by Peter Walsh — posted on 10/12/2011

It is a little over 10 years ago that the best book ever written on women's running and the most lyrical work ever written on running in general was published. It is a true story that speeds like fiction and stands strong to the test of time.

The Silence of Great Distance has as its core the story that brought together two extraordinary women attempting to be their best. On Wednesday, June 4th, 1986 during the NCAA Outdoor Championships the city of Indianapolis became gothic in an electric charged atmosphere of torrential rain, thunder and lighting. Fires were burning, homes were flooded, building foundations were collapsing and the White River was roaring to new heights under the dark shadow of a swerving bridge. Late in the evening angry Mother Nature took a pause.

Stephanie Herbst running for Wisconsin and coached by soon-to-be legendary Peter Tegrin was making ready for the 10,000-meter women's championship. Stephanie was beautiful with an aura that called for attention, but an introspection that said, "Stay away." Stephanie's plan was to follow her coach's strategy and keep it simple.

Kathy Ormsby was part of the North Carolina State Wolfpack running under the tutelage of already-a-legend coach Rollie Geiger, and she would do what she had always done; run in the service of God. Kathy was All-American in spirit and dedication and would be watchful of Herbst. According to Frank Murphy who is also the author of A Cold Clear Day — The Athletic Biography of Buddy Edelen and The Last Protest — Lee Evans in Mexico City, "Kathy and Stephanie were reluctant to praise themselves, they gave that to others. They were two wonderful and special women."

Murphy worked on The Silence of Great Distance for more than five years with tenacity, intensity and inspiration. He labored in a guest bedroom a la office creating chapter folders and collating index cards. Cerebral and passionate, he has gifted us this tome of exquisite writing and treasured reading. A teacher and a social worker packing a law degree he is dedicated to the defense of those who suffer from mental illness, including housing for those who are often warehoused, unseen and forgotten. He is encompassing in his life as he is in his writing. For The Silence... is about the modern history of women running in all its aspects.

It tells of the arrival of Mary Decker and the flowering of Susie Favor Hamilton. It spotlights the great Doris Brown and her pioneering compatriots who braved the dangers of running the roads in public and an indifferent sports bureaucracy. It details the dominance of Russian and East German women competing in a cloud of drug-enhanced suspicion. It tells of the incredible legacy of Tatyana Katsankina. It puts Title IX in a political context as well as a historical perspective. Frank Murphy recently told me "that he intentionally wrote the book to be lush, inclusive, complex, challenging, but ultimately lyrical and joyful — because he wanted the form of the book to capture some part of what he divined was the experience of all these wonderful women shattering barriers. My journey owes much to our great narrative risk taker Mr. Herman Melville." And yes this book should be taught in school, though many departments could claim it for its own.