Run Like a Champion: An Olympian's Approach for Every Runner

In Run Like a Champion, one of America’s most versatile and accomplished runners, Alan Culpepper, reveals the best practices of the best runners.

Over his 25-year racing career, Culpepper won national titles from 5K to marathon, a span of race distances so wide that just a few runners can claim the same impressive versatility. Culpepper sets out his approach--and the lessons he learned from his competitors--so that all runners can fully realize their potential.

As a two-time Olympic competitor, Culpepper has a unique understanding of what it takes to compete at the highest level. His running career has put him on the start line alongside the world’s best runners, and he has found that despite their many differences, talents, and approaches to training, among them they share a common understanding: the best athletes know that the secret to success in running lies in understanding a bigger picture of training.

Not everyone has the physiology to run at the highest level, but everyone can benefit from implementing an Olympic approach to training. Run Like a Champion shares a big-picture view of running, looking at not only the essential training elements but also other key pieces of the puzzle: identifying motivation; finding a proper work/life/family balance; and understanding complementary aspects of training such as stretching, how much to drink, diet, and how to avoid and treat injuries.

Run Like a Champion reveals all the guidelines, tips and tricks, workouts, mental training, and nutritional practices that Olympic runners use. By making this Olympic approach part of their running, runners of all levels will make their goals achievable from 5K to marathon.

Over the course of his 25-year racing career Alan Culpepper proved to be one of the most consistent and versatile distance runners in American history.

While a student at the University of Colorado, Culpepper became an 8-time All-American and NCAA Champion in the 5K distance. During his 10-year professional running career, Culpepper qualified for two Olympic Games. He is a multiple sub-4-minute miler, with a personal best of 3:55. In his debut marathon, Culpepper ran a 2:09:41, an American Debut Record. In his second-ever marathon, Culpepper won the 2004 Olympic Marathon Trial and finished 12th at the Olympic Games. He finished in the top 5 at the Boston Marathon two times.

Culpepper now produces running events for the Competitor Group, including Rock "Ëœn' Roll Marathons and Half-Marathons. He contributes to Competitor magazine and coaches runners through his Culpepper Coaching company. He lives in Colorado with his wife, two-time Olympian Shayne Culpepper, and their four children.
Brian Metzler is a freelance journalist who covers running, running gear, and related sports. A running shoe geek since his prepubescent cross-country team days, Metzler has run more than 75,000 miles in his life, tested more than 1,500 pairs of running shoes, run focus groups for several running shoe brands, raced every distance from 50 yards to 100 miles, raced to the top of the Willis (Sears) Tower in Chicago, run a marathon on top of the Great Wall of China, completed two high-altitude 100-mile ultraruns, completed four Ironman triathlons, and regularly races with donkeys in Colorado.

Metzler was the founding editor and associate publisher of Trail Runner and Adventure Sports magazines and was a senior editor at Running Times as well as Editor-in-Chief of Competitor magazine and Competitor.com. He has written about endurance sports for Outside, Runner’s World, Triathlete, Inside Triathlon, Men’s Health, and Men’s Journal. He is the author of Running Colorado’s Front Range and co-author of Natural Running with Danny Abshire and Run Like a Champion with Alan Culpepper.