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Interior photograph of Florence Liddell and daughters taken at New Paramount Studios, Toronto, and used with permission.
Unless otherwise noted, all interior photographs are from the personal collection of Eric Liddell’s family and used with permission.
Designed by Jennifer Phelps
Eric Eichinger is represented by SON: The Spirit Of Naples and Southwest Florida, Inc., 1100 Fifth Ave S, Ste. 201, Naples, FL 34102 www.SONStudios.org.
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Scripture quotations within the text body are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.
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ISBN 978-1-4964-1994-1 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4964-3245-2 (International Trade Paper Edition)
ISBN 978-1-4964-1997-2 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-4964-1996-5 (Kindle); ISBN 978-1-4964-1995-8 (Apple)
Build: 2018-01-25 14:47:58 EPUB 3.0.1
FOR KARA
You are my best “running partner.” You ran this ultramarathon with me every blistering step of the way.
Eric
AND FOR ERIC EICHINGER
Because you shared writing the story of Eric Liddell with me, I have grown spiritually in ways I never imagined possible.
Thx, EE.
ee
Eva Marie
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Praise for The Final Race
Copyright
Dedication
Authors’ Note
Prologue: Our Race
Chapter 1: Another Race
Part One: The First 100
Chapter 2: Foundations
Chapter 3: The Starter’s Pistol
Chapter 4: Muscular Christianity
Chapter 5: Olympic Mind Games
Chapter 6: Into Battle
Chapter 7: A Victory Lap
Chapter 8: Doctrinal Discernment
Part Two: The Second 100
Chapter 9: A Sort of Homecoming
Chapter 10: A Slow Bloom
Chapter 11: Ordinary Time, Extraordinary Days
Chapter 12: Onward and Upward
Chapter 13: A Gaze into the Looking Glass
Chapter 14: Patience and Tact
Chapter 15: Steadfast Wedlock
Chapter 16: A Prophet in His Hometown
Chapter 17: An Island of Peace
Chapter 18: Keep Calm and Carry On
Chapter 19: Together Apart
Part Three: The Third 100
Chapter 20: An Unexpected Opportunity
Chapter 21: Detainment
Chapter 22: Incurvatus In Se
Chapter 23: Discipleship
Chapter 24: Eric Is In
Chapter 25: Good Night, Sweet Prince
Chapter 26: Eric Is Out
Chapter 27: A Liddell Epilogue
Epilogue: The Final 100: The Race before Us
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Photo Insert
About the Authors
AUTHORS’ NOTE
THE WRITING OF THIS BOOK draws from a wide variety of research over a number of years, each experience more humbling than the last. Having been a competitive runner at a high level and a teacher in China, I already felt I had caught a glimpse of what it was like to stand in the shoes of Eric Liddell. While living in China, I decided to stride down that path a bit further to Weihsien, where Eric Liddell is buried and a memorial is dedicated to him. I sneaked into the condemned hospital structure where he died and surveyed the landscape as the familiar score from Chariots of Fire played in my mind. Somewhere on my return home from that pilgrimage, I knew I had to tell this story in a way that had not yet been done.
I am thankful for the numerous and dedicated biographers who came before me, including the primary source of D. P. Thomson’s writing, as well as the Day of Discovery video documentary with David McCasland. The Eric Liddell Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a trove of delight, and I warmly appreciate their hospitality. Having tea and dashing through the streets of Edinburgh to visit Eric’s old haunts with his nieces, Joan and Sue, is a moment in time I will never forget. I am especially thankful for the audience granted to me by Eric’s daughters Patricia and Heather; their open and continued communication; and for the voluminous correspondence with Eric’s youngest daughter, Maureen. It has also been an extreme pleasure working with Eva Marie Everson, a servant-leader in her craft, who made the manuscript flow with narrative quintessence.
Rev. Eric Eichinger
The first time I heard the name Eric Liddell, I sat in a movie theater, shortly after the birth of my daughter, Jessica, in 1981. My husband and I had been given free tickets in exchange for our opinion about a soon-to-be-released movie, Chariots of Fire. I clearly remember being stunned as the final words appeared across the screen, informing moviegoers that Eric had died in China during World War II. Years later, as I entered the world of publishing, one of the first books I came across at a booksellers’ convention was a short biography about Eric. Oh, I remember thinking, he was the runner who refused to run on Sunday and who died in China.
In 2015, I received a call from Rebeca Seitz of SON Studios in Naples, Florida, asking if I would look over a few chapters by a pastor from Clearwater. “He’s not a novelist,” she said, “and this is a novelization. With your experience, I think you can give him some pointers.” As soon as I opened the manuscript and saw that the story was about Eric Liddell, something inside me said, See this through. Over the next six months, the good reverend and I worked on his project, and a year later, my agent called one fine afternoon and said that “EE” (as I call him) had been offered a contract to write a biography on “EL,” but that Tyndale wanted a fiction writer’s influence. Enter
