Running Times Magazine September 2009

Running and fiction don’t often mix well, typically because few authors who have
attempted the trick have been able to capture the authentic nuances of training
and racing. But author Alan Cook has pulled it off with Run into Trouble, a
self-published 240-page paperback published earlier this year. His tale is set
in 1969 at the height of the Cold War and centers around a highly publicized
$1 million stage race along the California coast in which pairs of elite
marathoners (including a past Boston Marathon winner) run 500 miles from the
Mexican border to San Francisco. The story is engaging (many of the chapters
start on the morning of a new section of the course) and the main characters,
Oliver Drake and Melody Jefferson, are believable and intriguing as their
secret past unfolds amid escalating intrigue and danger during the race, which
just happens to be sponsored by a large military contractor with ties to their
past. It’s a page-turned with all the adventure of an ultra-running race.

—Peter Rosato

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