Running with the Buffaloes: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and the University of Colorado Men's Cross Country Team

Os Buffaloes é o nome do time de corrida da universidade de Colorado. A história conta do dia a dia de treinamento de elite, bem como as dificuldades e desafios encontrados pelo treinador e pelos atletas. O livro é muito gostoso de ler, e ensina muito sobre a corrida. Um dos melhores que já li

This book has been on a number of top ten running book lists. Having read the first third of the book, my conclusion is that there are fewer than ten good running books.The book is a diary account of the Buffaloes' cross country season. This is intrinsically interesting to runners such as myself, but a prosaic writing style ensures it soon feels repetitive. It is not a terrible book, however, and I aim to read it to completion some time in the future. It may well be that the latter stages of the book are more enjoyable.Other running books I have had greater luck with are "Born to Run," and "Feet in the Clouds."

I have purchased many good (and some not so go books) on Amazon over the years. Though these good books have moved me and I have thought about writing a review to say so, this is the first book to move me to write a review. As someone who has been a runner since the age of 10, and ran cross-country and track in high school and college, I might be a bit biased towards a story of this nature. That said, the crisp writing and building narrative composed by Mr. Lear made me feel like I was training alongside the Buffaloes in the Fall of 1998. It is a rare talent for an author to give such an in-depth account of the training details of athletes, without it being tedious or reading like a how-to book. Instead, Lear uses the details of the workouts composed by Coach Mark Wetmore to tell a story and explain the method behind this successful madness. While at times I felt tired just from reading about the volume and density of training the Buffaloes were experiencing and enduring, and would in my mind will them (15 years retroactively) to just take a break, Lear also lets you hear from Wetmore and the athletes and learn why they are so committed to this program. You will also come away with a new found or revived appreciation for just how amazing a runner Adam Goucher was before injuries took a toll on his professional career, and the hurdles he had to overcome in life to get where he did.Some will undoubtedly criticize Wetmore's training, particularly the number of hard workouts spaced so closely together. But once again, this is not a how-to book, and Wetmore, besides acknowledging the ongoing need to reassess and improve, asks for no one's buy-in to his methods other than his own athletes. And those athletes, most notably Adam Goucher did believe. Ultimately, that's what this book is about, the power of believing in yourself, your coach, your teammates, and a higher purpose to overcome tragedy and achieve your goals, be they in running or life. So I'll answer the question, "Should I read this book?," with a mantra that takes on special significance in the story of the Buffaloes: "No doubt about it."

Being a British middle distance athlete, I always look with envy on the unashamed vociferous passion that United States collegiate athletes hold not only in their athletics, but in their sports in general.Mr Lear does well to capture this, and the camaraderie instilled by the University of Colorado Men’s Cross-Country team, with whom the author spends a season, is inspiring, and at particular eventful points, deeply moving.Behind the unrelenting energy, I did not find the book to be particularly well written, and the efforts made to track the progress of many of the athletes in the team, as opposed to focusing upon only a select few, led to this reader easily losing his mental foothold of the characters involved.In a bid to capture the essence of what it means to be a competitive distance runner, the text does not surpass the achievements of 1978 classic 'Once a Runner', which adorns the olive wreath of this reviewer's book shelf.All the being stated, the text is undoubtedly a recommended read for all endurance athletes, and for those who have competed for university athletic teams in a previous life, a pleasant period of nostalgia awaits as you watch a group of young men trying their damndest to be as good as they can be.

As a runner myself, I would recommend this book to any and all distance athletes (not just runners). It presents a true dialogue where many other books and movies fail when it comes to the level of dedication it takes to achieve our goals in our sports. Packed full of inspirational quotes and inherent advice, this book was definitely worth a read. Unfortunately, the ending proves a little confusing and anticlimactic.