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Following the Flame | 
 enlarge | Author: Greg Lautenslager
Publisher: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $15.25
You Save: $1.70 (10%)
New (13) Used (7) from $15.24
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 448334
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 442
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 1.2
ISBN: 1589398092
Dewey Decimal Number: 808
EAN: 9781589398092
ASIN: 1589398092
Publication Date: October 31, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Book Description
I had run around this track hundreds of times - in my mind… In only minutes, a gunshot would send me onto the footsteps of Steve Prefontaine. My spikes would touch the same holes he made in this surface en route to an American Record and touching off a thunderous chant of "Pre! Pre! Pre!" heard from the surrounding green hills to the rocky Oregon coast. I took a breath and closed my eyes as I reached the starting line. For a moment, I felt like I was home. Jonny Langenfelder will do whatever it takes to make the Olympics. He will run 150 miles per week through duststorms or snowstorms, endure the torment of crazed coaches and bizarre teammates, flip burgers, wash dishes, and live in a van or a basement or with the two people who tell him he is wasting his time - his parents. Follow Jonny on a whirlwind journey that will take you around the world and into the locker rooms, hotels, stadiums, bars, and training ground of some great and not-so-great athletes, and inside the mind of a high-spirited runner who battles to stay on the straight path - no matter what temptation or tragedy threatens to keep him from reaching his goal.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Not Very Good September 3, 2008
Weak is the best way to describe it. Tries to be like "Once A Runner" but falls flat. I had a very hard time getting thru the book. I would put it down and not want to pick it up again because it would get so depressing. There were a lot of (too many) downers in this storyline, the climax was weak, disappointing and over too quickly - the build-up was excruciatingly long and painful to read. One the positive side: I did like all the references to Pre, the main characters idol. Also, all it was kind of amusing the fun they kept making of Langenlosers name.
 Good stuff... August 3, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Wasn't sure whether to give this novel a 4 or a 5. It was very well written, yet at times seemed a bit long and the split times--hundreds of them it seemed--while authentic, gave me a headache. I at times felt sorry for Lagenslacker and angry at him for wasting his life, but then isn't that what a good book does: it pulls you deeply inside and makes things seem so real you become lost in it's world.
The one tiny complaint is the author kept saying Pre's trails, but all the various paths near Autzen stadium are known as Pre's trail. It consists of many loops but are considered all part of the same long trail.
(I live within 1 mile of this trail and run very slowly on it 3 times a week.)
The many passages dedicated to Prefontaine only strengthen this book. The Sport's Illustrated pic of Pre was a very nice touch. All the funny uses of Langen(fill in the blank)'s later part of his last name added humor to this novel.
If this isn't the best running fiction i've ever read, it comes close...
It kept me awake... June 8, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I almost had to quit reading this in bed at night. The way Lautenslager writes is so vivid that I felt I was running in the races he describes. It was almost too much at times, but I couldn't quit! And when my heart wasn't thumping, I was laughing out loud--a lot of it was really funny--which kept waking my husband up. He couldn't wait for me to finish the book and I hated for it to end.
The author obviously writes from personal experience. This book feels very true to life--even with some of the improbably named characters. It is a very rich, very engrossing, very funny read. I hope this guy keeps writing. I would love to find out what happened after that final page.
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