[Liz Robbins]A Race Like No Other : 26.2 Miles Through the Streets of New York(pdf){Zzzzz}

The New York City Marathon is considered one of the nation’s—and the world's—premier sporting events. A reporter for the New York Times, Liz Robbins brings the color, the history, the electricity of this remarkable annual competition alive in A Race Like No Other. Centering her narrative around the fabled 2007 running, Robbins captures all the intensity of the grand event, following the runners—both professional and amateur—along 26.2 grueling miles through the streets of New York, from the starting line at the Verrazano Narrows Bridge to the finish line in Central Park, and offering fascinating portraits of marathon legends like the race's charismatic founder, the late Fred Lebow, and nine-time champion Grete Waitz. The Wall Street Journal raves: “Robbins nails the race, painting a broad, impressionistic portrait of what I consider New York’s greatest day.” No other book captures the excitement of the New York City Marathon like A Race Like No Other.

Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (September 22, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061373141
ISBN-13: 978-0061373145

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
New York Times sportswriter Robbins captures the world's ultimate marathon, the New York City race. Set during the 2007 marathon, the narrative follows several runners: male and female professional runners with more at stake than prize money (a recovering alcoholic trying to mend her family; a cancer survivor running his first marathon; a 67-year-old grandmother on her 12th New York marathon) as they make their way through the city's five boroughs. Robbins's journalist's eye is thorough as she intersperses stories of wheelchair athletes, volunteers, spectators and even the city workers who paint the course markers. Those who've read Fred Lebow's Inside the World of Big-Time Marathoning or Ron Rubin's book on the New York City marathon, Anything for a T-shirt, will appreciate the varied voices here. Using each mile to structure the 26.2 chapters, Robbins allows readers to experience the event without ever putting on a pair of running shoes. (Oct. 7)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Robbins, who covers sports for the New York Times, offers a vivid, winning portrait of the New York City Marathon, now the largest in the world with nearly 40,000 participants. “It’s like a Cecil B. DeMille movie because it’s on such a huge, epic scale,” said one former winner. Taking the 2007 race mile by mile, Robbins profiles each of the principal elite runners, including their training regimens and personal stories; describes each mile’s particular features; limns a large cast of supporting characters, from an aid-station volunteer to a gospel choir that performs inspirational music for the marathoners on the eighth mile; and gives a good overview of how the event is organized. Along the way, Robbins conveys an intimate sense of the physical demands the race places on the body, all the while building suspense—though we know the winners—that’s the equal of a good action movie. A quality piece of journalism from start to finish. --Alan Moores --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

EVERYONE'S A WINNER
By Tucker Andersen VINE VOICE on October 11, 2008
I loved this book! Liz Robbins' narrative chronicles the 2007 NYC Marathon with fact and anecdote filled chapters for each mile as the runners travel through all five boroughs of NYC and over the finish line; she does indeed manages to transport you inside the race and capture the sprit of the event that makes it A RACE LIKE NO OTHER. Perhaps it will even inspire some of the many readers that this book deserves who believe that the challenge of completing a marathon is too daunting to change minds and undertake the training required to attempt running one. It certainly will delight those who have participated and inform the millions who as spectators have cheered on the runners along the course or watched it on television in their living rooms.

Before I proceed further with my enthusiastic review, I do need to offer a disclaimer. At the suggestion of the race organizers, I was one of the myriad of individuals who the author interviewed during her extensive research for this book. I am an individual who had no exhibited no previous athletic aptitude before starting to exercise after passing my thirtieth birthday during the 1970's. But my current reputation as a 65 year old streaker intrigued her, and she chronicles part of my journey as I complete this event for the 32nd consecutive year. Thus, my story is one of the many of those of us who revel in our chance to become athletes for a day