The longest race : a lifelong runner, an iconic ultramarathon, and the case for human endurance

Summary: The author has run in over 600 races across fifty-five years - he is arguably the most experienced American distance runner still competing today. A book no one else could have written, this is his urgent exploration of the connection between individual endurance and a sustainable society. The Longest Race begins at the starting line of the 2001 JFK 50 Mile, the nation's oldest and largest ultramarathon and, like other such races, an epic test of human limits and aspiration. At age sixty, his sights set on breaking the age-division record, Ayres embarks on a course over the rocky ridge of the Appalachian Trail, along the headwind-buffeted towpath of the Potomac River, and past momentous Civil War sites such as Harpers Ferry and Antietam. But even as Ayres focuses on concerns familiar to every endurance runner starting strong and setting the right pace, the art of breathing, overcoming fatigue, mindfulness for the course ahead he finds himself as preoccupied with the future of our planet as with the finish line of this 50-mile race.