A Runner's Memories, Dreams, Reflections

This book represents the author’s 40 years of writing about distance running. As a runner and coach himself, he has tried to bring up different topics and stories that would be of interest to distance runners. The book includes descriptions of various races, local, national, and international; brief portraits of a variety of distance runners; advice about training and recovering from injury; and a host of other issues relating to distance running. The overarching purpose of the book is how distance running remarkably parallels one’s existence, and is a metaphor for an individual’s life.

Tom Bulger is a native of Troy, New York. After high school, he attended and graduated from the University of Notre Dame, 1974. After that, he got a masters in English literature from the University at Albany (1976), and a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Rochester (1986). He was a professor of English literature at Siena College for 30 years until his retirement 10 years ago. At Siena, he was also dean of the Arts Division for 5 years, and he was the founder and first coach of the women’s cross country team for 5 years. Prior to that, he was also Bob Reilly’s assistant coach of the men’s cross country team for 3 years. In addition to coaching at Siena, he also was the first coach of the Willow Street Athletic Team, and was a running coach for Team in Training.

He has been writing about running for over 40 years. For 6 years, he was the Troy Times Record running columnist. He also wrote quite a bit for the Hudson Mohawk Road Runner’s magazine The Pacesetter. He has been very active with the HMRRC, being its president (1992-3) and as a volunteer at races. He is a member of the HMRRC Hall of Fame. He ran in hundreds of races, with a marathon best of 2:28.