Once a Runner is a novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author John L. Parker Jr. and was first published in 1978

1978 in literature

The year 1978 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, a humorous award given annually to books with unusual titles is created. The first winner was Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude...

 by Cedarwinds (0915297019). In Once a Runner, Parker illustrates the hard work and dedication that is required of an elite runner. Since its publication, the novel has become a cult classic for competitive runners of all abilities. A sequel was recently published titled Again to Carthage. This book was originally printed in a limited supply and was reprinted and re-released on 04/07/2009.

Plot summary

The novel opens with a physically fit young man standing on a track, watching as "the night joggers" toil around him. He begins to walk toward the starting post, and thinks that now that the Olympic games

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 are over for him, he does not know what he will do with his life. The man starts to walk around the track, and thinks back to four years ago.

Quenton Cassidy is a collegiate runner at fictional Southeastern University based on the University of Florida. He is a distance runner who specializes in the Mile. After writing a petition for the college's athletes protesting a dress and conduct code, Quenton is suspended from the university and prohibited from competing in the university's annual track meet. Cassidy drops out, moves to a cabin in the woods, and submits himself to a brutal training regimen. He is under the coaching of fictional gold medalist Olympian Bruce Denton. His plan is to compete at the Southeastern Relays against the best miler in the world, John Walton (obviously based on John Walker). Because he is barred from competing at the meet, Denton comes up with a plan to disguise him as a Finnish runner attending a nonexistent university in Ohio.

Cassidy, who has always dreamed of running a sub 4:00 mile, spends many months training for the race of his life, urged on by Denton, who is nearing the end of his running career due to injuries. After completing an agonizing interval workout of 60 quarter miles, Cassidy finally believes he is ready to face Walton. The night before the race, Cassidy performs a ritual of his to prepare himself for the meet—he walks a mile on the Southeastern track, putting all of his "demons" in a symbolic "orb" that will hold them in during the race and allow him to push through the pain.

The next day, Cassidy arrives at the meet, which his disguise allows for, but spends more than an hour warming up on the cross-country course near the track. As the race draws nearer, Quenton fights to keep control of his adrenaline and anxiety, waiting until the race starts so he can unleash them. A large part of a chapter is devoted to the race itself, which comes down to a contest between Cassidy and Walton in the final lap. The novel describes the effect lactic acid has on Quenton as he fights to close in on Walton, who has a slight lead. Excruciatingly, Cassidy reels Walton in, and outsprints him in the final straight to win the race in a time of 3:52.5.

After the race, the scene changes back to Cassidy standing at the Southeastern track, walking through the last lap of a mile. Quenton reflects upon his running career, and realizes that while it is over for him, there is much to be left behind on the track. When he reaches the end of the lap, he reaches into his bag and pulls out a box with a silver Olympic medal inside. Cassidy thinks to himself that he can live with leaving behind his old life, and with a bittersweet feeling walks off into the night.

Critical reception

Once a Runner, while dismissed by some critics as a cult classic that generally appeals only to competitive runners, has received considerable critical praise from Sports Illustrated magazine, Track & Field News

Track & Field News

Track & Field News is a magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson & Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field.The magazine provides coverage of athletics in the U.S.A. from the high school to national level as well as covering the sport on an international bases. The magazine...

, and Runner's World

Runner's World

Runner's World is a globally circulated monthly magazine for runners of all skills sets, published by Rodale Press in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, in the United States...

 magazine.

Characters

• Quenton Cassidy – The protagonist of the book, Cassidy is a collegiate runner whose dedication to the sport forces him to choose to drop out of school and run under the coaching of Bruce Denton (see below).
• Bruce Denton – A fictional Olympic champion runner who becomes Cassidy's friend and coach.
• Jerry Mizner – Cassidy's best friend and teammate.
• Andrea Cleland – Cassidy's girlfriend.
• Dick Doobey – The head football coach at Southeastern. He attempts to have Cassidy expelled from the school for disrupting loyalty among his athletes.
• John Walton – The world record holder for the mile, and the first person to run a time under 3 minutes and 50 seconds in the mile. His character is based on that of the famous miler John Walker
  John Walker (runner)
  Sir John George Walker, KNZM, CBE, is a former middle distance runner from New Zealand.Walker was the first person to run the mile in under 3:50, and won the Olympic Games 1500m in Montreal in 1976....
  
  . Cassidy's race against him is the novel's climactic moment.