Steve Pierce
Runner
Photographer
I have run my entire life. I competed in cross country and track in high school, where I left with school records for the 1- and 2-mile, then continued into college, running at Wichita State University, then the University of Kansas. Afterwards I took to the roads racing frequently over distances from 10k to the marathon. In my thirties I turned to triathlon and duathlon, qualifying twice for the world age-group duathlon championships, and was ranked 14th American overall at age 38.
Having studied in Italy in college and being fluent in the language helped me land a job with a photography company based in Germany. For eleven years this seasonal work had me traveling throughout Germany and Italy and left free time to travel the rest of Europe. When back in the US I worked for several professional photographers, from whom I learned much. I also did free lance work and had a stint with the Kansas City Star doing product photography.
After the birth of our second child and a move to small town Kansas, I sort of as they say, settled down. I taught Spanish and German in high school and continued to run logging 60-mile weeks for many years, but all for health reasons and out of habit. There was some racing, but it was more for grins.
Running from home out into the countryside these last couple of decades, I became very much infatuated with the scenery around here. The book was made to show off some of the best skies and landscapes here in Douglas County. And honestly I made it for myself. The days of going out for a 10- or 13-mile run were over. I didn’t like the idea that I’d have to go out and drive over the area and be stuck in a car reminiscing. While nothing can replace those runs, having some of it handy in a book in my living room seems better than the driving scenario.
Once the book was about half finished, I thought others might appreciate what I had to share. So it’s available for you to enjoy some of the wonders I’ve had the joy to experience.
A lifelong runner adds to his memories by running every stretch of the 520 miles of gravel road in the county.
First there’s a photo homage to the places he has run over a period of two decades - the 160 or so miles Steve Pierce covered going out his front door. The many beautiful dawns, the rural scenery, critters and nature are all there.
He has to overcome physical disability to go out and run the rest of those gravel roads. There’s a rebirth story that happens along the way. And there’s the search for the connection to the cosmos that went missing in the years of being unable to run. That’s what he wants more than anything.
Will he find it?
Reviews
https://booknerdection.com/running-douglas-county-bringing-you-closer-to-a-small-slice-of-country-heaven/
For more than 20 years, while the rest of us were still in bed, Steve Pierce was out running our county's backroads. All of them. At once a kind of runners’ atlas, a meditation on physical adversity, and an homage to the understated beauties of rural Kansas, this deeply felt, and exquisitely photographed book invites us into the hushed, magical world of the solitary runner under the predawn sky.
—Walter Michener, Michener-Rutledge Booksellers
As a native of Douglas County and someone who has lived here for most of his life, I thought I knew just about everything about the area. I was once a runner and then a serious cyclist, so I'm no stranger to the backroads of Douglas County. However, Steve Pierce’s book, Running Douglas County, is a revelation and an education in its subtle, understated beauty.
Pierce paints a loving, vivid picture of the captivating, simple beauty of Douglas County. He does an exquisite job drawing the reader into his reverence for running and his love of the county's backroads. Illustrated with his own beautiful images (he’s an excellent photographer), it’s readily apparent that he loves a world that too few people stop to savor or even get out of bed to experience.
This book is one of the few things I’ve read in the past few years that had me smiling, and that’s no small feat for an old, jaded photographer. I’m already making a list of runners I know who would love to have a copy.
—Earl Richardson, professional photographer who would be annoyed with anything pretentious here. He is talented and successful and does have a share in a Pulitzer Prize.
With stunning photos of extraordinary skies and landscapes in Douglas County, Kansas, this book tells of a man’s love of running and love for the rural areas where he runs. Part one takes you around the southeast part of the county where he has run some 35,000 miles over two decades.
He then takes you on his journey of running all the rest of the country roads in the county. He had been unable to run for four years, and when he was able to run again, he set out to cover every stretch of gravel road on his county map. A rebirth story unfolds in his year of journaling his excursions into the countryside. He had to regain the lost fitness, but he wanted more than crossing roads off the map and getting in shape. He wanted that feeling of floating across the planet and something else that fleetingly comes with that feeling.
Lost in those years of physical disability was a connection to the cosmos that had come with running so much under the moon, stars, and planets. Lost too was the easy mindfulness that comes with running smoothly and pain free. And there was something deeper than mindfulness that had touched his soul. He searched the entire county. Would he find it again?
In a lot of running books the authors spill their guts. Steve Pierce spills his soul. And takes his camera with him. A straight shooter on both accounts.
Pierce’s secret garden is a little astronomy, botany, history, philosophy, physiology, and topography, oh, yeah, ornithology. Animal behavior, too. Meanwhile, taking photos like a combination Carl Sagan and Ansel Adams.
—Jack D. Welch, cofounder of Running magazine, who covered road racing for Track & Field News
This book represents how the “running thing” can be a complex weaving of the human experience. Steve brings thoughtful language and photography that illustrate the beauty of a runner’s mind on the move. Runners tread the earth for so many more reasons than gaining miles and beating time. It made me pause and reflect on the unique adventure of putting one foot after the other and the people, creatures, landscapes, and sky that I have encountered over decades of running. Some of the most special runs happen to have been in Kansas.
—Mary Powell is an artist and lifelong runner who grew up in Lawrence, Kansas. She was the 6A cross country champion in 1985, ’86, and ’87, then ran at Wake Forest and hasn’t stopped.