Sports Memoirs Running

One of the greatest marathon runners of all time, Tom Longboat was one of the best-known athletes of the western world in the early 20th century. Longboat was an astonishing long-distance runner who grew up on the Six Nations reserve near Brantford, Ontario. He won the Boston Marathon in record time, 2:24.24, almost five minutes faster than the 10 previous winners. Longboat then raced in the Olympic Marathon in 1908, but he collapsed on the course amid rumours that his manager had drugged him with strychnine.

Sabrina Verjee is an ultrarunning phenomenon. In June 2021, on her fourth attempt, she became the first person to climb the Lake District’s 214 Wainwright hills in under six days, running 325 miles with a colossal 36,000 meters of ascent. Where There’s a Hill tells the story of an outsider who was never picked for a school sports team yet went on to become an accomplished modern pentathlete and adventure racer. After switching her focus to ultrarunning in her 30s, Sabrina moved to the Lake District, where she could hone her mountain-running skills on the local fells.

Das wohl verrückteste Laufjahr seit der Erfindung des Marathons. Nimm das, Schweinehund! Als sich der Mehltau des zweiten Lockdowns über Deutschland legt, fasst der beliebte Comedian und inoffizielle Weltmeister im Langsamschwimmen Wigald Boning einen folgenreichen Entschluss: Ich werde ein Jahr lang Marathon laufen. Jede Woche einen. 52 mal 42 Kilometer, komme, was wolle. "Lauf, Wigald, lauf!" ist seine herrlich schräge Liebeserklärung an die Langstrecke, an die Kraft der Unvernunft und an all seine Begleiterinnen und Begleiter durch ein Jahr voller Aufs und Abs.

Philipp Pflieger war bei Olympia 2016 der schnellste deutsche Marathonläufer. Ein Jahr später sorgte er für Schlagzeilen, als er beim Berlin-Marathon seine Kräfte überschätzte und das Rennen orientierungslos abbrechen musste. Daraus hat er viel gelernt, nicht nur über die Königsdisziplin des Laufens, sondern auch über sich selbst. Sein nächstes Ziel: Olympia 2020 in Tokio. In seinem Hörbuch nimmt Pflieger uns mit hinter die Kulissen des professionellen Marathonlaufens. Er erzählt über die Faszination des Laufens, lässt uns Siege und Niederlagen miterleben, und gibt Tipps, was Amateure von den Profis lernen können.

Francis Benali is a Southampton Football Club legend and a celebrated charity endurance athlete, and he's ready to tell his story. Francis 'Franny' Benali played football for 20 years for Southampton FC in nearly 400 games, almost his entire career. His utter dedication to the club caused him to be a hero to Saints fans around the world.

"Kiss or kill. Besa o mata. Besa la gloria o muere en el intento. Perder es morir, ganar es sentir. La lucha es lo que diferencia una victoria, un vencedor." Un fuera de serie. Un héroe. Una persona extraordinaria. Kilian Jornet es el actual campeón mundial de skyrunning, una de las pruebas físicas más duras del planeta. Ha subido y bajado el Kilimanjaro más rápidamente que cualquier otra persona en todo el mundo. Ha fulminado todos los record mundiales en cada reto que se ha propuesto: la Ultra-Trail del Mont-Blanc, la Transpirenaica, la vuelta al lago Tahoe...

"The emotional pain of failing just felt like it was going to be a bit worse than the physical pain of carrying on..." Attempting to break long-distance running records used to be an underground endeavour, until the virus-stricken summer of 2020 came along. Only a few, such as the Bob Graham Round in the Lake District, had ever broken into mainstream consciousness. But an absence of running races thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in an unprecedented rise in the popularity of attempts at breaking these records.

With his trademark rock 'n' roll hair and snakeskin spandex pants, plus a hot rod and a Harley, Lüc Carl fit the part as a bar manager based in New York City's gritty Lower East Side. And life was good for this Omaha, Nebraska, transplant-a talented drummer who originally moved to the big city to pursue his rock 'n' roll dreams-until, suddenly, it wasn't. Fast forward through seven years of working long hours, binging on late-night Chinese food, and drinking excessively; life had found Lüc 40 pounds overweight and completely out of shape.