The Ghost Runner - John Tarrant

I've read many runig books about ultra runners (Scott jurek, dean karnes, Born to Run, etc).  all these super-mega-ultra guys seem to have "loner" traits to their personalities but they have physical ability I could only ever dream of (I get injured when I up the miles, these guys seem to never be injured!).  Having said i do enjoy reading their stories as they all reveal their inner battles we all have.

without wanting to sound too harsh, John Tarrant's myth is maybe bigger than his actual ability - against the top runners his illnesses generally stopped him short.  If he ever got to run for GB in the Olympics it seems he wouldn't have finshed near the top.  I also have to agree the comments above above the unbelievably selfish attitude to his own life to the detriment of his family, some things are more important than running...

at the end I can't believe how snooty the amatuer/professional debate was at the time, aren't we lucky today.   

EKGO wrote (see)

I read it and enjoyed it, found him to be inspirational in terms of being driven and am in awe of his amazing resolve and determination. On the other hand I had total contempt for his selfish attitude towards his family

But then surely you have to give him credit for not sugar coating his attitude towards his family as so many other bio's do, where they conveniently forget the negative aspects of their life.

I was very touched by this fabulous read, very sad at the end. yes, we all know how his family was not put first, how most of the time he was very selfish, but im sure alot was to do with his childhood.

I`ve not finished it. I gave up finding the writing style suffered because the author didn`t know the subject (Tarrant). I might try and go back to it. I much preferred Jurek`s book and the Murikami one. Thought Born to Run was too full of US macho bullcrap, to coin a phrase.

I read it and didn't like the man at all, read Born to run and as you say ET bullshit, read the Murikami book and loved it, cant decide if he's a writer that runs or a runner that writes, read the cant run cant ride etc biggest pile of crap ever, badly written and full of self praise, most books are a little self serving, why write about running if you don't want to spout off about yourself?

best book for me feet in the clouds

Nick - yeah, I must read `Clouds`. Sounds good.

+1 for feet in the clouds, best running book I've read
-1 for Murikami, possibly the worst running book I've read...
can recommend barefoot runner , about Bikila

Quite liked both of those, Feet in the Clouds particularly, and even though I agree about Born to Run (possibly written with a tour of after dinner speaking in mind) I enjoyed it all the same