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.

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.

This book resonated with me

As a kid pack 40+ ultra runner there was so much in this book, this story to which I could relate listened to it over 2 days and even during a short 10 mile run - highly recommend

Highly commended!

Like: Fantastic, energetic narration of an inspiring story. Most times when listening to this book, I could hardly wait to lace up my running shoes and get out on the trails. Great story!
Dislike: Nothing - I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
Recommend: Yes! To anyone interested in running or how far the human body can go.
Rating: 5/5 - cannot fault the writing or the narration.

So much fun!

This book was so much fun to listen to! I thought the narration was wonderful and brought so much life and drama to a beautifully written book. Any ultra runner will get a lot of joy out of it. And those not yet indoctrinated will get a great view of the drives and experiences of those who choose to run long distances.

Had all you could ask for in a book about running

Best running book I've come across. It had everything that you could ever want in a running book. Science, technique, physical and mental conflict, different types of races and runners, and the creation of an ultra runner from the ground up.