Duel in the Sun

Duel in the Sun: Alberto Salazar, Dick Beardsley, and America's Greatest Marathon is a 2006 book by freelance sportswriter John Brant. Expanded from an article featured in Runner's World magazine, the book tells the story of two American distance runners, Dick Beardsley and Alberto Salazar, and how their lives changed after both men ran the 1982 Boston Marathon. Brant, a regular contributor to Runner's World since 1985 and a contributing editor at Outside, uses a writing style in the book that relies heavily on flashbacks and foreshadowing. The result of this style is that the story of the marathon and the story of the two men's lives are told simultaneously throughout the book. Although the book has a plot and often reads like a work of fiction, it is in fact a non-fiction work, and the events described in the book actually occurred in real life. Plot summary The early part of the book describes the preparations that Beardsley and Salazar underwent before the marathon, along with many other aspects of the men's running backgrounds and personal lives.