John L.Parker

No wonder it took him 30 years. John L.Parker obviously decided that having written "the best novel ever written about running", as Runner's World calls it, his follow-up book would be "proper" literature. I'm up to page 139 (of 344) and so far there is precious little running in it. We've had Vietnam war stories, two funerals, fishing trips, family and relationship stuff. John -- this is not what we want; it's not why your "Once a Runner" fans are buying this book.

It's all very well written, but most of the time I am reading it I catch myself silently screaming "Get on with it!"

"If he could conquer the weakness, the cowardice in himself, he would not worry about the rest; it would come.

"Training was a rite of purification; from it came speed, strength. Racing was a rite of death; from it came knowledge.

Everybody knows I'm not a fan of long, slow distance. Me, I'm a died-in-the-wool fan of the Coe-Ovett-Cram British school of training: quality not quantity. And yet...

it was Olympic medallist Lorraine Moller who first suggested I put the Garmin and the stopwatch to one side and focus on running easily, well within my fitness level. It would, she said, help me rediscover the joy of running after a year spent frantically trying to catch up with the level of fitness I thought I "should" be at.