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    The Ghost Runner: The Epic Journey of the Man They Couldn't Stop
    Unavailable
    The Ghost Runner: The Epic Journey of the Man They Couldn't Stop
    Unavailable
    The Ghost Runner: The Epic Journey of the Man They Couldn't Stop
    Ebook405 pages4 hours

    The Ghost Runner: The Epic Journey of the Man They Couldn't Stop

    By Bill Jones

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The incredible, inspiring, and heartbreaking story of a phenomenal long-distance runner’s race against insurmountable odds and his own demons.
     
    John Tarrant was one of the best runners the world has ever seen. With a strange, loping gate and a nearly fanatical determination, he dominated the field and crushed ultra-long distance records for 40 and 100 miles.
     
    As a teenage boxer in the 1950s, Tarrant received £17 payment for a match, a pittance that would haunt him for the rest of his life by compromising his amateur athlete status. He would spend his career fighting the rule that banned him from competing, gatecrashing races, and running without a number. Dubbed “the Ghost Runner,” he would again and again defy the odds, making history without officially being recognized for his achievements.
     
    This is the captivating story of his lifelong struggle for victory, acceptance, and justice, from his difficult start as a poor child in WWII England to his fight to legitimize interracial races in Apartheid South Africa. Based on accounts from family, friends, and competitors and told with brutal honesty, Bill Jones uncovers one of the greatest untold sports stories of our time and documents the life of a man who simply would not be stopped.
     
    “Jones tells the story very well . . . restores his legend while revealing his very human frailties.” —Kirkus Reviews
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPegasus Books
    Release dateMar 5, 2013
    ISBN9781453271681
    Unavailable
    The Ghost Runner: The Epic Journey of the Man They Couldn't Stop
    Author

    Bill Jones

    Bill Jones is a renowned, Michelin-trained chef based on Deerholme Farm in the Cowichan Valley, British Columbia. He is the author of twelve cookbooks and winner of two world cookbook awards. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, and Saveur. An acknowledged expert on wild foods and foraging, Bill has a keen respect for local First Nations ethnobotany and culture. He is an accomplished cooking instructor and a passionate supporter of local food communities. His consulting company, Magnetic North Cuisine, is active in all areas of local food production, marketing, and development.

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    Reviews for The Ghost Runner

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    • 4/5
      He was a ghost—no number, no official listing, no limitations. John Tarrant snuck to the starting lines of hundreds of races in the 1950s and 1960s and jetted away once the starter’s pistol sounded. Race officials were always stymied when he passed; without a bib number, they didn’t know how to mark his time. His British countrymen revered him as a man who dared to stand up to the system. Even when he moved to South Africa to run against apartheid, he was still persona non grata. His past dogged him wherever he went, and no organization authorized or recognized his amazing ability on the track . Bill Jones’s The Ghost Runner is a fascinating look into the life of a man whose teenage mistakes caused a lifetime of pain and prejudice.John Tarrant (1932-1975) lived to run. He only had one speed—full throttle. If not for a brief interlude with boxing in his late teens, he would have been one of the greatest runners in the world. He only boxed in 8 matches and earned £17 in his entire career. This seventeen pounds were the costliest of his life. Because of his professional “earnings” as a boxer, he could never get recognized as a amateur athlete, a status that was absolutely necessary to register for races and the Olympics. This seventeen pounds were the basis for a lifetime ban from amateur races. Even though Tarrant’s raw talent in running led him to eventually hold the 40-mile and 100-mile world records, he could not compete to represent his country in any amateur competition. Tarrant’s story is both sad and monomaniacal. Bill Jones’s narrative continually harps on the organizing bodies of the day for their stubbornness. While Tarrant’s ban was lifted briefly for domestic races in the late 1950s, when he went to South Africa to train for ultra-marathons, he was subsequently banned from racing there as well. After a while, the officials stopped caring about his sneaking onto the course, but his results were never officially recognized. The other side of this was Tarrant’s somewhat negligent treatment of his family. He moved from one low-paying job to another, each time quitting in order to schedule more training time. If he wasn’t sleeping or working, he was running, once logging 570 miles in a single month. Now, I’m a bit of a runner and this monthly distance is utterly inconceivable. His move to South Africa was without his family and they had to fend for themselves the entire time he was gone. While I can appreciate his dedication to his field, his interactions with other people could sometimes be very disheartening.All in all, this was a very good book. Jones’s writing is fluid and exciting for the most part. He does repeat himself a bit about the seventeen pounds, but I think it drives home the point all the more. If the BAAB had just offered a bit of lenience, then Tarrant’s life would have turned out much differently indeed. A thoughtful and enjoyable book.