A new book by David Chalfen offers a wealth of anecdotes and opinions from the last half century
David Chalfen has been immersed in athletics since the 1970s as a 2:32 marathon runner and coach with Highgate Harriers, Serpentine and Shaftesbury Barnet. He has managed international distance runners and worked with UK Sport and Sport England. He is a keen writer, too, with his first book, Improve Your Marathon and Half Marathon Running, enjoying good reviews.
His latest book is entitled A Few More Laps: A Deep Dive Into The Sharp End of Running and Coaching and is packed with stories from a lifetime in the sport. He looks at the trends that the running world has undergone and the people and events that have shaped it.
The foreword is written by Dave Bedford, the former world 10,000m record-holder, who gives the author the stamp of approval in the opening section of the book. There are also endorsements from athletes such as Mara Yamauchi and Dan Robinson. We can confirm the book is a highly interesting read, especially if you have followed endurance running in the UK over the past 20-30 years or more.
This book is not simply about British athletics, though. Chalfen is well travelled and, among other things, once tried to set up a training camp in Kenya. He has particularly good knowledge of the Kenyan and Spanish distance running cultures and he talks extensively about them in the book.
He is not afraid to write about the murkier aspects of athletics either. The book is primarily a love letter to running and his enthusiasm for the sport oozes from the pages, but he also chronicles the sport in a warts-and-all fashion. Sometimes the topics are so delicate that he has to refrain from mentioning who the anonymous characters are, although in some cases it’s not hard to work them out.
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What’s more, the book is laced with humour and Chalfen mentions his own running in a self-deprecating fashion. Not surprisingly, there are multiple welcome mentions for Athletics Weekly too.
The book, which is 196 pages in length, is hot off the press as well as it was published just after the Paris Olympics.
To buy a copy, go to RunCoach1to1.com where it is reasonably priced at £10.
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