Beardsley Dick - Duel in the Sun: Alberto Salazar, Dick Beardsley, and Americas Greatest Marathon

Americans love their champions impossibly mythic. With this gripping retelling of the most exciting Boston Marathon in recent memory, John Brant leads readers not simply across the grueling 26.2 miles that Alberto Salazar and Dick Beardsley ran in 1982, but through later challenges that made their defining athletic achievements look easy.

Donovan Webster, author of The Burma Road

This reads like a thriller but packs the full payload of meticulously researched nonfiction with details that even I, who actually ran Boston that year, had been unaware of. Deeply moving, Duel in the Sun gives loving but also ruthless portraits of two extraordinary athletes.

Benjamin H. Cheever, author of The Good Nanny and the forthcoming history of running Strides

John Brant gives us a wonderful, in-depth look at a classic battle. Even better, he gives us an intimate look at two wildly different American distance runnerstheir dreams, their triumphs, their foibles, their epic struggles, and the day their lives converged in the streets of Boston.

Don Kardong, 1976 US Olympic Team

Im sure many hard-core running fans remember their showdown at the 1982 Boston Marathon. But the story of the race was entirely new to me. And that was part of what made John Brants Duel in the Sun such a happy surprise.... [Beardsley and Salazars] stories are windows into a world far from most of ours.... The men met at the exact time when their skills and Bostons brutal racing conditions could combine to produce a classic. But the book is just as much about how Salazar and Beardsley coped with life after racing. Not always well, as it turns out.... As the pages dwindled, I was truly hungry to find out who would win the race and if either man would turn out OK. Its a testament to Brant that he kept me in suspense for so long.

Baltimore Sun

A beautiful, heartbreaking book. Before the finish line, weve been to Castros Cuba and on pilgrimage to Croatia, weve faced down addiction and depression, have made final peace with the failings of our bodies, and are left with the final triumph of two men at odds though bound by will and desire. Like that marathon 25 years ago, Duel in the Sun is absolutely riveting.

Michael Paterniti, author of Driving Mr. Albert:
A Trip across America with Einsteins Brain

So prodigiously obsessive that they were impossible even for their coaches to restrain, Alberto Salazar and Dick Beardsley lived out their naturesand their futuresin one great, killing race. Both were driven by the need for consuming effort. Both succeededto the point of near obliteration. John Brants extraordinary book lets us enter and share eachs gloriously defining dementia. We emerge, as they themselves have, knowing a peace that could not have been harder earned.

Kenny Moore, two-time Olympic marathoner and author of Bowerman and the Men of Oregon:
The Story of Oregons Legendary Coach and Nikes Cofounder

Within the running community, the 1982 Boston Marathon is arguably the most memorable race in the modern era. It was a neck-and-neck battle between the favorite, Alberto Salazar, and an upstart at what would be the zenith of a sudden, meteoric rise, Dick Beardsley. Brant, a contributor to Runners World since 1985, recreates the principals careers leading up to the race, describes the race itself, and, most significantly, analyzes its aftermath.... Many inspirational sports stories, both fiction and nonfiction, center on individuals who found themselves trapped by some form of destructive self-indulgence before battling their way to the top. Neither the ebullient Beardsley nor the regal Salazar chose their personal burdens, but each approached life as a marathon, and both have overcome adversity and are now cruising comfortably down the stretch. Two inspiring tales, well told.

Booklist

For PG

The gracious cooperation of Dick Beardsley and Alberto Salazar has made this book possible. The Beardsley and Salazar families also provided invaluable guidance; special thanks to Jose Salazar. Bill Squires, who coached the two runners, generously and memorably coached me through my re-creation of their 1982 Boston Marathon.

David Willey, editor-in-chief of Runners World, encouraged me to pursue this story, shaped and guided it through each stage of the magazine editorial process, and gave it room to fly. Thanks also to Amby Burfoot, Adam Bean, Charlie Butler, and the editorial staff at Runners World.

Hal Higdon and Tom Derderian each have written excellent histories of the Boston Marathon, and I am indebted to both authors. Maureen Anderson expertly assisted Dick Beardsley in his fine autobiography, which was also a key source. Thanks to Kirk Pfrangle, Jack Fleming, Carole Ross, David Hobler, Bruce Leonard, John Lodwick, and Paul Raether for their insights and recollections. Don Kardong gave me a boost when I needed it, and Bob Wischnia, who has saved me from looking like a fool many times, did it again while I was writing this book.

Thanks to Joe Henderson, Dave Kuehls, Laura Hohnhold, Marty Post, Jim Harmon, John Lehrer, and the late George Sheehan. Special thanks to Dan Ferrara for his faith in the word and true-north friendship.

The estimable Lisa Considine and Leah Flickinger, my editors at Rodale, filled my sails throughout the voyage, and Sloan Harris, my agent, guided me through all weathers. Thanks also to Jeremy Katz and Zach Schisgal for their editorial judgment and to Christopher Rhoads for his artful book design.

My family members far and near, especially my parents, Fern and Ray Brant, have served as steady beacons. Thanks to Steve Brant, David Jensen, Paul Gribbon, Fred Leonhardt, and to my comrades in the Oregon rain.

Above all, my love and gratitude go to Patricia Gregorio and our children, Tom and Mary. They inspire every good sentence I have written.

In front of some audiences, Dick Beardsley never even mentions the 1982 Boston Marathon. In fact, he barely touches upon his running career at all. When hes delivering one of his regular talks to a 12-step group, for instance, he simply begins, Hi, Im Dick, and Im a drug addict, then launches into the heartrending story of his disease and recovery.

When Beardsley finishes speaking and the people are wiping away their tears and settling back into their seats after a standing ovation, the host might explain how Dick Beardsley is the fourth-fastest American marathoner of all time and that his race with Alberto Salazar at Boston in 82 remains one of the signature moments in the history of distance runningperhaps in the history of any sport.

But other audiences, such as this one at the 2003 Royal Victoria Marathon in Victoria, British Columbia, know all about Beardsleys athletic career and are eagereven hungryto relive his legendary duel in the sun with Salazar.

Theres a considerable amount of preamble first. Beardsley is not good at leaving things out. Appearing the day before the race at an expo accompanying the marathon, he tells the crowd of 200 about getting creamed at his first high school football practice, quitting the team, and turning out for cross-country without knowing quite what it was. Do they tackle you in cross-country? he asked a friend.

He recounts the time he had to rouse a college professor out of bed so the professor could administer a makeup exam that would preserve Beardsleys undergraduate athletic eligibility and tells how he snuck into a sporting goods show disguised as a sales rep in order to beg his first shoe sponsorship deal. He explains that he ran his second marathon in a brand-new pair of running shoes that he didnt want to get dirty by breaking in and that he prepared by fasting for 4 days because hed read somewhere that fasting worked in ultramarathons, so he figured...