Winner of 'Best New Writer' British Sports Publishing Awards. Winner of the 'Bill Rollinson Prize for Landscape and Tradition' Lakeland Book Awards Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award and for the Boardman-Tasker Prize.
An inspiring insight into one of the oldest extreme sports, and a lyrical tribute to Britains mountains and the men and women who live among them, this is the definitive story of fell-running. With an introduction from bestselling author Robert Macfarlane, this is a complete portrait of one of the few sports to have remained utterly true to its roots in which the point is not fame or fortune but to run the ancient, wild landscape, and to be a hero, if at all, within ones own valley. Richard Askwiths journey takes him into a world of forbidding rockscapes, horizontal rain, fear, exhaustion and stunning natural beauty, as well as his own attempt at one of the purest and toughest challenges imaginable: the Bob Graham Round, the sports traditional test of 42 Lake District peaks in 24 hours. Along the way, he encounters some of the most prodigious and unsung athletes Britain has produced, such as Joss Naylor, who covered the equivalent of four Everests in a single run. Gripping, funny and moving, this is a story that any aspiring runner, endurance athlete or mountain-lover will understand well: of extremity, heroism and the experience of a lifetime.
