John L. Parker Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Subject | Running |
John L. Parker Jr. (born 1947) is an American writer and the author of the cult classic novel Once A Runner and the more recently published Again to Carthage and Racing the Rain . The trilogy chronicles the struggles of Quenton Cassidy, a middle-distance runner. [1] [2]
Cassidy, a passionate, obsessive runner, is first introduced in Once A Runner, published in 1978. Thirty years later Parker follows the career of Cassidy in a second book Again to Carthage, 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.
While neither book ever acquired literary acclaim, Parker—and Quenton Cassidy—achieved a cult following among readers in the running community. Once A Runner 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. [2]
Parker attended the University of Florida at Gainesville. While enrolled he was a runner on the Florida Gators track and field team, under head coach Jimmy Carnes, setting the school record in the mile and winning the Southeastern Conference (SEC) championship in the mile run three times before graduating in 1970. [3] He then remained in Gainesville to get his Juris Doctor 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: Frank Shorter, Jack Bacheler and Jeff Galloway. [4] Much of running depicted in Once a Runner is rooted in actual workouts conducted by FTC runners, and others who came to train with them, notably mile champion Marty Liquori. Once A Runner is dedicated: "This book is for Jack Bacheler and Frank Shorter, old friends, great runners. In fond remembrance, fellows, of many Trials and many Miles . . ."
According to a December 31, 2008 article in Slate.com ("Speed Reading: Once a Runner, the best novel ever about distance running"), as of 2007 and 2008, Once A Runner was the most sought-after used book in the United States, according to Bookfinder (the Google of used and out-of-print books). [5] 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" in 1978.
Both Once a Runner and Again to Carthage 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."
In a December 23, 2007 interview with The Gainesville Sun newspaper, Parker told Sun 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. [1] 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 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.
"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?' 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 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.'
In a 23 October 2007 interview with Runners World magazine, to promote Again to Carthage, Parker discussed how he came to write Once a Runner. 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. [2]
The Dream Mile may refer to the annual Diamond League race in Oslo at Bislett Stadium, or several historic individual races featuring top middle-distance runners.
Martin William Liquori is a retired American middle distance athlete.
Frank Charles Shorter is an American former long-distance runner who won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1972 Summer Olympics and the silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. His Olympic success, along with the achievements of other American runners, is credited with igniting the running boom in the United States during the 1970s.
Once a Runner is a novel by American author John L. Parker Jr. and was first published in 1978 by Cedarwinds (0915297019). In Once a Runner, Parker illustrates the hard work and dedication that is required of an elite runner. A reissue was released in 2009. The novel was followed by the sequel Again to Carthage in 2008 and the prequel Racing the Rain in 2015.
Jeff Galloway is an American Olympian and the author of Galloway's Book on Running.
Newnansville, Florida was settled early after the transfer of Florida to the United States. It became the second county seat of Alachua County in 1828, and one of the central locations for activity during the Second Seminole War, during which time it was one of the largest cities in the State. In the 1850s, the Florida Railroad bypassed Newnansville, resulting in the county seat being moved to the new town of Gainesville in 1854. Consequently, Newnansville began to decline, and when a second railway bypassed the town in 1884, most of its residents relocated and formed the new City of Alachua. By 1900, Newnansville was deserted.
D'Tanyian Jacquez "Quezi" Green is an American former college and professional football player who was a wide receiver and punt returner in the National Football League (NFL) for five seasons during the 1990s and early 2000s. Green played college football for the University of Florida, and earned All-American honors. He was a second-round pick in the 1998 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Washington Redskins and the Detroit Lions of the NFL.
John Broward "Brad" Culpepper is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons during the 1990s and early 2000s. Culpepper was as an All-American when he played college football for the Florida Gators. Selected late in the tenth round of the 1992 NFL Draft, he became a consistent starter for the Minnesota Vikings, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Chicago Bears.
The Florida–Florida State football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the teams of the two oldest public universities of the U.S. state of Florida: the University of Florida (UF) Gators and Florida State University (FSU) Seminoles. Both universities participate in a range of intercollegiate sports, and for the last several years, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has sponsored a "Sunshine Showdown" promotion that tallies the total number of wins for each school in head-to-head sports competition. However, the annual football game between the Gators and Seminoles has consistently been the most intense and notable competition between the in-state rivals.
Timothy Ralph Danielson is a former American middle-distance runner. He is one of only twelve U.S. high school athletes to ever run the mile in under four minutes. In 2014, he was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife.
Anthony "Tony" B. Sandoval is a former world class marathon runner, most noted for winning the 1980 U.S. Olympic Marathon trials, in the year the U.S. boycotted the Moscow Olympics. Sandoval's 2:10:19 performance in Buffalo, New York on May 24, 1980 was a US Olympic Trials record and faster than the 1980 Olympic Marathon winning time of 2:11:03.
Jack Strangl Bacheler is an American former long-distance runner and two-time U.S. Olympian. Born in Washington, District of Columbia, Bacheler was a founding member of the Florida Track Club at Gainesville, Florida in the late 1960s, and personally designed the club's distinctive "orange" logo. Standing 6 feet 7 inches, yet weighing only 165 pounds, he towered over most of his competitors. Now living in Clayton, North Carolina, he is married to Patricia Bacheler. Bacheler has two children, daughter Teresa (Teri), and son Matthew (Matt).
James Jerome Carnes was an American track and field athlete, coach and administrator. A successful coach at the high school, college and international levels, Carnes compiled a 161–11 career dual meet record, highlighted by four college conference championships and six state high school championships. He was the head coach of the U.S. Olympic track & field team and the Florida Gators track and field team, the founder of the Florida Track Club, and a member of the U.S. Track & Field Hall of Fame.
The 1906 Florida football team was the first intercollegeate football squad fielded by the University of Florida, which was established in 1905 and opened its new Gainesville campus for the 1906–1907 academic year. Florida was a member of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) but was not yet affiliated with an athletic conference. The university had not yet constructed on-campus sports facilities, so until 1911, its football and baseball teams played and practiced at a municipal park near downtown Gainesville known simply as The Ballpark.
Keith Alan "KB" Brantly is an American former professional long-distance runner who contended in the men's marathon at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Brantly finished twenty-eighth of one hundred and eleven runners who completed the race, in a time of 2:18:17. He is recognized for his extensive distance-running career that encompasses nearly three decades at distances that range from one mile to a marathon.
Orange Creek is a small stream in north-central and northeast Florida, that drains Orange Lake to the Ocklawaha River. Privately owned Orange Springs provides part of the water volume.
On the Edge is a 1986 American drama film directed by Rob Nilsson and written by Roy Kissin and Rob Nilsson. The film stars Bruce Dern, Pam Grier, Bill Bailey, Jim Haynie, John Marley and Marty Liquori. The film was released on May 2, 1986, by Skouras Pictures.
Racing the Rain is a novel by American author John L. Parker Jr. initially published July 14, 2015. It is the prequel to Parker's 1978 New York Times Bestseller Once a Runner and is part of the Once a Runner Trilogy. Racing the Rain is a coming of age story that tells a story of how Quenton Cassidy, who just so happens to be the main character of the novel: Once a Runner, discovers his exceptional running ability and develops the work ethic to become a great athlete.
Quenton may refer to:
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Other | |
