Bob Bartling and several like-minded people founded the Prairie Striders Running Club in 1969 to promote running, fellowship, and health. Bob began collecting books and magazines related to running and track and field, and by 1978, the Prairie Striders Running Club Library was established. It includes 636 volumes of books, about 5,000 periodicals and newsletters, and has the results of 16 annual races. The collection is so complete that even the editors of Runner’s World contact Bob for articles.
The Prairie Striders Library was housed in the basement of Bartling’s store for many years. The library moved to another location in downtown Brookings before finding a permanent home in the H.M. Briggs Library in June 2015. It is currently housed in the compact shelving on the lower level of the library.
This Book Gallery highlights the collection housed at the H.M. Briggs Library
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Masters Age Records
Peter Mundle
"World and U.S. age records for track & field - age 35 and above" -- "Age records for race walking - age 40 and above."
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The Joy of Running
Thaddeus Kostrubala
The Joy of Running is BACK! Current and future runners can now discover the inspiration, support, and guidance packed in this essential running book—information no other book can give you. If your doctor or a friend has ever told you to start exercising, you'll feel better, it’s thanks to this book, because in its pages Dr. Thaddeus Kostrubala first described how running can lift your spirits. This is the book that started it all, the book you read to discover how running can save your life—and your soul. The Joy of Running is the book you read to reveal the secrets of running as a path to self-discovery. Running can rearrange your personality. In some people the changes are profound—introverts become extraverts. Depressed people lose their depression. Anxiety diminishes or disappears. The Joy of Running was the first book to describe in detail what we now call "runner's high." In no other book will you find a highly-credentialed psychiatrist exploring this expansion of consciousness and its effects on a runner’s life. You’ll discover how running benefits not only physical fitness, but psychological and spiritual health, as well. And you’ll finally understand the changes in your own personality that running can bring about. As Dr. Jack Scaff, founder of the Honolulu Marathon Clinic, said: "The Joy of Running is a bright new light at the end of a long tunnel of ignorance about the effects of slow distance-running on the mind and body of man. Books like this are long overdue." The Joy of Running is the book you hand to someone who is just starting to run. The Joy of Running is the book you read to finally understand the true reason why you are a runner and why you want to ALWAYS be a runner. The Joy of Running is the book that will help you take your running to the next level—the level of self-discovery and growth.
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The Long Run Solution
Joe Henderson
In his updated introduction, Joe Henderson names Long Run Solution as his favorite book of the two dozen he has published: "This book is my clearest statement of how I feel about running. Much of what I've written since its original publication in 1976 is touched on here, and most of these feelings have changed little in the meantime. Naming LRS as my favorite book might sound like a knock on the books that have followed, but it really isn't. They served purposes, just as races do after the last personal record is set. There is value -- even a certain nobility -- in keeping going after we've peaked. Which is the message of this book: Do what it takes to run long, not in miles but in years and decades."
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The North Central Conference Records Book, 1976-77 : The Encyclopedia of NCC Athletics
North Central Conference and George Ellis
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Women's Running
Joan Ullyot
Emphasis on mature woman who runs for fitness and long-distance competition, specific training routines for women at different states-jogger to serious racers-tips on shoes, clothes, etc-medical advice.
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Always Young
Frank Dolson
Biography of runner George Young, four time Olympian who experienced both the rewards and frustrations of amateur athletics.
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Mary Decker: Speed Records and Spaghetti
Linda Altman
A biography of a California schoolgirl who by the age of fifteen had already broken world speed records in running.
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The African running revolution
Dave Prokop
The biggest story in track and field this past decade has been the astounding breakthrough of the African runners in international competition. Here is the most complete and incisive book yet published. Here is the most complete and incisive book yet published on this phenomenal success story. What are the African runners really lik and how do they approach competition. It altitude training is the secret behind the success of the African runners (as so many believe), how is it that of all the people in the world who live at altitude, the only high altitude dwellers who collectively have made any mark in the track world are runners from the East African tableland? what explains the incredible success story of Kenya's Katenjin and Kisii tribes, who have accounted fro all 45 of Kenya's Olympic and Commonwealth Games medals since '63 (Kenya has more than 30 tribes in all). Can the Kalenjin and Kissii be a "race" of super-runners genetically? Is ther any scientific evidence to support the widely-held theory that athletes living at high altitudes have a natural physiological advantage over sea-level natives in the endurance running events? These and a long list of other subjects are covered in this book by such writers s Philip Ndoo (himself one of Kenya's finest runners), John Manners, Bob Hancock (a coach on the '72 Olympic team), Dr. Jack Daniels, Geoff Fenwick, Dave Prokop and David Lewis (Ben Jipcho's former coach). A special bonus for readers will be Tom Sturak's in-depth story on Filbert Bayi - undoubtedly the most complete story yet written on the Tanzanian superstar. Illustrated with numerous action photographs. The African Running Revolution is a book no track fan should miss.
