I distinctly remember being in a movie theater in Boston back in April 2015.

This was just one year removed from Evka Fleski's big win at the Boston Marathon.

Most writers were focusing on that, and it felt like everything that had been said about that race was already written or it could just be rewatched on YouTube.

But there were still some scenes from that race in a documentary called

City Slickers Can't Stay With Me, the coach Bob Larson story. And they brought me chills. I don't

know how, because the MEP story had been everywhere. Maybe it was just seeing it on a much bigger

screen, enhanced the viewing experience that much. I think that probably wasn't it. I think what it was was that

in that movie you really got to see the buildup to that great moment and learned the story

about the man behind Meb's success. And this is the same guy who's behind the resurgence of an

entire country's distance writing culture. Bob Larson's story is told in great detail in a new book by Matthew Futterman called

Running to the Edge, a band of misfits and the guru who unlocked the secrets of speed.

There's some really good stories and lessons in that book, and we'll touch on some of those

in this episode.

I'm your host Chris Chavez, and this is the City of Smagic

podcast. Before we get to today's show, this episode of the City of Smack podcast on the City of Smack Podcast network is brought to you by the Rambling Runner's new podcast called Road to the Olympic Trials.

I highly recommend it.

They're six episodes deep, including an emergency podcast that dropped last week that explains

the major news that the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials have been issued gold label status by the IAAF.

So what that means is that the top three in both the men's and women's races will head

to Tokyo, and you don't really have to deal with too much standard confusion anymore.

So Matt Chittam, who is the host, really breaks that down in great detail.

So you get the full lowdown on that podcast.

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