I love running and reading about running, but I didn't enjoy this book at all. It was so boring and pointless--could easily have been shortened to a 10 page article. The only reason I finished it was that I am 40 weeks and 3 days pregnant, and this book helped me fall asleep despite my pregnancy induced insomnia. ( )

nonfiction (sports memoir / running). I am not very familiar with the sport of running, and would not have picked this up if I hadn't been looking for a "stretch" book, but this was interesting. I did skim parts here and there and here again, but overall enjoyed it and gained an appreciation for the natural abilities of Kenyans and the stamina of anyone who trains to run marathons. ( )

Finn, and his wife and two children, move to Kenya so he can train for a marathon. What will he learn about running, and about Kenyan running culture? How fast will he get? This makes for a fun combination of a travel book and a running book.

I would have liked it more, though, if Finn had been a more serious runner, and didn't play stupid quite so much. For example, coming into it he claims to think that all Kenyan runners run barefoot all the time, which he would have seen was false from any photograph or any of the hundreds of running magazine articles on Kenyan runners. He's a runner, but he only runs every few days, taking off weeks or months at a time. When he moves to Kenya, he's only running up to 3 miles at a time. Maybe this was deliberate sandbagging so his improvement in Kenya would be more dramatic? But no, he keeps this schedule up even after moving his whole family to Kenya! He also deliberately runs stupidly, possibly so the book has more drama? He refuses to wear a watch, for example, in training or races, unlike everyone else, and makes any number of other dumb mistakes. Since there's no new information in this book (and what there is is of questionable accuracy), these details make the project annoying to any serious runner.

> One woman tells me, as we sit on the grass, that she thinks running is like getting drunk in reverse. With drinking, it feels great at first, but then you start feeling awful. With running, you feel awful at first, but then, after you finish, you feel great.

> After the race in Eldoret, I decide I need to ratchet up my training. I'm still in my old mindset, training every other day, treating running as a side activity.

> "I'm going running," I say. "Why?" she asks. It's a good question, but right now, just before a run, is not the best moment to try to answer it. Right before you head out running, it can be hard to remember exactly why you're doing it. You often have to override a nagging sense of futility, lacing up your shoes, telling yourself that no matter how unlikely it seems right now, after you finish you will be glad you went. It's only afterward that it makes sense, although even then it's hard to rationalize why. You just feel right. After a run, you feel at one with the world, as though some unspecified, innate need has been fulfilled.

> I must be the only runner here without a watch. Before I came to Kenya, I had naively imagined everyone racing along without a thought for anything as controlling and analytical as a stopwatch.

> in the West we're stuck on a conveyor belt going the wrong way. In 1975, for example, thirty-four marathons were run in under 2 hours 20 minutes by American runners, twenty-three by British runners, and none by Kenyan runners. By 2005, however, there were 22 sub-2:20 marathon performances by Americans, 12 by Britons, and a staggering 490 by Kenyans.

> "Thirty-eight kilometers. We leave at five in the morning." "Yeah, sure. Sounds good." Sounds terrifying, is what I mean. That's almost twenty-four miles. I've never run more than thirteen miles before.

> The cook passes a tray with a mound of ugali on it through the window from the adjoining kitchen, then a pot of sukuma wiki , which is basically stewed kale

> A daily diet of run, eat, sleep, run. In Iten alone there are around one thousand full-time athletes living like this—in a town with a population of just four thousand people [Wikipedia says the population is over 42,000]

> At three miles I begin to wonder how fast I'm running. I made a late decision not to wear a watch. Anders thought I was mad, but I've done every training run without one, and the Kenyan runners at the Kimbia camp didn't think it was a problem. Just run how you feel, they said.

> The long, straight lines cutting across the parched landscape seem to stretch on farther than before. The gentle wind and the soft pat, pat, pat of my feet are the only sounds. I swing a few glances behind me, but there is no one as far as I can see. Just the long path already traveled, empty, as though I'm the last runner on earth. I have an energy gel in my back pocket. I had planned to take it at eighteen miles, but now, at fifteen miles, it's all I can think about

> As I round the last corner, the beautiful, arched finish rises up to meet me. The clock ticks on to 3 hours 20 minutes. And then I'm there. I've done it. ( )

Adharanand Finn, a casual runner who "might have been really good" and also a writer for Runner's World magazine, sets out to realize the dream of many runners, visit what one journalist has called "The Halls of the Mountain Kings," the town on the edge of the Rift Valley that is the epicenter of the Kenyan running explosion. Over the past 15 years, Kenyans from one particular ethnic group, the Kalenjin, have nearly completely dominated distance running from the 10K to the marathon. Their dominance, challenged only by their geographic neighbors from Ethiopia, has become so overwhelming that some major marathons have offered considerable incentives to encourage runners from other countries to try to break the hold of Kenyans over top places.

Finn is able to live and run in Iten, Kenya, the county seat town where many of the best runners train at a variety of training camps. His goal is to discover the "secret" of Kenyan running success. As the spouse of a Kalenjin former runner for the past 30 years, I have lived and worked within the culture and was prepared to dislike this book, as so many brief visits by "running investigators" have led to vacuous descriptions of children running six miles to school, uphill both ways no doubt(ever wonder why they never build the schools near anybody's house? yeah, I'm being sarcastic) and the possibility that the running culture comes from the Kalenjin's history as cattle raiders or their habit of drinking soured milk. However, Finn's book is actually well-written, entertaining, and inspiring. Finn is culturally sensitive to realize that he is missing things socially, and this sensitivity and humble attitude is disarming. He also puts a serious effort into his running, but is realistic about his own goals and puts the focus on the dual theme of his own struggles as a runner and the stories of the Kenyans he meets and trains with. I don't think he's right to so completely dismiss the possibility of some as-yet unidentified genetic factor in Kenyan success, but that's really not the point of the book. It's a great read that I would recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in running or in Kenya. ( )

Started very weak, I had concerns about the colonialist to be in first few chapters. however once the story moved to Item & Eldoret, the Kenyans were presented as more human & less super hero or other.

I ended up really liking it & agree with the assessment that Be. Colm O'Connel is one of the few mzungu not exploiting the Kalenjin. ( )