I just finished Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.  It was the most entrenched I have been in a book in years and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys or would like to enjoy running.

One of my favorite pieces of the book was about an athlete I had never heard of named Emil Zatopek who competed in the 1952 Olympics.  During those Olympics in Helsinki, the Czech runner won the 5K, 10K, and marathon, breaking Olympic records for all three events.

The catch is that he had never run a marathon. His plan was simple, to run alongside world record holder Jim Peters from Great Britain.  At the 15K mark, Zatopek asked Peters how the pace was thus far.  Peters was shocked and told him “too slow.”  At that, Zatopek took off winning the race…Peters didn’t finish.  Guts at its finest.