As part of the
Tallahassee Marathon weekend, John L. Parker, Jr., the author of
The Frank Shorter Story and the novels
Once A Runner and
Again To Carthage, will speak at Tallahassee Community College's Turner Auditorium at 7:30pm ET on Saturday, 6 February 2010. The talk is free and open to the public, but a donation at the door to the American Lung Association would be appreciated.
Parker had a more than respectable career as a distance runner. He was a miler at the University of Florida from 1966 to 1970 and was a Southeastern Conference champion in the mile. Yes, the mile. Not the 1,500m, or the slightly-less-than-a-mile 1,600m that high school athletes run in our degenerate times. Parker had a career best of 4:05.2 in the mile according to the back cover of the 1978 edition of
Once A Runner, which also lists personal bests of 8:51.0 in the two mile, 13:47 in the three mile, 8:51.4 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and 2:33 in the marathon. After graduating from UF in 197o, Parker remained on campus to study law, supporting himself by working as an assistant track coach, a training table worker, and a dorm counselor. Parker also continued his running, training with the Florida Track Club which included other notable UF graduate students such as Jack Bachelor and Frank Shorter. By 1971, however, Parker had angered the UF athletic department by writing columns critical of the program in the university newspaper (the
Alligator) and by organizing the Florida League of Athletes. Athletic director Ray Graves responded by firing Parker. In turn Parker responded by suing Graves--excellent practice for his later career in law.
Parker's legal career didn't last long, though, and soon he returned to journalism. In the late 1970s he worked at the Tallahassee
Democrat, writing a humor column ("True Facks") and co-creating the comic strip "Grahamsberry," which poked fun at the administration of Florida Governor Bob Graham. Strangely enough, Parker became a speech writer for Graham after leaving the
Democrat in 1979. The governor was probably relieved to have Parker on his side for a change.
Parker's true strength, though, was writing about what he knew, running. After Frank Shorter won the 1972 (Munich) Olympic marathon, Parker wrote
The Frank Shorter Story, a
Runner's World booklet that benefited from Parker's experiences training with Shorter. Parker's masterwork, though, was his novel,
Once A Runner. "Seven years being a runner, and one year writing the book" is how Parker has described the eight years he says it took to write the book. Unfortunately, no one wanted to publish an authentic and engaging story about running. So in 1978 Parker formed Cedarwinds Publishing Company to put out
Once A Runner himself. By the end of the year the novel had gone through three printings. Year after year each new class of runners would pick up the book and identify with the characters' quest for athletic excellence. When
Once A Runner went briefly out of print for a a few years, it became one of the most sought-after books in the country, and the price of a second-hand copy shot up a hundredfold.
Many people over the years have declared Once A Runner to be the best novel ever written about running. A lot of the people who say this haven't read any other running novels, so it may or may not be true. Personally, I think they may be damning Parker with faint praise. I've read several dozen running novels, and most of them really stink. Among the best of the others you'd probably have to count
Again To Carthage, Parker's sequel to
Once A Runner. It only took Parker three decades to get around to publishing that one.
Again, Parker speaks at 7:30pm. The talk is preceded by a ten-dollar-a-ticket pre-marathon pasta feed at 6:00pm, and both events are a warm up for the Tallahassee Marathon, which starts from the Florida State University campus at 7:30am ET on Sunday, 7 February 2010.
Links:
At tonight's (Tuesday, 9 Feb 2010) meeting, the Leon County School Board will recognize the Leon High School boys' cross-country team, which won their third straight state title last November. The Board will also recognize Leon High School senior Matt Mizereck, who won his third straight individual state championship in November 2009. The school board meets at 6:00pm in the back conference room of the Aquilina C. Howell Instructional Services Center at 3955 West Pensacola Street. The meeting will be televised on Comcast channel 23.
