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INTRODUCTION 06

AFRICA 08The Safaricom Half Marathon (Kenya) 10The Marathon des Sables (Morocco) 18 The Great Ethiopian Run 24The Comrades Marathon (South Africa) 30

AMERICAS 36The Boston Marathon (USA) 38 Havana’s El Malecón (Cuba) 44Mesa Trail (USA) 52A Tour of Vancouver’s World-Class Seawall (Canada) 58The Barkley Marathons (USA) 64A Rainforest Run in Costa Rica 70A Patriotic Path Around the National Mall (USA) 76

The Dipsea Trail Race (USA) 82Copacabana at Dawn (Brazil) 88The Chicago Shoreline (USA) 94Badwater 135 (USA) 100Bay to Breakers (USA) 106 A Winter Warm-Up in Québec City (Canada) 112The Big Sur Marathon (USA) 118An Illuminating Ascent in La Paz (Bolivia) 124Portland’s Epic Park Run (USA) 130The Grand Canyon’s Rim-to-Rim Challenge (USA) 136

ASIA 142The Jinshanling Great Wall Marathon (China) 144Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak (China) 150An Adventure Run in India 156Kyoto’s Kamo Riverfront (Japan) 162

CONTENTS Easy Harder Epic

The Angkor Wat Half Marathon (Cambodia) 168The Marathon of Afghanistan 174A Climb into the Foothills of Nepal 180Seoul’s Han River (South Korea) 186

EUROPE 192 A Tightrope Run Along the Amalfi Coast (Italy) 194A Sightseeing Lap Around Edinburgh (Scotland) 202An Ode to a Czech Running Hero (Czech Republic) 208A Portal to the Past in Pembrokeshire (Wales) 214Barcelona’s Sea-to-Summit (Spain) 220A Classic Round in the Lake District (England) 226Berlin’s Greatest Hits (Germany) 232The London Marathon (England) 238A Quiet Run in Rome (Italy) 244Dublin’s Wild and Windswept Peninsula (Ireland) 250

The Athens Marathon (Greece) 256Arrancabirra (Italy) 262The North Pole Marathon 268

OCEANIA 274The Great Ocean Road Marathon (Australia) 276Melbourne’s Must-Do Park Run (Australia) 282The Ormiston Gorge Pound Loop (Australia) 288The Kepler Track (New Zealand) 294Sydney’s Spectacular Seafront (Australia) 300Ultra-Trail Australia 306The Ghost Run of Waihi Gorge (New Zealand) 312Tasmania’s Freycinet Peninsula (Australia) 318

INDEX 324

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oday running is more than just exercise. Marathons are no longer just for fitness junkies, and the sport has spawned a surprisingly rabid and diverse subculture. Sure, people still run to get into shape, but these days just as many do it to

meditate. Some do it for the high or just to clear their head, while others enter races as a way to make a dozen friends all at once. Many stick to pavements, though more are running off-road and into the wilderness. Regardless of how or where they do it, most runners agree that it is the great grounding constant in their life.

Most runners will also agree that moving through a landscape while also breaking a sweat has an oddly profound effect on one’s sense of place. Whether you’re repeating a well-worn loop close to home or exploring an exotic new land while travelling, running affords a deeper understanding of a town or city and its citizens. Unlike a walking tour, it has a way of forcing more self-reflection, while also allowing you to cover more ground in a short amount of time. In fact, one of the best, and quickest, ways to get to know an unfamiliar place is by competing in a local race, and it is perhaps the only way one can work out and go sightseeing all at once.

Indeed, running now has a surprisingly symbiotic relationship with travel itself – experienced vagabonds insist it cures jetlag, while running seems to be the one exercise we actually do when travelling, whether for a short business trip or during a round-the-world adventure. There is nothing easier than stuffing a pair of running shoes into our luggage, and those running shoes can now take us to places such as Everest Base Camp, the Australian Outback and even to the North Pole. As more and more people seek out running travel adventures, organised races are popping up in the most extreme corners of the globe. And not only marathons – ultra-distance events are booming.

And this is perhaps the most remarkable thing to happen in the world of running in the past decade: those of us who used to run a few miles after work now run 10Ks; those who used to run 10Ks now run marathons; and those who have run a couple of marathons now have their eyes on ultramarathons.

In this book are 200 of the greatest runs on the planet, in some 60 countries across all seven continents. The 50 featured runs are first-hand accounts, written by people who are not only passionate about

running – some even do it for a living – but also about the idea that to have run somewhere is to know it. These are stories that will convince you there are times when a run is the way to see a place.

You’ll learn why the 120-year-old Boston Marathon has become a symbol of pride for America’s oldest major city, and how a simple run from Bondi to Coogee beaches allows you to become one of Sydney’s fitness-mad beach bums (if only for an hour). You’ll understand why a stage race like the Sahara’s brutal 156-mile (250km) Marathon des Sables sears its way into your psyche, and how a quick run around Québec in winter reveals the city’s beauty.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOKEach of the five chapters in this book includes a special collection of runs from that particular region, from easy-access park runs and city loops to iconic marathons and epic ultras. A colour-coded key on the contents page will help you identify which are easy, which require serious fitness and fortitude, and which fall somewhere in between (based almost entirely on distance and elevation gain). Accompanying each main story is some practical information to help you follow in the author’s footsteps. The authors have also included three extra routes or races that have a similar character to their featured run, but may be closer to home or more accessible.

It’s important to point out that there are a handful of insanely difficult runs in this book that only a few of us will ever be able to do. In many cases, the people who have written about them are professional runners, paid to train on a daily basis. But the armchair adventure value of these tales cannot be overstated. You will no doubt become parched just reading about Death Valley’s Badwater 135 and become dizzy reading about the notoriously disorienting Barkley Marathons. These are stories that will inspire you to kick things up a notch, to train for something bold and, perhaps, someday sign up for a race you never thought possible.

Whichever runs you decide to add to your bucket list, take the time to source and study your own detailed maps and to gear up properly for any routes that might take you off the beaten path. Be kind to your fellow runners and even kinder to the wild landscapes you travel through. Be prepared for a few weird looks from locals and, most importantly, never forget to pack your running shoes.

INTRODUCTION

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Clockwise from left: pounding New

Zealand’s Kepler Track; running

the Great Ocean Road in Australia;

Positano, a picturesque pit-stop

on Italy’s Amalfi Coast. Previous

page: negotiating tricky terrain on

Australia’s Larapinta Trail

Opening spread, clockwise

from left: experience ancient

Angkor Wat and the sunshine of

California’s Big Sur on foot; Alpine

fancy dress on Italy’s Arrancabirra;

the classic London Marathon

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THE MAR ATHON DES SABLES

This iconic 150-mile (240km) multiday run across Morocco’s unforgiving Sahara makes for a great introduction to the world of stage racing.

henever I think of Morocco I think of sensory overload. I remember street vendors selling monkeys, snakes and exotic knives. I see bags of spices in every colour imaginable and scents that

are like nothing I’m familiar with back home in Virginia. But I’ve never fully understood why this is what I remember about Morocco – of the 40 days I’ve spent in the region, 99% of that time has been spent in what could only be described as Saharan sensory deprivation.

For me, Morocco is where I go to compete in the gruelling stage race known as the Marathon des Sables, a seven-day, 150-mile (240km) run across the North African desert, where average temps top out around 104°F (40°C). In the past decade, I’ve run the MdS twice, in 2009 and 2010, when I even finished third. After years as a sponsored ultrarunner – having also now run both the Badwater 135 and the Barkley Marathons – the MdS remains one of the hardest races I have ever attempted. But that’s probably

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MESA TRAILEasy-access wilderness on the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado holds a trail run so good it will turn burned out pavement junkies into off-road addicts.

probably would have quit running forever if it weren’t for a run I did 20 years ago. Since then, I have probably run this trail more than a thousand times, as it sits just a stone's throw away from my adopted hometown of Boulder, Colorado. Indeed it has become

much more than my favourite place to log miles over the years – it’s my go-to destination for athletic fitness, deep thinking and self-calm, not to mention a special place to run with my dog or with friends, manage career stress, and even mourn the passing of my father.

Like a lot of runners, I was at a point of being burned out, broken down and just plain bored of pavement, training for the same 10K runs and enduring the same kind of suffering through a big city marathon every year. Oddly, the same meditative – almost therapeutic – monotony that draws us to running often becomes the thing we despise most.

Then, by way of some unsolicited advice from a neighbour, I stumbled upon this utopian singletrack trail that helped change my life. Mesa Trail is a rolling, 6.7-mile (10.8km) dirt trail skirting beneath the iconic mountains that make up Boulder’s western horizon line – most notably, Green Mountain, Bear Peak and the Flatirons. Long one of the trail-running capitals of the US, Boulder has more than 40 unique routes and 300 miles (480km)of singletrack, dirt roads and craggy mountain ridgelines. And for many reasons, the utilitarian Mesa Trail is the best of the bunch.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that first run on Mesa Trail stirred something in me. It’s an idyllic route, one that spoils you with both mild and challenging sections, but nothing too steep that it cannot be run at a slow pace. Most importantly, it has a flow about it, a moderately undulating profile that continually rolls up and down without sending a runner’s heart rate off the charts.

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A TOUR OF VANCOUVER’S WORLD -CLASS SEAWALLHugging 400 hectares of rainforest and parkland, the stunning Stanley Park

Seawall wows visitors and inspires even the most jaded local runners.

or local runners, Vancouver’s Stanley Park Seawall is their treadmill – part of a routine that belies its beauty, an after-work or weekend ritual that is somehow both routine and rare at the same time. However, there’s a

reason it’s often mobbed with tourists and all a local needs to do to be reminded how spectacular it is, is to look at the face of one of the hundreds of people who visit each day, as they stroll, cycle, sit and sightsee.

I certainly never need reminding of how spectacular this stretch of coastline is. These days, I guess you could say I’m both a local and a tourist. I lived in Vancouver for years, but now live 7500 miles (12,000km) away in London. I only get to run the seawall when I’m visiting. But to be clear, running the Seawall is the first thing I do whenever I do return to my hometown – and each time it feels like an embrace from an old friend, rekindling memories I thought I’d lost forever. I have wondered if it would mean this much to me if I did still live here and ran it every day. The answer is yes – it’s that good.

During one recent visit, I couldn’t wait to lace up my running shoes and make my way downtown. I was starting at Waterfront Station near Coal Harbour. Stanley Park is an island of trees linked to the West End of downtown by a narrow isthmus. But its famous 5.5-mile (9km)-long strand, with its paved lanes separating pedestrians from cyclists, has been extended a little over a mile further east, along Coal Harbour, which makes it possible to do a longer run from downtown than was previously possible. Some say the Stanley Park Seawall is the longest uninterrupted waterfront footpath in the world.

It is certainly the ultimate way to experience Vancouver, as it winds past stands of towering evergreens, skirts along sandy beaches and

even affords sublime views of downtown. It also affords great views of the North Shore Mountains and islands floating in the Strait of Georgia, leading out to the frigid North Pacific.

It was early and I felt like I had the city to myself. I jogged westward along West Cordova St before cutting north along a pedestrian mall and down some steps to West Waterfront Rd and the Winter Olympics’ cauldron. A few more steps downward landed me squarely on the Seawall’s pavement. Floatplanes bobbed peacefully on the docks – later in the day they would all have engines blaring, and be ferrying people to and from remote islands in the sound.

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Forest Park is one of America’s greatest urban wildernesses, a vast untamed oasis in Oregon where the trail running is so good you’ll forget you’re in a city.

ortland, Oregon has two tourist destinations that truly and reliably live up to the hype. One is Powell’s City of Books, the independent bookstore that occupies a full city block on West Burnside. The other is Forest

Park. (Sorry, Voodoo Doughnut.) Interestingly, they have a lot in common. Both are huge, exerting a gravitational pull that attracts visitors from near and far, and both are supremely satisfying places to lose yourself for an hour or two. Both are cathedrals – Powell’s, to books; Forest Park, to nature.

But Forest Park is truly special in what it has to offer an especially picky outdoorsy and fit population. The bar is set quite high for greenspace in a city that is a short drive from both the ocean and the mountains. Sitting just across the Willamette River from downtown, it occupies a huge expanse just above the entire western shore. During my four years here, I’ve seen everyone on Forest Park’s trails, from elite runners (Portland is home to quite

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