{"product_id":"coffee-table-book-of-cross-country-running-hardcover","title":"Coffee Table Book of: Cross Country Running (Hardcover)","description":"\u003cp\u003eCoffee Table Book of: Cross Country Running is a large format book of cross country running, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: spikes on wet grass, flags marking a course across fields and woods, the start line in mist, the kit made and cared for, old shoes and old ways, and a few runners seen far off in plain dark clothing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe kit is laid out plain: a pair of light spikes on wet grass, a sole set with short steel spikes, loose spikes and the small key that changes them, a sleeveless vest, a blank bib with four safety pins, thin gloves and a knitted hat, racing flats for hard ground, a timing chip on a lace, cushioned shoes for daily training, warm layers folded on a stump, and on the course, flags, tape, straw bales, a log to jump and a narrow finish funnel.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe making and care follow the cut mesh pieces of a shoe upper and an upper pulled over a wooden last, a start line painted on the grass, flags bundled and stakes knocked in with a mallet, a path mown through long grass, muddy spikes rinsed beside a bucket and wet shoes stuffed with paper to dry. The past runs from old leather spikes and canvas shoes to a cotton vest on a peg, a brass hand bell, a trail of torn paper from the old chase game, a stile in a hawthorn hedge, a church steeple across the fields and an old pavilion at twilight.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen the places, empty at every hour and in every season: a meadow in mist at first light, beech woods in rain, a muddy hill in drizzle, a frozen field at sunrise, a flooded meadow, dunes at dusk, heath, moor and chalk hills, a mown loop round a pond, a lone hill under a full moon, snow at dawn and thunder over a summer field, and a few small runners far off, crossing a misty field in a pack, splashing through a stream, climbing a long hill and waiting on the start line at dawn.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShort notes run through the book, on the course and how it is marked, the kit and how it is made and cared for, and the history of the sport: cross country spikes are light shoes with a few short metal spikes under the front of the foot, spikes screw into threaded holes in the sole and are changed with a small key, the start line is painted across the grass, long enough for a whole field of runners to set off at once, and shoes are built around a last, a solid form in the shape of a foot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePrinted in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a hardcover with the art printed on the case.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cedar Pine Editions","offers":[{"title":"Case Bound - PPC","offer_id":68140581912880,"sku":"9671456003214","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0262\/2357\/5085\/files\/9671456003214.jpg?v=1792570231","url":"https:\/\/www.thegreatbritishbookshop.co.uk\/products\/coffee-table-book-of-cross-country-running-hardcover","provider":"The Great British Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}