213:. He didn't just write the novel, he formed his own publishing company and even set the type himself. The friend who helped design the cover let Parker use the equipment when his printing shop closed. "I worked through the night sometimes making editorial changes as I went along," said Parker. "You type a line and you hit a button and it goes thunk and prints it on the photographic paper. Then you have to cut up errors with an X-Acto knife. I was working in a fever most of the time, so excited to be getting it done. I was thinking how much runners were going to like it," Parker said. "There's stuff about training in there, there's stuff about running history, there's stuff about physiology and biology. It was like cutting the top off my head and pouring out everything about running that was in there into this thing and just making sure it wove into the plotline." Having printed 5,000 copies, Parker then dispatched the novel to running-shoe stores.
98:, published in late 2007. In "Once a Runner" Cassidy is a college athlete who is suspended from school and prohibited from competing in his university's track meets. He trains in private hoping to compete in disguise. In "Again to Carthage," ten years have passed for Cassidy. After taking a break from running, he begins training again in earnest trying to recapture the feeling and the glory of the past, this time through long-distance running. 2015's "Racing the Rain" recounts Cassidy's early years.
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running stores and asking only that they repay him for the books that sold. As recounted to the Sun, Parker slowly became aware that the book was developing a following. "You'd start hearing comments that let you know that it had become at least a cult thing, that there was this small, hard-core group that was really into it," Parker said. "People would tell me, 'I've read this book 10 times,' or, 'I had this book years ago, but I lent it out and someone stole it.'
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to open his own legal practice in South
Florida. "Then, I realized that my first love was really writing," Parker said. "And like Cassidy does in the book, I began plotting my escape." Parker moved back to Gainesville and finished "Once a Runner" in roughly a year. The only problem: Nobody wanted to publish it.
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was the most sought-after used book in the United States, according to
Bookfinder (the Google of used and out-of-print books). Parker said that since it takes a runner to tell a runner's story, the book actually took eight years to complete, "seven years being a runner, and one year writing the book"
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staff reporter Amy
Reinink that he stayed in town to attend law school after getting his undergraduate degree, and like Cassidy, he moved to South Florida after graduation. For Parker, the move in 1972 was to take an investigative reporting job at the Palm Beach Post, which he left after a few years
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Parker said. "There aren't many writers who get close to a 4-minute mile, or who got to be roommates with an
Olympian, and who can tell other people what that's like." Parker started his own publishing house and printed the book himself in 1978. He sold it by dropping off stacks at bookstores and
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degree, and continued to run competitively for the
Florida Track Club. In the early- to mid-1970s, Gainesville was the Mecca of East Coast distance running because of the Florida Track Club (FTC) and its trio of 1972 Olympians:
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are thick with
Gainesville imagery. Cassidy runs in a summer heat so intense that "steam rose from his skin." He grows nostalgic for the scent of "the pepper and earthy decay of Spanish moss and North Florida piney forest."
127:, setting the school record in the mile and winning the Southeastern Conference (SEC) championship in the mile run three times before graduating in 1970. He then remained in Gainesville to get his
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194:"I got the rejections, and I kind of went, 'What's wrong with these people? Don't they understand that this is like sending a writer to the moon and having him come back and describe it?'
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is loosely based on Parker's college experience. Parker himself was a tall, lean runner in college, standing 6'4" and weighing about 162 pounds, with a best time of 4:06 for the mile.
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477:"Tallest, Fastest And Buggiest: Jack Bacheler of Florida is not just the best U.S. distance runner, he also is the only one who is a constantly expectant moth-er"
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This book is for Jack
Bacheler and Frank Shorter, old friends, great runners. In fond remembrance, fellows, of many Trials and many Miles . . ."
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While neither book ever acquired literary acclaim, Parker—and
Quenton Cassidy—achieved a cult following among readers in the running community.
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is rooted in actual workouts conducted by FTC runners, and others who came to train with them, notably mile champion Marty
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162:("Speed Reading: Once a Runner, the best novel ever about distance running"), as of 2007 and 2008,
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94:, published in 1978. Thirty years later Parker follows the career of Cassidy in a second book
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372:"Former UF runner, now a celebrated author, has taken quite a journey"
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Cassidy, a passionate, obsessive runner, is first introduced in
446:"Former UF track coach to go into national hall of fame"
294:, Cedarwinds Publishing, Tallahassee, Florida (1998).
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316:, Cedarwinds Publishing, Tallahassee, Florida (1989).
309:, Cedarwinds Publishing, Tallahassee, Florida (2000).
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69:writer and the author of the cult classic novel
240:, Breakaway Books, New York, New York (2007).
547:Florida Gators men's track and field athletes
292:Heart Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot
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279:, Playboy Press, Chicago, Illinois (1980).
158:According to a December 31, 2008 article in
277:Marty Liquori's Guide for the Elite Runner
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257:, Scribner, New York, New York (2015).
209:, Parker discussed how he came to write
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182:In a December 23, 2007 interview with
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444:Brockway, Kevin (November 4, 2008).
348:List of University of Florida alumni
275:Liquori, Marty, and John L. Parker,
201:In a 23 October 2007 interview with
384:from the original on March 12, 2017
572:21st-century American male writers
567:20th-century American male writers
425:from the original on June 22, 2015
370:Reinink, Amy (December 23, 2007).
305:Audain, Anne, and John L. Parker,
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413:"John L. Parker: Comeback Author"
508:Tracy, Marc (31 December 2008).
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75:and the more recently published
557:21st-century American novelists
552:20th-century American novelists
144:. Much of running depicted in
121:Florida Gators track and field
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314:Runners & Other Dreamers
32:1947 (age 76–77)
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562:American male novelists
186:newspaper, Parker told
123:team, under head coach
205:magazine, to promote
117:University of Florida
411:(October 23, 2007).
409:Cheever, Benjamin H.
115:Parker attended the
184:The Gainesville Sun
519:– via Slate.
489:on 26 October 2012
482:Sports Illustrated
65:(born 1947) is an
63:John L. Parker Jr.
23:John L. Parker Jr.
312:Parker, John L.,
300:978-0-915297-25-2
290:Parker, John L.,
285:978-0-87223-625-7
251:Parker, John L.,
246:978-1-891369-77-3
238:Again to Carthage
236:Parker, John L.,
227:Parker, John L.,
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388:March 11,
167:in 1978.
160:Slate.com
515:12 March
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423:Archived
382:Archived
321:See also
67:American
48:American
222:Fiction
56:Running
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