This is one of the easiest Filemaker Pro 4.0 books I have used. It is very easy to follow and allows you to ease into several features which were difficult to understand in other similar books on this subject.

If you have ever run competitively at any level or have had a son or daughter who has run, and you enjoy learning more about this much-neglected sport, this book is a must read. The author takes the reader along, almost day-by-day, through a whole season with the Colorado cross-country team, a Division I powerhouse.

The book does keep the reader in suspense about how the Colorado cross country team will do at the National meet and whether Adam Goucher will finally finish first, after coming so close several times, at the National meet, but the main story line nearly takes a back seat to the fascinating details as to what it takes to be a top flight Division I cross country runner. Seeing how these athletes push the envelope in training and performance, and how they constantly dance with injury is eye-opening.

If you like times, paces, and mileage, this book will satisfy you. Newspaper reporting on track and cross-country tends to be scarce and certainly with few details. This book will not leave you wondering about the runners performance at meets or at practices.

If you love distance running or cross country, this book is a fascinating look at a great team and a dynamic coach. Adam Goucher is the most well known, and best depicted, of all runners in this book. Many other top notch American distance runners also are mentioned. Chris Lear does a first rate job of making the joys and agonies of a cross country season real. Never sloppy or sentimental, the author does a fine job of describing the sport, the team, training sessions, and the personal dynamics of runners and coaches. Of course, it helps that he was a first person observer of the CU team during one of its most demanding seasons. I plan on recommending this book to every high school distance runner that I know as well as all my coaching acquaintances. It's a gem.

People generally read books about running because they truly love running itself. But only a few such books provide even a fraction of the enjoyment of a simple run. The classic, Once A Runner by John L. Parker, comes to mind, but there aren't many others.

You can add Running With the Buffaloes to the short list. Lear was shrewd, talented and lucky in writing this book: shrewd because his main subject is Olympian Adam Goucher, the strongest and boldest American distance runner since Bob Kennedy; talented because he has a clear, interesting, energized writing style; and lucky because his nonfiction, real life drama has a happy ending after an all-out struggle.

The core of the book is a daily description of cross country practice at the University of Colorado in the fall of 1998. For most people, reading about cross country practice would seem to fall somewhere between drudgery and torture, but Running With the Buffaloes is actually thrilling. Goucher's intensity, his coach's counsel and depth, his opponents' strengths and abilities and his teammates' successes and failures all weave together in a completely gripping tale. Lear keeps his chapters short, resulting in a pace that moves urgently. He assumes a level of awareness about running that is refreshing. For once, reading about running is like talking to someone who cares as much as you do, someone who is excited and knowledgeable.

When the Colorado team returned to campus for fall classes in 1998, they had two goals: win the NCAA championship and have Goucher win the individual title. Championships are built deliberately, with passion and anxiety. Goucher faces this with more than a little Prefontaine running through his veins. Describing him and his teammates, the Colorado coach observes:

"In football, you might get your bell rung, but you go in with the expectation that you might get hurt, and you hope to win and come out unscathed. As a distance runner, you know you're going to get your bell rung. Distance runners are experts at pain, discomfort, and fear. You're not coming away feeling good. It's a matter of how much pain you can deal with on those days. It's not a strategy. It's just a callusing of the mind and body to deal with discomfort. Any serious runner bounces back. That's the nature of their game. Taking pain."

In Running With the Buffaloes, Lear makes this wonderful, alive and memorable. Reading it, you are actually a part of every step, every run, every test and every triumph.