Editor’s Note: The Catholic Star Herald is asking known book lovers around the Diocese to recommend their favorite reads and explain what makes these not-to-miss tales. This is fourth in an occasional series.
The paperback may be worn and a little torn, but its importance to Michael Bress continues.
For more than 20 years, John L. Parker Jr.’s “Once A Runner” has been a trusted friend in every season for the Diocese’s communications and marketing manager for Catholic Schools, imparting wisdom that goes far beyond sneakers, asphalt and dirt roads.
“It’s always resonated with me,” first as a high-schooler, then as a collegiate and young professional, and now as a husband and father, Bress, a longtime runner, explains.
The book was a gift from his father when Bress was a high school track and cross-country athlete, a time when “I was running year-round.” He said he quickly took to the way the author set scenes visually and the story of Quenton Cassidy, a young runner at the fictional Southeastern University who is forced to pick himself up and rediscover his passion after his lifelong dream to run the four-minute mile is derailed.
“I was introduced to this book at a time where I was discovering who I was going to be,” Bress recalls. “I realized I would soon be going off to college, leaving my friends and being on my own. What lie ahead? Cassidy was going through similar struggles; he spoke to me.”
Like Cassidy, Bress found wisdom in the book’s mentor figure, Bruce Denton, and his life philosophy of “miles of trials” and “trials of miles,” and how to navigate them.
In not only physical miles of running, but the miles of struggles and difficulties, Bress says, “one can dig deep, and discover who they are and how far they are willing to chase something.”
He finds himself returning to familiar passages in the book not only when he needs a mental pick-me-up, but for the “physical inspiration” it provides, getting him up and running – literally.
“This thinking can apply to anything that we are discerning in life, such as a career or life partner,” he explains.
More than just a way to pass the time, though, Parker Jr.’s novel has become a beloved companion for Bress. “There’s always going to be miles of trials, and trials of miles,” he says.
Other book recommendations by Bress:
• “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig
• “Running with the Buffaloes: A Season Inside With Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and The University Of Colorado Men’s Cross Country Team” by Chris Lear
• “Moneyball” by Michael Lewis
• “The Martian” by Andy Weir
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