Ed Ayres - The Longest Race: A Lifelong Runner, an Iconic Ultramarathon, and the Case for Human Endurance

Revealing, savvy, and fast-paced, Ayress eloquent book on marathon running is a master class on the priceless life lessons of enduring and conquering obstacles to victory.

Publishers Weekly

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 City Marathon winner and four-time Boston Marathon winner

In this compelling read, visionary Ed Ayres takes us on a run that may save our nanosecond lives... and our planet.

Kathrine Switzer, first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon, winner of the 1974 New York City Marathon, and author of Marathon Woman

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 Timesbestselling author of Ultramarathon Man

Evokes the feeling of being on a long, rambling run with a very good friend. A gifted storyteller, [Ayres] seamlessly moves between discussing running to exploring larger life issues... that readers will ruminate on long after the last page is turned.

Booklist

Required reading for any aspiring ultrarunner. An inspirational story by someone who knows more about life on the run, and what it means to us, than many of us could dream of.

Robin Harvie, author of The Lure of Long Distances: Why We Run

An ultramarathon is made up of a million moments, and youre different at the end than you were at the startits the perfect metaphor, as Ed Ayres makes clear, for the race weve got to run now, with focus and grit, if were going to deal with the deepest trouble weve ever stumbled into as a planet.

Bill McKibben, Schumann Distinguished Scholar, Middlebury College

The Longest Race is a fascinating, compelling, and far-reaching read.

Amby Burfoot, Runners World editor-at-large and winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon

With the head of a scientist, the heart of an endurance athlete, and the soul of an ultra-distance runner, [Ed] teaches us good stewardship not only for our bodies but also for this planet.... We can all learn from his words.

Naomi Benaron, author of Running the Rift

The most clearly articulated account Ive ever read as to the goings-on inside the mind of a runner.

Brendan Brazier, bestselling author of Thrive and formulator of Vega

I have been reading Ed Ayress insightful thoughts on running and life since I started serious training in the 1970s. We can all benefit greatly from Eds wisdom.

Joe Friel, elite endurance-athlete coach and author of The Triathletes Training Bible

To read this book is to run alongside a seasoned athlete, a deep thinker, and a great storyteller. Ayres is the best kind of running companion, generously doling out hilarious stories and hard-won insights on performance conditioning and the human condition. His lifetime of ultra-running and environmental writing drives his exploration of what keeps us running long distancesand what it might take to keep the planet from being run into the ground.

Curtis Runyan, editor, Nature Conservancy magazine

The Longest Race tells an extraordinary story of athletic spirit fueled by, yet transcending, competition. Deep in our souls, its a thing we can find only through the hard work of caring and striving, not only for ourselves but for our fellow competitors, for life itself, and indeed for the fate of the earth. We return to this spirit or we perish.

David Meggyesy, former NFL linebacker, author of Out of Their League, and former Western Director of the NFL Players Association

An extraordinary journey of the human body, mind, and soul running together. This is a breathtaking, feet-on-the-ground story.

Marianne Williamson, author of A Womans Worth and Healing the Soul of America

One of the nations leading environmental thinkers, and a nationally-ranked runner over half a century, Ed Ayres embodies the classic ideal mens sana in corpore sano. Ayres shows how the discipline of endurance running can lead us as individuals and as a nation to environmental sustainability. Ayres confirms what a few of us have long suspected: In our greatest individual challenges, trail running proves itself just like life, only more so.

Tony Rossmann, environmental advocate, UC Berkeley law professor, and past president of the Western States Endurance Run

Ed Ayres has a talent for drawing the reader into his adventure. Enjoy the journey; it is a fun one.

Michael Wardian, 2011 World Ultrarunner of the Year

As [Ed] carries us with him along this course, he deftly uses the past to inform the present. His overarching question: What does it take for an individual as well as a civilization to go the distance without collapsing?

Lester R. Brown, president, Earth Policy Institute

Ed deftly weaves together a lifetimes experiences and observations: a memoir of a pioneering ultramarathoner and professional writer, a primer of advice on going long distances, an anthropological study of humans as runners, and a set of environmental/ecological essays. Each topic alone would have made a good book. Together they yield a great one, richly detailed and finely written.

Joe Henderson, former editor, Runners World

An epic story of how important our fitness as individuals may be to the long-run sustainability of our national and global society.

Jacqueline Hansen , two-time world-record holder for the womens marathon, Boston Marathon winner, and first woman to run a sub-2:40 marathon

Ayress tale is nothing less than a philosophical treatise on how to survive and thrive in a world of dwindling resources, alarming climate change, and haunting violence. Its about a human race, but also