"Seventh-grader Joseph Friedman is friendless and puny, with ADD to boot. He spends most of his time avoiding the class bully and hiding out in the Resource Room. But the Resource Room teacher encourages (i.e., practically forces) him to join the school cross country team, and he meets Heather, a new student who's tough and athletic and refuses to be pushed around by anybody"--

Mr. Putter is convinced to run in a senior marathon with his neighbor, Mrs. Teaberry, when he learns that second prize is a train set.

Molly has always lived in her sister's shadow and her feelings for her sister have run the gamut. But when her sister, a world-class runner, suffers a heart attack and does not regain consciousness, Molly must make the tough decisions in a role that will destroy some of her most cherished beliefs about the sister she thought she knew.

"Ghost, a naturally talented runner and troublemaker, is recruited for an elite middle school track team. He must stay on track, literally and figuratively, to reach his full potential"--

When a school bus accident leaves sixteen-year-old Jessica an amputee, she returns to school with a prosthetic limb and her track team finds a wonderful way to help rekindle her dream of running again.

"Preston the mouse has always dreamed of running in the New York City Marathon and even when his family says he cannot do it, Preston refuses to let go of his dream"--

Covers the careers and statistics of ten NFL running backs: Emmitt Smith, Jim Brown, Jim Taylor, Larry Csonka, Franco Harris, Tony Dorsett, John Riggins, Walter Payton, Ottis Anderson, and Marcus Allen.

"Growing up in Yakima, Washington, Noé Álvarez worked at an apple-packing plant alongside his mother, who "slouched over a conveyor belt of fruit, shoulder to shoulder with mothers conditioned to believe this was all they could do with their lives." A university scholarship offered escape, but as a first-generation Latino college-goer, Álvarez struggled to fit in. At nineteen, he learned about a Native American/First Nations movement called the...

High school basketball coach John Harrison receives unfortunate news that will change his life. The largest manufacturing plant in town suddenly shuts down, forcing many families to leave in search of other job opportunities. John and his family are faced with an uncertain future, and his dreams of winning the state basketball championship are in jeopardy. He agrees to coach the cross-country team where he meets a runner who is on her journey of discovery....

McDougall reveals the secrets of the world's greatest distance runners--the Tarahumara Indians of Copper Canyon, Mexico--and how he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of super-athletic Americans.