The Rise of the Ultra Runners

By: Adharanand Finn

Narrated by: Ralph Lister

Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Once the reserve of only the most hardcore enthusiasts, ultra running is now a thriving global industry, with hundreds of thousands of competitors each year. But is the rise of this most brutal and challenging sport - with races that extend into hundreds of miles, often in extreme environments - an antidote to modern life, or is it a symptom of a modern illness?

In The Rise of the Ultra Runners, award-winning author Adharanand Finn travels to the heart of the sport to investigate the reasons behind its rise and discover what it takes to join the ranks of these ultra athletes. Through encounters with the extreme and colorful characters of the ultramarathon world, and his own experiences of running ultras everywhere from the deserts of Oman to the Rocky Mountains, Finn offers a fascinating account of people testing the boundaries of human endeavor.

©2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC

great guide in to world of ultra running

I really enjoyed the book and the load of information that came through. but the narrator was big part of the easy listen as well.
cheers

Narration is too much.

Great book, awful narration.
The narrator made every female character sound like an old English woman.
Awful accent attempts too.
Stop trying to do women voices bro, you can't do it.

Honest, Humorous, Well Written and Well Narrated

I’ve enjoyed listening to this entire book. The author can write- hence why he writes for a living! While he can run some mean splits he also makes this book open and accessible to all.

Unexpectedly Fantastic

I've listened to a whole pile of books on ultrarunning, perhaps unsurprisingly while out running. They tend to fall into a few camps, either instructional or biographical/autobiographical. In those I've found plenty of good reads, but most are meh, especially autobiographies, a lot of people are very high on themselves. This one showed up on a 2 for 1 sale so I said what the heck and picked it up.

It's not too dissimilar to titles like "My Year of Running Dangerously" by Tom Foreman, it's mildly autobiographical and follows the author training for a goal race. The thing is, Adharanand just goes about it in a better way. He pokes, at least briefly, into most areas of the sport, including road ultras, trail ultras, stage races, even up to the crazy Barkley Marathons (just wrapped this morning, Karel was so close!), and is not afraid to bring up some of the controversy like the points system for UTMB and cheating/doping. He points out that this sport is very caucasian, and doesn't exactly find a reason, but does make you think about it. He talks form, training, equipment, philosophy, etc. and does it all in a pretty factual way without interjecting too much of his own opinions.

He also has some great interviews, most are brief but it's a who's who of late 2010's ultrarunners. Zach Miller, Sage Canaday, Camille Herron, etc. He doesn't sugar coat the difficulties of ultrarunning, and also runs head first into the "why" of running so far. Spoiler - He doesn't find the answer and ultimately comes to the conclusion that there often isn't one, yet it's still a very compelling sport. I can't put my finger on why I like ultras, but man do I love them.

My highest praise is that when I finished the book yesterday I was running 800m repeats, which are not a cake walk. Normally I'll switch to music to keep me going through these, this time I left the book on because the finish is compelling. I wrapped my last one right about in line with the end of the book, we both finished strong. A well earned 5 stars.

Great Inspiration

Fantastic storytelling! As a long time runner but only recent Ultrarunner I could certainly relate to the pain and required endurance of mind and body. Well written but the voice on the audio sometimes spoke with urgency when it was probably not needed.

Loved it!

Ultra found me a year ago (today!) As I type this (3:45AM) I’m about to enter my first 53 mile race (after several 50k’s this past year.) I live in the blue mountains of eastern Oregon and last summer someone mentioned a race in the mountains near our house. After my first race I was hooked! This book really captures my/our ultrarunning experiences. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and feel like there are excerpt I could have someone read that really describe in PERFECT detail what I/we am/are experiencing out there in the mountains and why the sport is becoming so popular.

loved it!

love the book, I would definitely listen to it again. the author did a good job of waking through the good, the bad, the ugly and the beauty of ulta running.

A runners story from a beginners point of view

After reading (listening) to another book I won’t name on Ultra running, I was nervous to delve into this one. I am glad I went ahead. The author provides detailed tales of his experiences and admits the mistakes he makes along the way. I instantly felt a connection with his journey and cheered for his accomplishments. An absolute must read for anyone interested in the world of ultra running.

Non Elite Masters Clydesdale

It was a great story about the human mind. It was refreshing to learn why so many people run so far. It was also good to know so many think the same way many of us do while running far. Most people, I suspect, never have a need to find their personal, human limits. Some of do. In some ways, the book helped me sort some things out.

Keep going Finn!

Great read/listen. I've enjoyed all of his previous books and this one was no different. Now I've added even more runs to my bucket list. As someone who follows the sport of ultrarunning it was easy for me to understand the flow of the book. For someone not familiar it might be a little bit hard to follow the different characters he brings in and out of the book. There was multiple times that I tagged a location to come back and listen to it again to gain running advice or to remember a previous ultarunning experience.