The Miler (Fiction, 265 pages)
by Hap Cawood
Published by Cimarron Books, Yellow Springs, Ohio, 2003 ($14.99)
Website: TheMiler.net
The Mile. It's a classic distance race for the ages. In an era where high school athletes run the 800-meter and a track measured in yards is an endangered species, the Mile remains a popular distance. Part of the mystique is that it was once thought impossible for a human to run under four minutes. Your visiting great uncle wants to know how fast you can run The Mile, not a kilometer and six-tenths. Mile splits are called out for your local 5k, but usually not at the kilometers. And so it goes.
Hap Cawood's The Miler is a tale that is instantly familiar to competitive runners. Perhaps you ran the mile in high school or college, or ran your first mile as a masters athlete. The race is neither a sprint nor a leisurely jog; strategy must be employed, and those that fail to do so will not succeed. More to the point, you must control your body and mind from gun to ribbon. Time often stands still and then rushes forward. The Miler addresses all of these themes to some degree. Here is an excerpt of one of the many detailed race sequences:
"POP!" Motion eats the fear whole as Scotty jumps forward and everyone else swarms ahead of me. Twenty yards off the start, thirty yards, I roll in a controlled gait, feeling rich reserves and uncertainty as the stretched-out pack in front of me folds like shuffled cards into the three inside lanes. I am in last place.
But The Miler is more than about raw competition and race sequences. It is a story about growing up and learning about your capabilities. It is a story that doesn't neglect the big picture in life. The novel is set in a rural Kentucky coal-mining town during the 50's. This was a more innocent time and place, where Coal is King, along with Elvis. No one knows that the turmoil of the Sixties is looming over the horizon. It is a time where kids go out and play, and the boys contemplate which sport in school to try out for. Prices for the town's lifeblood drop as more people switch to oil. There is a sense that as the character grows up, so does the town.
Many other aspects of being a runner are also familiar in The Miler besides just the races. For example, the main character accidentally discovers running before the running boom of the Seventies. Another familiar topic is the lack of recognition received for a successful runner on the track team compared with the football and basketball team members, as well as no respect for runners by the general public. At various times, our hero goes in and out of periods of running well, just like many of us. Consider this passage of a listless workout:
After a few stretches I lurched ahead but halted ten yards out and walked to the end of the field, summoning the will to run. The dogs had no lack of will. For seven laps they frolicked along my circuit with little discipline before abandoning me for a livelier attraction at the river.
The author claims that his work is not autobiographical, but it was written such that one can believe that portions of the story were drawn from personal experience. It feels like the author was there; write what you know seems like the followed guideline.
Reviewed by Bob Hiemenz
