Running with the Buffaloes: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and the University...

Running with the Buffaloes: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and the University of Colorado ... | Chris Lear | Hard to put down

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Running with the B...

	Running with the Buffaloes: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and the University of Colorado ... Chris Lear The Lyons Press, 2003 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 62 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALOES, writer Chris Lear follows the University of Colorado cross-country team through an unforgettable NCAA season. Allowed unparalleled access to team practices, private moments, and the mind of Mark Wetmore--one of the country's most renowned and controversial coaches--Lear provides a riveting look inside the triumphs and heartaches of a perennial national contender and the men who will stop at nothing to achieve excellence. The Buffaloes' 1998 season held great promise, with Olympic hopeful Adam Goucher poised for his first-ever NCAA cross-country title, and the University of Colorado shooting for its first-ever national team title. But in the rigorous world of top-level collegiate sports, blind misfortune can sabotage the dreams of individuals and teams alike. In a season plagued by injury and the tragic loss of a teammate, the Buffaloes were tested as never before. What these men managed to achieve in the face of such adversity is the stuff of legend and glory.
With passion and suspense, Lear captures the lives of these young men and offers a glimpse of what drives a gifted runner like Adam Goucher and a great coach like Mark Wetmore. Like Lance Armstrong's It's Not About the Bike, RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALOES is at once a glowing celebration of a sport and an inspiration to anyone who has ever had the courage to beat the odds and follow a dream.

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Wonderful

Great detail. As a coach I actually used some of the work outs that he goes into great detail about.

Hard to put down

Incredibly engaging, very hard to put down. This book is a well written documentary of a season with the University of Colorado cross country team. It mixes team dynamics, coaching, training, and racing in an informative and engrossing way. It is difficult to imagine a current/former cross country or distance runner not relating to parts of, and thoroughly enjoying, this book.

Easy Read. Great Book!

Running with the Buffaloes was a great depiction of the CU X-cntry team. As a former Division 1 college cross country runner I have heard of Wetmore's heavy mileage programs, but really was able to gain a better understanding of it in his pseudo diary. I was also able to gain an appreciation of the team's woes through one of it's hardest seasons losing a member of the team and the numerous injuries they had. A must read for all runners and a great read for any athlete who wants to compete at a higher level.

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A great read, but a case study in poor coaching

As a running fan, I found the book to be a compelling read.

As a coach I was very concerned about obvious over-training that Coach Mark Wetmore puts his athletes through, and the lack of discipline in the program where many sessions end up in a competition rather than the original intent of the program.

The consequence for the athletes is an epidemic of injuries that limit both their college careers and running later in life.

Entertaining, but beware...

I bought three copies of this book (and 2 other non-fiction, cross country based running stories "Harriers" and "God on the Starting Line"). I had the intent of donating two copies of each of these three to our local school libraries (middle and high schools) in the desire of trying to bring more attention to youth running in our semi-rural, football-is-everything Southern town. Big mistake with this story, for one main reason: just the titles of several of the chapters themselves contain unacceptable language for a school library. In fact, if I listed the chapter title names here I would bet that this review would be removed due to profanity.

The content of the book is undeniably a very entertaining read, but the book as a whole is best left OUT of school libraries.

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