An Accidental Athlete

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Middle Age

John Bingham

• Publisher: VeloPress
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781934030738
• eBook ISBN: 9781937716004
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies

Known by fans as "The Penguin" for his back-of-the-pack speed, John Bingham is the unlikely hero of the modern running boom. In his new book, the best-selling author and magazine columnist recalls his childhood dreams of athletic glory, sedentary years of unhealthy excess, and a life-changing transformation from couch potato to "adult-onset athlete." Overweight, uninspired, and saddled with a pack-and-a-half-a-day smoking habit, Bingham found himself firmly wedged into a middle-age slump. Then two frightening trips to the emergency room and a conversation with a happy piano tuner led him to discover running--and changed his life for the better. Inspiring, poignant, hilarious, and heartbreaking, An Accidental Athlete is a warm and engaging book for the everyday athlete. Bingham tells stories of the joys of running--the pride of the finisher's medal, a bureau-busting t-shirt collection, intense back-of-the-pack strategizing. An Accidental Athlete is about one man's discovery that middle age was not the finish line after all, but only the beginning.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I • The Kid Picked Last
• Part II • The Adult-Onset Athlete
• Part III • The Glory Years
• Part IV • The Back Nine
• Epilogue: Running into Myself
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author