The Ghost Runner: The Epic Journey of the Man They Couldn't Stop
*Starred Review* If he’d been competing 30 years later than he did, John Tarrant would have been celebrated as a truly great distance runner. But in post–WWII England, amateur sports were ruled by a British aristocracy that randomly enforced strict rules regarding amateurism. As an impoverished youngster, Tarrant received a onetime pittance for a boxing match, less than $20. When he took up running and filled out the forms for his first race, he honestly revealed the payment. In the black-and-white world of British sports, that payment banned him from ever competing as an amateur. A frustrated Tarrant began competing as a ghost, an unregistered runner who would slip into the back as races began. Through the years, he won dozens of races and simultaneously fought the bureaucracy to regain his amateur status. Despite overwhelming support from the running community, he was never able to compete officially. Jones, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, chronicles Tarrant’s Sisyphean struggles without romanticizing his subject. Tarrant was obsessive, much to the detriment of his long-suffering wife and son. He was difficult, arrogant, and unable to find any sort of balance in his life (he died in 1975 at 42). This is a fascinating study of one man’s obsession and the heartless, hypocritical bureaucracy that stubbornly aligned itself against him. Unforgettable reading. --Wes Lukowsky