Flanagan's Run

by Tom McNab

Book Overview

During the Depression, the ebullient American entrepreneur Charles Flanagan assembles two thousand runners from all corners of the earth to run from Los Angeles to New York for the prize of $150,000.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688011985
• ISBN13: 9780688011987
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Length: 444 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

perfect

This book is Lance Armstrong good. It does a fantastic job of showing life during the great depression. The story is so incredible that if it didn't actually happen, you wouldn't believe it. It's well worth the penny that you'll likely pay for it.

A Running Classic

This is a "lost classic" of the running book genre. Written in 1982, it's about a race across America in the 1930s, and is based on an actual race that occured in 1929. The cast of characters, including the unflappable promoter Flanagan, the veteran Doc Cole, the beautiful Kate Sheridan, the British Lord Thurleigh and more, all of whom have their own reasons for wanting to win, is very well drawn. Each of them is so interesting and likable that you're not sure who to root for. But best of all, the author, Tom McNab, a British Olympic coach, gets the running parts exactly right. I had doubts when I started to read it, but was pleasantly surprised. He captures the pain (physical and mental), the motivation, the commitment, and the satisfaction of running extremely well. Highly recommended.

a must for runners

the book that made me run, and realise that NO PAIN NO GAIN read it when I was 19 and deep down, started running a few km, and found balance in my life............ 15 years after, I have a great life, I run ultras... and I reread the book once in a while...

Made me appreciate running even more

I read this book back in high school, before I was a marathon runner, and I loved it back then. Now, reading this book the days before and after running the Los Angeles marathon, it served as an inspiration, describing the agonies/ecstasies of long distance running, the friendships that develop on the course (in training), and the desire to push the body to the limit. GREAT BOOK. I didn't want it to end.

This book puts you in the race.

It might be hard to believe but I heard about this book while playing cribbage on the internet with a prison warden from Canada! Having run across America myself, I was eager to read a book about the early transcon races that took place from LA to New York. This book is rich with wonderful detail to each character. By the end of the book, you are hoping that everyone makes it to the finish. This is the best work on a subject that is very hard to find stories about. The accuracy to what such a run is like, as well as appropriate ties to historical events is unmatched.