Pain

This novel recounts the senior year of a talented collegiate distance runner named Richard Dubin. Richard's competitive year is a roller-coaster of stunning success and numbing disappointment, and his life is complicated by a steamy relationship he enters into with a beautiful, but unpredictable woman 10 years his senior. Richard's university is one of the great party schools of the American South and the reader is treated to a series of uninhibited college bashes, featuring copious liquid consumption, naked kegstands, nude relays, and most daring of all, poetry readings! As the pressures mount, Richard's life begins to unravel. All the forces converge at the Olympic Trials in New Orleans and it is there that Richard the edge of the abyss.

About the author: Dan Middleman is a prominent American distance runner. In 1996, he made the US Olympic team in the 10,000 meters and was the #2 ranked American in that event. His 28:04.8 that year was the fastest US time for the distance. An elementary school teacher in Raleigh, NC, Dan is currently working toward a master's degree in behavioral disorders. PAIN is his first novel.