Duel in the Sun: Alberto Salazar, Dick Beardsley, and America's Greatest Marathon

Grew on me and also, I'm a sucker for a good running story but beyond that, although the writing was nothing extraordinary, it was well-constructed and did a nice job of highlighting the ironies that can be present in two entirely different people who went through an almost identical experience. I threw up on the course, near Heartbreak Hill and watched this race, a year after running Boston for my first time, in 1981. Also, my opinion of Salazar was altered (positively) by this story. I have always been a Bill Rodgers fan and saw Alberto as arrogant - the way a Red Sox fan views the Yankees. I feel much differently now and it's a good reminder that everyone you meet has a story that is rarely obvious.

While Duel in the Sun is a chronicle of the 1982 Boston Marathon - one of the greatest head-to-head foot races in history - it is so much more. Brant doesn't just capture the race - he captures the two men whose lives became intertwined from that moment forward. Neither man would ever run as well again and their lives would always be delineated by "before the race" and "after the race". You don't have to have any interest in marathons to gain from the human drama of this story.

As someone who recently started running (at a somewhat advanced age), I was only tangentially aware of the the Salazar/Beardsley competition in the 1982 Boston Marathon. While I knew that Salazar is currently a coach for Nike, I knew nothing about turns his life had taken after that race. I knew absolutely nothing about Beardsley before or after the race. All in all, I found this to be a fascinating story of 2 remarkable men and how they achieved greatness, fell to the lowest levels of existence and recovered. Highly recommended.

The 1982 Boston Marathon became a duel between two American runners. But who would win: the celebrated champion Alberto Salazar or the underdog Dick Beardsley? They ran the entire marathon practically side by side, with no other competitors nearby for the last 9 miles. Neither man would quit nor give way. A legendary finish and new course record were the result, but not the end of the story. With two Americans now established as the top two athletes, American's men marathoning seemed to be on the cusp of a new age -- with the next Olympics only 2 years away. Instead, both men's lives veered into darkness from which it took decades for them to recover. To better tell the full story, Brant alternates the marathon's events with the stories show more of Salazar and Beardsley, both their pasts and their futures. Duel in the Sun thus becomes the story of the men, the marathon, and the lives those men are left to rebuild after the race is run. show less

The 1982 Boston Marathon became a duel between two American runners. But who would win? The celebrated champion Alberto Salazar or the underdog Dick Beardsley? They ran the entire marathon practically side by side, with no other competitors nearby for the last 9 miles. Neither man would quit nor give way. A legendary finish and new course record were the result, but not the end of the story. With two Americans now established as the top two atheletes, American's men marathoning seemed to be on the cusp of a new age -- with the next Olypmics only 2 years away. Instead, both men's lives vered into darkness from which it took decades for them to recover. To better tell the full story, Brant alternates the marathon's events with the stories show more of Salazar and Beardsley, both their pasts and their futures. Duel in the Sun thus becomes the story of the men, the marathon, and the lives those men are left to rebuild after the race is run. show less

It was fascinating to get an inside look at the intense lives of Salazar and Beardsley.