Posted by simon on 11/28/2006 on simon's blogLegend has it that Dick Beardsley, the two-time Olympic marathon qualifier and the fourth fastest American ever to run 26.2 miles, coached himself from a book.
The story had intrigued me for years. Call me slow, but I only recently realized that Dick's own story, "Staying the Course" was still in print. I finally got a copy and laid the legend to rest. Having just run 2:20 for 44th place in the 1979 Nike/Oregon Track Club marathon, Dick realized he had a good crack at becoming world-class - if he kept improving. (By the way, he still tops the Guinness Book of World Records list for the longest consecutive series of faster marathon times - 13 in all.) At that point, as he puts it: "I didn't have a coach, but I had a book: 'Self-Made Olympian' by Ron Daws. It was my bible. I referred to it constantly for workouts."
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