14 Minutes: A Running Legend's Life and Death and Life

Description

In 2007, after collapsing on a practice field at the Nike campus, champion marathoner Alberto Salazar's heart stopped beating for 14 minutes. Over the crucial moments that followed, rescuers administered CPR to feed oxygen to his brain and EMTs shocked his heart eight times with defibrillator paddles. He was clinically dead. But miraculously, Salazar was back at the Nike campus coaching his runners just nine days later. Salazar had faced death before, but he survived that and numerous other harrowing episodes thanks to his raw physical talent, maniacal training habits, and sheer will, as well as-he strongly believes-divine grace. In 14 Minutes, Salazar chronicles in spellbinding detail how a shy, skinny Cuban-American kid from the suburbs of Boston was transformed into the greatest marathon runner of his era. For the first time, he reveals his tempestuous relationship with his father, a former ally of Fidel Castro; his early running life in high school with the Greater Boston Track Club; his unhealthy obsession to train through pain; the dramatic wins in New York, Boston, and South Africa; and how surviving 14 minutes of death taught him to live again.

Alberto Salazar was the premier American marathoner of the early- to mid-80s. After a top-flight career as a distance runner at the University of Oregon, winning 1978 NCAA cross-country race, Salazar made his marathon de but at the 1980 New York Marathon. He won the race again in 1981-82, and in 1981 his time of 2-08:13 was thought to be a world marathon record, but after re-measurement, the course was found to be slightly short. Salazar also won the 1982 Boston Marathon in a dramatic duel with Dick Beardsley, called the "Duel in the Sun". On the track he was TAC 10K champion in 1981 and 1983, and on the roads, he won numerous races short of the marathon distance. His attempt at Olympic honors in 1984 was hampered by injury, which also likely prevented him from making the 1988 Olympic Team. In the early 90s, Salazar began running some ultra-distance events and won the 1994 Comrades Marathon in South Africa, over 90 km, (56 miles). Salazar has worked as a consultant to Nike and a personal coach to many distance runners. John Brant has written regularly for Runner's World and Outside magazine. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and National Geographic Adventure among other publications. Duel in the Sun, on which this book is based, is Brant's first book.

"14 Minutes is an inspirational account of a man who has fought with the Grim Reaper and won. Since he put on his first pair of running shoes, Alberto Salazar has been defying the odds. Through his memoir, people have the privilege to get to know this truly great man and walk away with a renewed appreciation for life." -Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor and 7-time Tour de France champion "A World Record holder who prided himself on his focus, inner drive, and admitted obsession with detail almost loses a race he never thought he'd enter: the one against time. How and why did Alberto survive for 14 minutes with no pulse? His quest to intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually answer these questions gave me a wonderful glimpse inside the mind of this elite marathoner." -Frank Shorter, Olympic gold medalist, marathon, 1972 "Alberto Salazar has lived a remarkable life-two lives, actually-and this engrossing book does justice to them both, knitting miraculous victories with mysterious declines, and the blind ferocity of competition with the clarity of death. It is a story about running, but it is also about faith, grit, and the importance of chasing something larger than ourselves." -David Willey, editor-in-chief, Runner's World "I've known Alberto Salazar since he was a high school runner, but 14 Minutes opened my eyes to who he really is, what he values most, and why he aimed so high. I always felt Alberto had 'heart' and this book proves it. It's a terrific read!" -Bill Rodgers, Boston and New York City Marathon champion "A dramatic account of the risks and rewards of top-level long-distance running." -Kirkus Reviews