Matthew Futterman, author of the best running book of the summer, Running to the Edge, joins us for this episode!

At the 1972 Munich Olympic Games Frank Shorter won Marathon gold, sparking the American distance running boom. He followed with silver at Montreal in ’76--the same year Bob Larsen’s group of rag tag San Diegans known as the Jamul Toads surprised the country by winning the US Cross Country Championships. American dominance ensued at Boston and New York as Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar, and Greg Meyer carried the torch into the 80s.

But then, nearly as quickly as Shorter lapped the track in Munich, our preeminence waned. At the 2000 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials only one American male even qualified for the Sydney Games and none of the competitors hit the Olympic A Standard.

By 2004 we had Olympic medalists in both the men’s and women’s races at Athens. And in recent years Americans have won major races at Boston, Chicago, and New York for the first time in decades. So who is responsible for the resurgence? Perhaps no one more than Coach Bob Larsen. In his new book, Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed, New York Times Deputy Sports Editor Matthew Futterman chronicles Coach Larsen’s journey and the parallel rise, fall, and resurrection of American distance running.