The Longest Race (ePub)

companion, generously doling out hilarious stories and hard-won insights into performance conditioning and the human condition. His lifetime of ultra-running and environmental writing drive his exploration of what keeps us running long distances—and what it might take to keep the planet from being run into the ground.”
—Nature Conservancy magazine

“Ultramarathon runner Ed Ayres is looking for a different kind of salvation—for the soul, for the planet. The races he’s been running for more than half a century have inspired athletes worldwide and reshaped our ideas about endurance and sustainability. . . Ayres’s new book, The Longest Race, is partly a chronicle of his experience in the fabled JFK 50 Mile ultramarathon, but it’s also about so much more. . . . Indeed, with all his talk about “oxygen debt” and “research depletion” it soon becomes clear that this book isn’t just about an athletic race. It’s also about the human race.”
—Bloomberg

“Subtitled A Lifelong Runner, an Iconic Ultramarathon, and the case for Human Endurance, this is no ordinary running book. Like most of the other books of the genre, Ayres recounts many running tales, some inspiring, some amusing, some enlightening. He is a gifted storyteller and – befitting someone who spent most of his life as an editor – the book is full of well-written prose, something not commonly found in the running-book world. . . . For the ultrarunner, or the aspiring one, there is a brilliant appendix that provides a foundation for success in a sport with so many variables. It’s not so much a “do this, don’t do that” approach. Ayres uses his 50-plus years of expperience and looks at the entire process, always simplifying and synthesizing. It’s easy to fall into the trap of making things complicated that don’t need to be – his ten notes neatly cut through all the clutter. The Appendix alone is worth the cost of the book.”
—Ultrarunning

“An ultramarathon is made up of a million moments, and you’re different at the end than you were at the start—it’s the perfect metaphor, as Ed Ayres makes clear, for the race we’ve got to run now, with focus and grit, if we’re going to deal with the deepest trouble we’ve ever stumbled into as a planet.”
—Bill McKibben, Schumann Distinguished Scholar, Middlebury College

“In this compelling read, visionary Ed Ayres takes us on a run that may save our nanosecond lives . . . and our planet. Most runners have the potential to be environmentalists, but after this book, we should be morally obligated. Take heart!—as Ayers says, ‘It’s a long work day, but the work is good.’”
—Kathrine Switzer, first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon, winner of the 1974 New York City Marathon, and author of Marathon Woman

“Ed Ayres is a legend who shares his many provocative insights and lessons in an informative yet enjoyable way. A true champion, Ed uses his gift to help us all be the best that we can be.”
—Dean Karnazes, athlete and New York Times bestselling author

“This book reminds us that our strength and vitality can never be separated from the health of the earth we run on, and whose air we breathe.”
—Bill Rodgers, four-time New York Marathon winner and four-time Boston Marathon winner

“In a culture addicted to quick hits, fast times and unrelenting over-stimulus, Ed Ayres speaks with the voice of wisdom, simplicity, and acceptance of what is. The Longest Race offers many life lessons learned through Ayres’s long-time practice of endurance running. He speaks volumes on two things we could all use: more simplicity—and a sense of pacing. We highly recommend this book to anyone ready to step off the speeding train and do a freefall into the present.”
—Danny and Katherine Dreyer, authors of Chi Running, Chi Walking and Chi Marathon