Sep 26, 2000

Welles Lobb, my editor at Runner's World, doesn't assign columns but merely suggests themes. Recently he suggested one about my favorite books.

Being as much a reader as a writer, I happily obliged. Long lead-times between submission and publication mean that you won't see the results until next February.

Meanwhile I list the new favorite of another reader. Today he becomes a guest reviewer, since I haven't yet seen the book titled Running with the Buffaloes. The author, Chris Lear, broke 4:10 for the mile in high school and later ran for Princeton.

Geoff Pietsch, a retired high school teacher and coach from Miami, says of Lear, "He knows running, and his book chronicles the 1998 season of the University of Colorado (the Buffaloes) cross-country team. It was Adam Goucher's senior year; he was going for the NCAA championship, and so was the team. Lear went to every practice and meet."

Pietsch calls the resulting book, available from Amazon.com, "the best non-fiction book I've ever read about distance running. I think all serious runners will find it fascinating."

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