Sports Memoirs Running

Born sighted, "blind" Dave Heeley showed athletic promise from an early age, smashing his town's 1500-metre track record aged just 11 years old. However, a devastating diagnosis shattered his sporting dreams, and he hastily gave up on sporting activity. From Light to Dark charts Dave's story and how he rediscovered his boyhood talent for running and went on to undertake some of the world's toughest challenges, including 10 marathons in 10 days and the 2015 Marathon des Sables, dubbed the "toughest footrace on Earth".

Author and musician Mitch Alden wanted to record a new CD. Months after running a personal best at the 2009 New York City Marathon, he decided a new full-length CD would be his next goal. During an early spring run, however, the marathon bug emerged from winter's grip and took a bite out of him. As he ran, he formed the crazy idea of combining his passions for singing and running into one epic experience: He could record his CD at a friend's studio in Chicago and race the Chicago Marathon immediately afterward.

Growing up in poverty in Limpopo, Caster’s early experiences at school are marked by many ups and downs: while her friends and family accept her for who she is, she is constantly bullied for her appearance. But she discovers soccer and immerses herself in the game - even making the boys’ team. It is only after she enrols at the University of Pretoria that her life changes completely.

"The emotional pain of failing just felt like it was going to be a bit worse than the physical pain of carrying on..." Attempting to break long-distance running records used to be an underground endeavour, until the virus-stricken summer of 2020 came along. Only a few, such as the Bob Graham Round in the Lake District, had ever broken into mainstream consciousness. But an absence of running races thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in an unprecedented rise in the popularity of attempts at breaking these records.

One of the greatest marathon runners of all time, Tom Longboat was one of the best-known athletes of the western world in the early 20th century. Longboat was an astonishing long-distance runner who grew up on the Six Nations reserve near Brantford, Ontario. He won the Boston Marathon in record time, 2:24.24, almost five minutes faster than the 10 previous winners. Longboat then raced in the Olympic Marathon in 1908, but he collapsed on the course amid rumours that his manager had drugged him with strychnine.

Un libro scritto con il cuore da una donna che ha vinto la sfida con se stessa: su-perare i propri limiti, vincere le proprie paure e arrivare al traguardo della ma-ratona. In questo libro Francesca Soli, fotografa e giornalista sportiva, ci racconta la sua storia e gli step che l'hanno portata a macinare centinaia di chilometri in vista del suo obiettivo: tagliare il traguardo di una maratona, arrivare alla fine e rico-minciare la vita, più forte.Con il suo sorriso, la motivazione e la determinazione personale, Francesca ci mostra come si possa raggiungere un grande risultato grazie alla forza di volontà e alla fiducia costante in se stessi.