Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed [Paperback]

The story of visionary American running coach Bob Larsen's mismatched team of elite California runners who would win championships and Olympic glory in a decades-long pursuit of the epic run.

In the dusty hills above San Diego, Bob Larsen became America's greatest running coach.
     Running to the Edge is a riveting account of Larsen's journey, and his quest to discover the unorthodox training secrets that would lead American runners to breakthroughs never imagined. Futterman interweaves the dramatic stories of Larsen's runners with a fascinating discourse on the science behind human running, as well as a personal running narrative that follows Futterman's own checkered love-affair with the sport. The result is a narrative that will speak to every runner, a story of Larsen's triumphs--from high school cross-country meets to the founding of the cult-favorite, 70's running group, the Jamul Toads; from his long tenure as head coach at UCLA to the secret training regimen of world champion athletes like Larsen's protégé, Meb Keflezighi. Running to the Edge is a page-turner . . . a relentless crusade to run faster, farther. Futterman’s subject: Bob Larsen, a visionary coach whose work over the past 50 years changed the course of distance running in this country. Larsen, who started as a high school cross-country coach in the dusty hinterlands of San Diego County, brought together a scrappy, hodgepodge group of fleet-footed male runners known as the Jamul Toads. Futterman places the reader in the middle of the action, a spectator to the story’s improbable unfolding. While Larsen’s later athletes — most notably the Olympic medalists Meb Keflezighi and Deena Kastor, who dominate the book’s second half — ran to international glory and lend a glimmer of star power to the slc&