"This Is My Tribe": Marathons, History, and The Long Run w/ Martin Dugard

Martin Dugard has been running since the early 1970s, but it all traces back to one moment at eleven years old, watching Frank Shorter win the 1972 Olympic marathon and being so moved he ran straight outside in his jeans for four miles. From there it was 5Ks, 10Ks, and a half marathon at White Rock in Dallas, until a marathon started to feel like the obvious next step. Martin went on to become a longtime running coach and a bestselling author, though for years his book career had nothing to do with running at all. That changed with his new book, The Long Run, which traces the sport's history from ancient Greece all the way to today's running boom.

His first marathon came during his senior year of high school, squeezed into the gap between cross country and track season with barely any of the mileage a marathon really calls for. What he carried into that race, and what it left him with by the finish line, ended up shaping the way he thinks about running and coaching for decades afterward. We get into all of it, along with what pulled him back to writing about the sport after building a career writing about everything else.

Follow along with Martin Dugard: @authormartindugard
Get The Long Run! https://www.martindugard.com/

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