Rating: 
Summary: THE BEST OF THE BEST
Review: "RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALLOES" MAY BE THE BEST BOOK ABOUT RUNNING, RUNNERS, COACHING ,AND TRAINING EVER WRITTEN. IT HAS IT ALL- TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY. IT IS A MUST READ FOR ANYONE WHO LOVES THE SPORT!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read - Running with the Buffalos
Review: An excellent read could barely put the book down once I started reading it. Really gives you a good look at the training intensity and team dynamics at the top of NCAA Div. 1 running.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read - Running with the Buffalos
Review: An excellent read could barely put the book down once I started reading it. Really gives you a good look at the training intensity and team dynamics at the top of NCAA Div. 1 running.
Rating:
Summary: Glad I'm not Div I...
Review: As a Division III cross country and track runner, I found this in-depth look at one of the nation's premier programs both enlightening and distancing. Chris Lear does an excellent job of getting access to every aspect of life at Colorado, but the overall effect of the book is to describe life in truly rarefied air. Very few runners have the facilities, talent, or wherewithal to devote so much of their lives to training. In fact, only the elites (that occasionally show up for CU sunday runs) and the soon-to-be elite collegians have made such a decision to devote their lives (and souls) to the sport. Lear gives a tough-minded portrait of Adam Goucher, the CU star who finally wins the national cross title he's been lusting after since the begining of his career, as well as a dynamic look into the team psychology and training. Perhaps the most ellusive character of all is Mark Wetmore, CU's Ahab-like coach, who admits in an afterword interview with Lear that his training might have been a touch too intense. With 'Running With the Buffaloes,' the average reader is given a front row seat in the trenches of Colorado's season, which insists on remaining delicately balanced a stress fracture from failure. a real great inspirational read, for any runner. Even if you'll never train like this, you can always dream...
Rating: 
Summary: Great read for runners, especially X-C
Review: As a lifelong runner, competitive XC runner and former coach, I loved this book. Any serious XC runner is going to be thrilled with this book and be able to overlook its many errors and marginal story telling. Heck, most of us are tickled that a book was written about our sport! If you are a runner- especially XC, this story will motivate and amaze you. I doubt any non runner or somebody with a literary hangup will enjoy this book due to its faults that are outlined by other reviewers. It certainly could of been much better, but I am just happy that the story was told. Somewhere on the cover or insert (it's been a year since I read this book), a reviewer compares this book to Once A Runner by John Parker. I would not rate this book that high, however after 20+ years of running and reading, this is the book that came closest to it. I think this is a great book for runners of all ages, but especially HS and college runners.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: Chris Lear has done a wonderful job with his debut effort. He takes you right there, for their entire season. The reader can sense the pride, disappointment, satisfaction, and pain each one of the team feels throughout the season. As the book drew closer to its conclusion at the NCAA Championships, I could not put it down. I look forward to Chris' next work.
Rating:
Summary: Buff runners will inspire all that read
Review: Chris Lear has written a refreshing book that not only runners can relate to. I really believe nonrunners will be pulled into the heartfelt drama that unfolds in this easy to read journal. As an avid runner and a graduate from the University of Colorado, the book was a pure joy to read. Flying through the chapters, I too felt like a member of the team as they trained through incredibly tough workouts, injuries, and life's lessons. It was no coincidence that my own personal training increased dramatically after reading Lear's book. Coach Wetmore's no nonsense approach to coaching and simple but effective lectures to the team were most interesting. Access to several of the runner's journals added to the up close and personal feel of the book. The book's only downfalls are the lackluster photos and the lack of information on Lear himself. An author's biography and a chapter on how Lear was able to get so close to the CU team would have been interesting. Nonetheless, this book comes highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read For The Competitive Runner
Review: Chris Lear proves that cross country is for the skilled and those asking for a mental challenge. Lear makes you feel as if you are a part of the team with his kindness in words and reflections.
Each new scene explains something that every cross country team goes through: emotion, injury, long runs with no cares at all, comraderie with teammates who become lifelong friends, and the envy of all runners who wish to reach the pinnacle of college running, the NCAA Championships.
Some readers might say that he dwells too much on aspects of running, but this brings an understanding to how all runners feel when something of this magnitude occurs.
I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for motivation to experience running on your feet, or from a new perspective the comfort of a good book.
Rating:
Summary: Feel What It's Like
Review: Cross country running differs from most other sports simply in what it takes to do it; the preparation, mental and phyisical over a long period of time and several training cycles. What really seperates cross country running though is the team aspect. The fact that you live and die (physically and emotionally) workout to workout and week to week with a small group of men or women. They become not only a family to you, but an extension of yourself. You feel the highs and lows and as one, the elation of victory and pain of defeat as one. Running with the Buffaloes makes one feel as though they are a part of the CU cross country team. You feel their joy and their pain as though you were training right beside them. This book, like no other, makes a seasoned cross country runner or a recreational jogger feel what it is like to be on a top level cross country team. Running with the Buffaloes will sit on my shelf next to Once A Runner and undoubtedly be read numerous times.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent! A fine tale of competitive cross country
Review: Finally, someone gets it right when explaining the world of cross country, and that would be author Chris Lear. The diary format takes the reader through the ups and downs of one riveting colleigate cross country season. Having been a former high school and college cross country runner, I always had a difficult time explaining to my baseball-playing friends why I ran so much, and why did I compete in something as whacky as cross country. This book is a perfect explanation. He explains that there's more to just going out and running, that it takes discipline, stamina, strength (man, lots of injuries in this book!) and courage. Lear also shows how runners bond together through the miles and miles of training and racing. His last piece on the NCAA championship, a play-by-play of Goucher and his teammates, is poetic. I've never read a better race description ever. Why four and not five stars? First, I'm picky and think five starts should be saved for truly epic sports books like "Friday Night Lights." That said, Lear could've improved on some things. First off, the author was at his best when diverting from the diary format and going into the lives of Goucher, Ponce and Severy. We didn't read enough detail about their lives. Apparently they hang out and are revered at a local coffee shop. We never got more than they just hang out there. I wanted an explanation of this place and why they love steeplechasers so much. Also, the CU runners go to a party, we get a paragraph on it. Do they date, study, hang out, do anything but run? Every little injury is described into minute detail, and that gets old. Also, the photos are horrendous. It's as if Lear took a point and shoot to practice. On one they twice had "Goucher in full flight" as the caption. A fuzzy picture with the same person in the background -- it was weak. Lear could've hired the photographer from the local paper for chump change and had done better. But those are just some things to improve on. Truly this is a great, great book and I recommend it to all runners and those wanting to understand cross country. This is Lear's first effort and I hope it's not his last.
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