating concept! MY BEST RACE is a very unique and inspiring collection that gives great insight into the minds of runners. -Keith Brantly, member of the 1996 US Olympic Marathon team