Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness

But you can be transformed. Not overnight, but over time.

We fastpacked into remote hot springs, went climbing in Joshua Tree,

Coming from the flatlands, I had to learn to run uphill. Sharpening that skill, I improved all my running. You can, too, with or without hills. Next time you’re running, count the times your right foot strikes the ground in 20 seconds. Multiply by three and you’ll have your stride rate per minute. (One stride equals two steps, so your steps per min

MAKING PROGRESS Regular running is satisfying in itself.

books like Running Wild: An Extraordinary Adventure of the Human Spirit, by John Annerino; Running and Being: The Total Experience, by George Sheehan; and The Marathon

and a philosophy of living that he called “Stotan,” which he explained as a combination of Stoic and Spartan. He wrote that an athlete needed “hardness, toughness, and unswerving devotion to an ideal,” but he also needed to embrace “diet, philosophy, cultivation of the intellect, and openness to artistic endeavors.” According to Cerutty, “You only

Researchers speculate that music suppresses pain by, basically, focusing the brain on something else—tunes. In one study, researchers found that listening to music created the same pain-easing results of taking a tablet of extra-strength Tylenol.

Bushido is letting go of the past and the future and focusing on the moment.

“When you run on the earth and with the earth, you can run forever.”