Running with the Buffaloes: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and the University of Colorado Men's Cross-Country Team [Paperback]

Chris Lear (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

Top five Best Books About Running, Runner's World Magazine

Top three Best Books About Running, readers of Runner's World Magazine
(December 2009)

A phenomenal portrait of courage and desire that will do for college cross-country what John Feinstein's A Season on the Brink did for college basketball.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Colorado-based cross-country runner Lear follows the University of Colorado cross-country team, the Buffaloes, through its 1998 season, one with many high points but also marked by the tragic death of one of its team members in a bike accident. The University of Colorado's cross-country program is one of the best in the country and, unlike most major cross-country powers, relies mainly on locally born athletes. The book minutely details the training and coaching techniques used to produce a team that is a constant contender for the NCAA championship. At times, the author provides almost too much detail, but the reader must marvel at the dedication and self-motivation of these young men as they run more than 100 miles a week for nearly seven months. In 1998, Colorado won the individual NCAA cross-country championship and finished third in the team competition. Apart from instructionals, few books cover cross-country; this one will appeal to high school athletes and is recommended for both school and public libraries. William Scheeren, Hempfield Area H.S. Lib., Greensburg, PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Lear's tale of the 1998 Colorado cross country season is part tragedy, part biography and part training window to one of the country's best programs. It deserves its cult-classic status and is worthy of another read every few years.”  --Running Times

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press; 1st edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585748048
• ISBN-13: 978-1585748044
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #511,368 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best running book since Once A Runner, August 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Running with The Buffaloes: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and the University of Colorado Men's Cross-Country Team (Hardcover)

People generally read books about running because they truly love running itself. But only a few such books provide even a fraction of the enjoyment of a simple run. The classic, Once A Runner by John L. Parker, comes to mind, but there aren't many others.

You can add Running With the Buffaloes to the short list. Lear was shrewd, talented and lucky in writing this book: shrewd because his main subject is Olympian Adam Goucher, the strongest and boldest American distance runner since Bob Kennedy; talented because he has a clear, interesting, energized writing style; and lucky because his nonfiction, real life drama has a happy ending after an all-out struggle.

The core of the book is a daily description of cross country practice at the University of Colorado in the fall of 1998. For most people, reading about cross country practice would seem to fall somewhere between drudgery and torture, but Running With the Buffaloes is actually thrilling. Goucher's intensity, his coach's counsel and depth, his opponents' strengths and abilities and his teammates' successes and failures all weave together in a completely gripping tale. Lear keeps his chapters short, resulting in a pace that moves urgently. He assumes a level of awareness about running that is refreshing. For once, reading about running is like talking to someone who cares as much as you do, someone who is excited and knowledgeable.

When the Colorado team returned to campus for fall classes in 1998, they had two goals: win the NCAA championship and have Goucher win the individual title. Championships are built deliberately, with passion and anxiety. Goucher faces this with more than a little Prefontaine running through his veins. Describing him and his teammates, the Colorado coach observes:

"In football, you might get your bell rung, but you go in with the expectation that you might get hurt, and you hope to win and come out unscathed. As a distance runner, you know you're going to get your bell rung. Distance runners are experts at pain, discomfort, and fear. You're not coming away feeling good. It's a matter of how much pain you can deal with on those days. It's not a strategy. It's just a callusing of the mind and body to deal with discomfort. Any serious runner bounces back. That's the nature of their game. Taking pain."

In Running With the Buffaloes, Lear makes this wonderful, alive and memorable. Reading it, you are actually a part of every step, every run, every test and every triumph.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! A fine tale of competitive cross country, October 1, 2001

By 

Timothy R. Sullivan - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Running with The Buffaloes: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and the University of Colorado Men's Cross-Country Team (Hardcover)

Finally, someone gets it right when explaining the world of cross country, and that would be author Chris Lear. The diary format takes the reader through the ups and downs of one riveting colleigate cross country season. Having been a former high school and college cross country runner, I always had a difficult time explaining to my baseball-playing friends why I ran so much, and why did I compete in something as whacky as cross country. This book is a perfect explanation. He explains that there's more to just going out and running, that it takes discipline, stamina, strength (man, lots of injuries in this book!) and courage. Lear also shows how runners bond together through the miles and miles of training and racing.

His last piece on the NCAA championship, a play-by-play of Goucher and his teammates, is poetic. I've never read a better race description ever.

Why four and not five stars? First, I'm picky and think five starts should be saved for truly epic sports books like "Friday Night Lights." That said, Lear could've improved on some things. First off, the author was at his best when diverting from the diary format and going into the lives of Goucher, Ponce and Severy. We didn't read enough detail about their lives. Apparently they hang out and are revered at a local coffee shop. We never got more than they just hang out there. I wanted an explanation of this place and why they love steeplechasers so much. Also, the CU runners go to a party, we get a paragraph on it. Do they date, study, hang out, do anything but run? Every little injury is described into minute detail, and that gets old.

Also, the photos are horrendous. It's as if Lear took a point and shoot to practice. On one they twice had "Goucher in full flight" as the caption. A fuzzy picture with the same person in the background -- it was weak. Lear could've hired the photographer from the local paper for chump change and had done better.

But those are just some things to improve on. Truly this is a great, great book and I recommend it to all runners and those wanting to understand cross country.

This is Lear's first effort and I hope it's not his last.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting for what it reveals, July 6, 2006

By 

Analog Bubblebath "The world spins at 33.3" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Running with The Buffaloes: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and the University of Colorado Men's Cross-Country Team (Hardcover)

The writing could be better, but Lear does provide a fairly unvarnished look at CU's nominally successful runners--a scrappy program with comparatively little scholarship money to pull in nationwide high school talent. And while many reviewers below have (gushingly) noted how inspirational this book is, I found it had some curious gaps.

For instance, very little is noted about the interactions of the runners outside of workouts. Cursory mention is made of get togethers, but what about the burden of being a full-time student? Romance? Drinking and drugs, of both the entertaining and performance enhancing variety?

Most interesting, yet unnoticed by the players themselves, is the very obvious reason for CU's relative lack of success: extreme overtraining.

Though he claims to think long and hard about what works and what doesn't, coach Mark Wetmore's dogmatic inflexibility and lack of insight is frankly stunning. It is crystal clear that he is overtraining his runners, both with volume and intensity, and builds his training around his senior star, Adam Goucher. Wetmore claims to be a Lydiard advocate, yet rather than focus on building the deep reserves of endurance Lydiard preached, it seemed to me that Wetmore emphasize a lot of lactate work and allows each workout to become a competition. Furthermore, as the book relates, no less than three of his runners came down with stress fractures over the course of 12 months. On a squad of 40, that amounts to an epidemic. Stress fractures are overuse injuries, folks, plain and simple.

One need only look at the post-collegiate careers of many of his stars for further evidence: the Gouchers (Kara particularly), the Torres twins, Dathan Ritzenheim. Though they would probably be loathe to admit so, none thrived until they found new coaches, left Colorado, and basically unlearned the terrible habits ingrained by Wetmore.

The most tragic case of all may be Adam Goucher. His spotty, stress fracture riddled career since graduating makes it clear that even under the guidance of Alberto Salazar, he has been unable to train smart. He seems unable to escape the obssessive and excessive work ethic encouraged in the CU program.

The other disturbing trend (and it's interesting that none of the other reviewers note it) reported is the racism displayed toward foreign runners. The resentment is curious. One runner refers to an African runner as a "fuzzy headed foreigner." In another instance, a CU runner actually yells at the white crowds at a finish line for cheering on an African. Goucher is miffed that Meb Keflezghi, by then a US citizen, is treated as the hometown favorite at a San Diego race. Interesting to see who went on to win a silver at the Olympics.

So--overall a decent but incomplete book, notable mostly for being the only one out there which goes behind the scenes. Interesting? Somewhat. Inspirational? I am scared to think who to.