Marathon, My Marathon: A Novel,Used

Product Description The modern sport of running is crawling with historyfrom the first recorded race in 776 B.C. to the revival of the modern Olympic Games in Athens twentyseven centuries later in 1896. Now, in 1996, at the start of a most unique marathon, Sea Captain Albion E. Shepard, the mystical overseer of this Texassized fable, Marathon, My Marathon, personalizes the cliometrics of presentday questions which confront the competitors gathering in the remote West Texas town of Marathon. Lawrence Masterson, his career path aborted in an IBM downsizing, bounces back with a plan to elevate this little town from obscurity to an autonomous citystate for the twentyfirst century A.D. Cotton, an Olympic runner and worldrenowned sculptor, second guesses her decision years ago to give up her baby for adoption. Together, they wonder if their romance, which has developed as swiftly as Texas lightning, will be a longrun commitment. But Burley, the trucker carrying an apocalyptic cargo, threatens their dreams as the story's hilly course winds through the vast Southwest landscape. Review In exploring the microcosm of the world of running, Marathon, My Marathon reveals an understanding of humanity and the larger human condition and ultimately a glimpse into the workings of the realm of the gods. Raising many questions, this novel asks the reader to find the answers, to look around at what our species, graced with a divine spark, has created, leaving us wondering if the gods must be as crazy as we ourselves seem to be. Just as "Dr. Strangelove," with its extreme and driven characters presented a world too absurd to be real and too real to be dismissed offhand, so Marathon, My Marathon challenges us to try and make sense of the inconceivable yet undeniable. The Sandpiper, March, 1996Not your typical marathon book. The authors have produced an unlikely strange mix of history, Greek mythology, and Western folklore with athletic competition and warnings of environmental cataclysm. The Running Journal, June, 1996Obviously this is a loving work of authors who've been there, done that. Fifty Plus Fitness Association Bulletin, Summer, 1996 From the Publisher The authors have taken the history of Marathon, Texas and of marathon races, and have run with it. With two wild imaginations at work, they have come up with a plot that moves like the wind wearing running shoes. Much of Marathon, My Marathon was actually written in a modernday B & B, the home built in 1896 by Captain Albion E. Shepard, whose spirit surely returned to explore with the authors these new frontiers. From the Author Living in New Mexico beside the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of the bomb, we as authors are compelled to ask questions about the nation's stewardship of nuclear waste disposal. No matter how fast or far we may run, we cannot run away from this issue. From the Inside Flap Here they come! Five hundred strong, from all over the country Cotton, a worldrenowned sculptor still mourning the infant daughter she gave up 24 years ago...Mel, a Hollywood stunt man with a penchant for flashy entrances ...Keith, the barefoot wonder...Amanda, who's ready to run but may or may not stumble again...Howard, the octogenarian jogger...Burley, a trucker with cholesterol in his arteries, malice in his heart, and nuclear waste in his trailer...Fast Freddie From Phoenix...Lawrence, exiled from the kingdom of IBM, with a dream of founding a new utopia...and Albion E. Shepard, an old sea captain who oversees the tides of time All of them obsessed with ancient sport of running...All of them bent on changing history in the West Texas town of Marathon, My Marathon. From the Back Cover "The Foyts have performed an unlikely marriage of history, fiction, athletics, and environmental sensitivity...." Joe Henderson, Runner's World columnist "A gripping tale of news of contemporary disaster carried by moder