In February 1954, an unlikely looking runner with a withered left arm shot into world reckoning as a miler. His name was Murray Halberg. Coached by Arthur Lydiard, an Auckland shoe factory foreman, Halberg went on to become an Olympic champion and world record-holder, so too did another athlete Lydiard coached, Peter Snell. Their success and that of other athletes coached by Lydiard inspired a new generation of champions through the 1970s and into the 1980s: Allison Roe, Lorraine Moller, Anne Audin, Dick Quax, Rod Dixon, Dick Tayler, and John Walker. New Zealand became known as a nation that produced great runners. Then tradition faded and almost died until a new star emerged, Nick Willis. However, apart from Willis the days of world-class runners coming consistently out of New Zealand have gone. This book explores what happened.