Duel in the Sun is John Brant's account of the 1982 Boston Marathon where two of America's brightest burning stars of American distance running pushed each other to the limits; limits that neither one would ever recover from. Over the last several years, I have read many books about running, but I can easily say this is either the finest book about running or at minimum it is one of the finest. Brant does a fine job of telling a riveting story all while including all the details that runners and non-runners can enjoy.
The facet that I liked the most about this book was how Brant makes a point of focusing in on the idea that moments make us who we are inside. I truly believe this and Brant highlights this throughout the book. He also does a great job of splicing a chapter about the actual race in between chapters either about the lives of Beardsley or Salazar before or after the 82' Boston Marathon. Brant also does a good job of highlighting the ups and downs of both men's live all while only writing about and refraining from passing judgement. As a reader, it is nice to get to read an account of an event or happening and then getting to decide for yourself. It allows the reader to become involved in a book much more deeply than just reading about how one person thinks about this or that.
For those of you who don't know much about the 1982 Boston Marathon, here are the details in a several sentences. The 82' Boston was very hot, much the same as this past year. Alberto Salazar was the heaved favorite. He had either broken or set the record for every distance from the 5000 up to the marathon. He seemed to have no end to what he could push himself to accomplish. However, it was no surprise since he had grown up to be like this since he had followed the privileged road within the running community. He had trained with Olympic greats in high school and college. He had been coached by the who's who of 1960-1970's running coaches. He had trained with Billy Rodgers who had won the Boston and New York Marathons four times a piece. He had gone to college and run at Oregon in the footsteps of Steve Prefontaine. And then there was Dick Beardsley. He was the "blue collar" runner. He had run in college, but at a small one and to no big records or showing. He had won races, but they weren't the big ones. He had had coaches, but no one anyone had heard of. He had even won Grandma's Marathon in his home state. And he was currently coached by the infamous Bill Squires. Everyone thought Salazar was going to blow the competition, if you could even call it that, away and basically walk away with the win. Then the starting gun went off and everything that everyone said or thought changed. Dick Beardsley led the race for 25 miles with Salazar having to pull deep inside himself to even keep up. They dropped the other lead runners 16 miles into the race and for 10 miles they pushed each other to limits that neither would ever recover from. Salazar would end up winning the 82' marathon but only by several seconds and as the cover shows would end up pulling Beardsley up onto the podium. The best quote about the race from either of them comes from Beardsley and it goes something like, "I can't believe I ran a 2:09 and came in second."
The sad part about this book was how they both spent the next section of their lives trying to find meaning for their lives. Both had injuries from pushing their bodies so hard for so long that they would really never recover from. The 82' Boston was the last great race either one of them would end of running. They both would run more and even win more, but they would never again burn as brightly as they did on Patriot's Day of 1982.
If you are looking for a great read this summer. This is it, even if you don't run.
Happy Reading,
David
The facet that I liked the most about this book was how Brant makes a point of focusing in on the idea that moments make us who we are inside. I truly believe this and Brant highlights this throughout the book. He also does a great job of splicing a chapter about the actual race in between chapters either about the lives of Beardsley or Salazar before or after the 82' Boston Marathon. Brant also does a good job of highlighting the ups and downs of both men's live all while only writing about and refraining from passing judgement. As a reader, it is nice to get to read an account of an event or happening and then getting to decide for yourself. It allows the reader to become involved in a book much more deeply than just reading about how one person thinks about this or that.
For those of you who don't know much about the 1982 Boston Marathon, here are the details in a several sentences. The 82' Boston was very hot, much the same as this past year. Alberto Salazar was the heaved favorite. He had either broken or set the record for every distance from the 5000 up to the marathon. He seemed to have no end to what he could push himself to accomplish. However, it was no surprise since he had grown up to be like this since he had followed the privileged road within the running community. He had trained with Olympic greats in high school and college. He had been coached by the who's who of 1960-1970's running coaches. He had trained with Billy Rodgers who had won the Boston and New York Marathons four times a piece. He had gone to college and run at Oregon in the footsteps of Steve Prefontaine. And then there was Dick Beardsley. He was the "blue collar" runner. He had run in college, but at a small one and to no big records or showing. He had won races, but they weren't the big ones. He had had coaches, but no one anyone had heard of. He had even won Grandma's Marathon in his home state. And he was currently coached by the infamous Bill Squires. Everyone thought Salazar was going to blow the competition, if you could even call it that, away and basically walk away with the win. Then the starting gun went off and everything that everyone said or thought changed. Dick Beardsley led the race for 25 miles with Salazar having to pull deep inside himself to even keep up. They dropped the other lead runners 16 miles into the race and for 10 miles they pushed each other to limits that neither would ever recover from. Salazar would end up winning the 82' marathon but only by several seconds and as the cover shows would end up pulling Beardsley up onto the podium. The best quote about the race from either of them comes from Beardsley and it goes something like, "I can't believe I ran a 2:09 and came in second."
The sad part about this book was how they both spent the next section of their lives trying to find meaning for their lives. Both had injuries from pushing their bodies so hard for so long that they would really never recover from. The 82' Boston was the last great race either one of them would end of running. They both would run more and even win more, but they would never again burn as brightly as they did on Patriot's Day of 1982.
If you are looking for a great read this summer. This is it, even if you don't run.
Happy Reading,
David
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