365betÌåÓýÔÚÏßÊÀ½ç±­

Matt Baxter was feeling a sense of urgency.

The NAZ Elite veteran runner was injured but still part of a race going on outside the lines as he began working on “Running Up the Mountain,� a book released recently by Flagstaff-based Soulstice Publishing.

Co-authored by former longtime Lumberjacks coach Ron Mann, the book tells the story of the Northern Arizona University track and field and cross country dynasty and how it connects to the overall running community prevalent in Flagstaff. According to Baxter, Mann had the initial idea for the book and expressed a need to get it on the shelves quickly.

“Ron’s whole thing from the beginning was that we have to get this story down before it gets lost,� said Baxter, who was a runner for Northern Arizona from 2016 to 2018 and helped the men’s cross country team begin a long stretch of winning national titles starting in his first season on the roster.

Mann was recommended to Baxter by Eric Heins, who helped lead the Northern Arizona men’s cross country team to a national title in 2016 before he stepped away from the director of track and field and cross country role he held for 13 seasons.

When Baxter and Mann connected in January of 2021, Mann said he wanted to work at a fast pace to make sure key pieces of history about the Northern Arizona program from the 1960s and �70s could be part of the book. So Mann began doing more interviews for the book and gathering content while Baxter started putting pen to paper, turning the material into writing.

One of the first interviews, according to Baxter, that Mann conducted was with Olympian George Young, a standout in the sport who trained in Flagstaff and ran in college for the University of Arizona before attending Northern Arizona in 1970 to work on earning a doctorate. Not too long after participating in the interview for Mann and Baxter’s book, Young, the first U.S. runner to compete in four Olympics, died in November of 2022.

The stories and information that Young provided were important to the book, and his passing highlighted the need to get working on putting that history onto pages.

Mann, who directed the Northern Arizona running programs from 1980 to 2004, knew the history and the stories behind the Lumberjacks and had an understanding of how it connected to Flagstaff as a whole. But to get it all in book form, he needed someone with knowledge of the sport, the team and writing experience.

Baxter had put out some writing before, self-publishing a book titled “Hurt Me If You Can: The Tales of a High School Runner.� But taking on a project like “Running Up the Mountain� was a different challenge.

“So I had these couple pieces of writing which kinda helped justify me being a person to reach out for the writing aspect as well,� Baxter said.

He took a day or so to think about what Mann was asking of him at the time. Despite all the experience Baxter had with running, the Lumberjacks and writing, he still second-guessed himself before agreeing to work with Mann.

“Also, I knew how important this was to Ron,� Baxter said, “and I just wanted to be sure I would be the right person for him.�

He added: “I just wanted to make sure that when I signed on to this, I am going to give it my everything � like my running � I am going to put everything into this and I am going to commit fully, and whatever the end product is I want to be proud of it, but more importantly, I want Ron to be proud of it more than anything else.�

Completing a marathon

The book is now for sale. Baxter is pleased with the product, despite it taking longer to put out than he had imagined. According to Baxter, the goal was to have the book released by about this time a year ago.

Baxter was feeling the time crunch and expectations to produce well-written material.

“I had to figure it out, I had to keep grinding through and put it together, because Ron was counting on me and the publishers were counting on me,� he said. “And it even got delayed a lot longer than we thought.�

Part of the delay was making sure the book appealed to a wide variety of readers. Baxter said at first he and Mann envisioned a book made up of sections that didn’t have a strong thread of an central theme tying them together. They mapped out what the book could look like and pitched the idea to Soulstice Publishing, which responded with a long list of work that would need to be done to make the book a success.

“It was like, ‘The content is great, and how you guys are thinking about putting it together is OK, but it needs to be structured differently or it’s just not going to be interesting,’� Baxter said of the publisher’s initial feedback.

Baxter, Mann and Soulstice discussed how to piece the book together so it could flow well and be both entertaining and informative, seeking to avoid it reading like a dry history lesson. Eventually, Baxter said he wanted to write it as a timeline starting in 1964, with the book as a whole encompassing the bigger picture of the Northern Arizona dynasty and the Flagstaff running community.

While working on the manuscript, Baxter said, he learned how hard it can be for a professional runner to write about a topic in a way that a reader unfamiliar with the sport can understand. And he learned quickly that an author of such a book needs to be critical of the writing.

“Because the people who are reading are not thinking about it the way you are thinking about it,� he said.

He said working with Soulstice helped him close that gap between reader and author.

Once Baxter and Mann got the manuscript out to editors, the second half of the marathon began. The manuscript was sent to a handful of editors. The feedback and edits came back and gave Baxter � who admitted he thought his writing was at a really good place when getting into the project � another bit of a shock.

“There are just hundreds of comments down the margin,� he said of getting the manuscript back upon the first few stages of the editing process.

The overall experience, he said, felt familiar to other aspects in his life in many ways.

“It feels like I am working with the team of Soulstice and Ron, and we are all working together and putting this together. It was a special thing. It makes it harder in ways but it also makes it so rewarding,� Baxter said.

Now that the book is released, Baxter is appreciative of all the help and the gained experience.

“The value I got out of going through this process was immense,� he said.

Baxter and those involved will be hosting a book release event on Friday, Oct. 19, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Northern Arizona’s Student-Athlete High Performance Center. Mitch Strohman will moderate a Q&A, and Northern Arizona President José Luis Cruz Rivera will give remarks.

Then, on Saturday from 4 to 6:30 p.m., another Q&A will take place at NAZ Elite’s training center, located at 1000 N. Humphreys St., Suite 200. NAZ Elite Executive Director Ben Rosario will be the moderator.