I have just finished reading Running With The Buffaloes, which followed a team of university athletes for a season as they trained for the USA Cross Country team title (they came 3rd). I should have read this book years ago, as it has gone down in the running world as a cult classic. Reading it brought forward a stark contrast of memories for me, of my time living and training with an elite group of Kenyan athletes, as they trained for the World Cross Country team title (they came 1st). The difference between how the athletes and coach behaved are profound. I sometimes wish I wrote an account of it then, but, at the time I was fully immersed, and I wonder if the note taking and interviews would have changed the experience I had.

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