Book excerpt: Runners and readers whose connections to the sport date back to the 1970s surely remember Dr. George Sheehan, the New Jersey cardiologist and writer whose unique approach to the joy of exercise helped spark America's fitness boom. As a columnist for his local Red Bank Register and later as the medical editor of Runner's World and through eight bestselling books, Sheehan became, through the influence of his example and writing, the spokesperson for an entire generation of runners and the manifold benefits they discovered through the running lifestyle. Sadly, several of Sheehan's books are now out of print, and the hundreds of newspaper magazine columns he penned over the last 25 years of his life have been lost to time. Until now. The Essential Sheehan is a collection of the best running pieces George Sheehan wrote in his lifetime, many of which ran in Runner's World when Sheehan was a columnist there. This collection illuminates Sheehan's lasting influence on running culture and is a reintroduction of George Sheehan to a new generation of runners and readers.