Adharanand Finn Book order

An electrifying and inspiring account of one of the toughest sports in the world.

'Finn has written the definitive book on ultra running today. I couldn't put it down.' - Dean Karnazes *** Marathons are no longer enough. Pain is to be relished, not avoided. Hallucinations are normal. Ultra running defies conventional logic. Yet this most brutal and challenging sport is now one of the fastest-growing in the world. Why is this? Is it an antidote to modern life, or a symptom of a modern illness? Adharanand Finn travelled to the heart of the sport to find out - and to see if he could become an ultra runner himself. His journey took him from the deserts of Oman to the snow-capped peaks of the Rockies, and on to his ultimate goal, the 105-mile Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc. The Rise of the Ultra Runners is the electrifying, inspirational account of what he learned along the way. Through encounters with the sport's many colourful characters and his experiences of its soaring highs and crushing lows, Finn offers an unforgettable insight into what can be found at the boundaries of human endeavour.

We know what Haruki Murakami talks about when he talks about running -- but did you know that Japan has the most developed and lucrative running league in the world? Or that one of the biggest events in Japan's sporting calendar is an intensely fought marathon relay race called an 'ekiden', which gets Superbowl-like viewing figures on TV? From the marathon monks who run a thousand marathons in a thousand days in search of spiritual enlightenment, to the car and electronics companies who see their ekiden teams as a badge of corporate honour, Finn takes us on a tour of this complex, contradictory and unique running culture - and discovers what it can do for his own running style and performance.

An epic personal quest to discover the remarkable secrets of the world's greatest runners.

Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award Winner - Best New Writer at the British Sports Book Awards After years of watching Kenyan athletes win the world's biggest races, from the Olympics to big city marathons, Runner's World contributor Adharanand Finn set out to discover just what it was that made them so fast - and to see if he could keep up. Packing up his family (and his running shoes), he moved from Devon to the small town of Iten, in Kenya, home to hundreds of the country's best athletes. Once there he laced up his shoes and ventured out onto the dirt tracks, running side by side with Olympic champions, young hopefuls and barefoot schoolchildren. He ate their food, slept in their training camps, interviewed their coaches, and his children went to their schools. And at the end of it all, there was his dream, to join the best of the Kenyan athletes in his first marathon, an epic race through lion country across the Kenyan plains.