Running: A Novel by Jean Echenoz: book review

Running: A Novel (2008, English edition 2009) is about the legendary Czechoslovakian long-distance runner Emil Zatopek.

Echenoz begins this easy-to-read short narrative biography of Emil Zatopek (1922-2000) with the 17-year old ‘tall, blond boy’ working in the Bata shoe factory in Zlin, 100 kilometres from Ostrava, while studying chemistry. He must take part in the Bata-sponsored Zlin Run, even though he detests physical exercise.

Zatopek takes to running easily and begins to develop techniques, testing how far his body can go. Ungainly in style and form, he focuses on speed, the final sprint, and jogging between sprints. He ran like a ‘ditch digger’ ignoring running techniques, such as the Finnish system, and the Gerscher system for his own ‘Emil’s do-it-yourself’ method.

The novel focuses on Emil’s achievements – from his first big win in the Allied Forces Championship in Berlin (as a member of the Czech army) to his 10 kilometre and marathon successes: his gold medals in the 1948 London Olympics and in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. In Helsinki in the course of 10 days he won a gold medal in the 5 km, 10 km, and marathon (the first time he’d ever even run a marathon). He was the first Czech athlete to win a track and field gold medal, and he was the first man ever to run more than 20 kilometres in one hour. He also ran in the marathon in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and finished sixth.

This biography also writes about Czech politics and the government, scared of Zatopek defecting, limiting his involvement in international competitions. It tells of his wife Dana, an Olympic javelin thrower, born on the same date as her husband, with only six hours between them. And, in the latter years, it mentions his losses and temporary expulsion from his job in the city (Prague) to a country posting.

It is an account of the rise of Zatopek’s superhuman feats, his techniques, and his influence in changing the running techiques of all who followed him. This is an interesting, fast-paced story of endurance and the simple love of his sport: running.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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