Even 24 years after the publication of his best-selling “Running with the Buffaloes,” the gripping story of the 1998 University of Colorado men’s cross country team, the bonds between author Chris Lear and the Buffs he followed during the team’s NCAA-podium finishing season of trials and tribulation remain strong and vibrant.

Standing on Franklin Field during the C Club tailgate before the Oct. 26 Colorado-Cincinnati football game on campus, 1998 NCAA champ Adam Goucher, Jason Robbie and Jay Johnson, teammates on that team, picked up conversations with author Lear as if they were back in those crisp fall salad days of youth when the CU runners learned much about winning and losing, life and loss.

“No one would know who I am now if not for ‘Running with the Buffaloes,’” said Goucher, the fastest of the Buffaloes. A bit of an understatement, as Goucher went on to make World Championship and Olympic teams. “I still get kids coming up and telling me they were inspired by reading the book.”

“It’s like we never left each other,” Robbie, a sophomore walk-on during the 1998 season, said of seeing Lear, who keeps in touch with the CU runners in a group text. “I look back at Chris and the book most importantly with pride, and I look at my relationships today from those years and use them to explain to my own offspring the importance of those bonds we shared in college.”

Lear, a graduate of Princeton, was in town to receive an honorary C Club letter at halftime, along with several others, including Colorado track and field director of operations Karen Lechman. I spent part of the first half of the CU victory cheering on the Buffs and talking with Lear about writing, his time with Hunter S. Thompson, Boulder, and his forthcoming book, “Redefining Fast,” in which he and long-time sports journalist Adam Greif helped coach Sean Brosnan tell the story of his Newbury Park high school teams, which in 2021 produced four runners under 4 minutes for 1600 meters (just short of a mile) and three that broke former CU star Dathan Ritzenhein’s high school 5K record.

“Redefining Fast” looks to be shaping up as another top Lear book (he also wrote “Sub 4:00: Alan Webb and the Quest for the Fastest Mile”) of how hard work, long-term planning and the mentorship of a charismatic coach can inspire greatness in young runners. Sitting with Lear and his wife, Shawn, up in the high seats of section 220 at Folsom Field, I wondered why Lear would emulate Sisyphus and take on the time-consuming task of writing another book, when he already had a rich, full life with family, kids and a busy job.

“I wanted to know what did (Newbury coach) Sean (Bronson) do? Lear explained. “I wanted to find out. Similar to ‘Running with Buffaloes.’ How did Wetmore do it? I was curious.”

Wetmore, said Lear, “created a culture of excellence” at Colorado, just as Brosnan did at Newbury Park. “I’m totally satisfied” with “Redefining Fast,” Lear said.

Returning to Boulder was a bit bittersweet, as Lear admitted to a longing to return to the trails and ambience he grew fond of during his five years here. “Boulder is a special place,” Lear said. “I went for a run this morning in North Boulder, on the trails, and I was lost in the moment. It’s so gorgeous, and I had the same feeling I experienced countless times when I lived here; I’m so fortunate to be here.”

Lear, 50, and his family stayed with the family of Robbie, one of the CU runners on that 1998 season that was marked by the death of one of its top runners, Chris Severy, in a bicycle accident on Flagstaff Mountain. Goucher — whom Robbie calls the ‘Michael Jordan’ of the team “for how he pushed us and made us the best we could be” — went on to defeat future five-time Olympian Abdhi Adbirahman on his way to winning the NCAA title, leading Colorado to a third-place team finish.

Lear, a granular writer who combines running (he clocked a 4:09 mile in high school) and storytelling expertise, was with the team from its summer training through NCAAs, and “Running with the Buffaloes,” writes Jonathan Gault of letsrun.com, “became one of the most popular running books of all time, inspiring a generation of runners.”

The book nearly did not happen. Lear was for a long time rebuffed by Buffs coach Wetmore when looking for a team to follow. “I pitched it to Coach Wetmore for a while,” Lear recalled. “Mark, rightly, was hesitant, and suggested I work with other top programs at the time like Arkansas, or maybe Stanford. Finally, I must have caught him at a weak moment, and he agreed to let me hang around and chronicle the season.”

Lear hopes “Redefining Fast” will have the same impact and touch runners in much the same way “Running with the Buffaloes” did. The book had a different genesis and is an “as-told-to-story,” but looks to have the same broadly appealing result. “I’m not surprised with anything Chris does,” Robbie said of Lear’s latest project. “He is an inspiration and someone I look up to pretty significantly.”

Oh, and what about Hunter Thompson, the late “Gonzo” journalist? Lear shared some Ethiopian moonshine with him, brought to the 2002 Honolulu marathon by an Ethiopian Olympic runner, at the Outrigger Hotel after the race, something Thompson wrote about in a column for ESPN. That’s something writers can relate to.

Follow Sandrock on Instagram: @MikeSandrock.