North
Finding My Way While Running the Appalachian Trail
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4.8 • 27 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
From the author of the bestseller Eat and Run, a thrilling memoir about his grueling, exhilarating, and immensely inspiring 46-day run to break the speed record for the Appalachian Trail.
Scott Jurek is one of the world's best known and most beloved ultrarunners. Renowned for his remarkable endurance and speed, accomplished on a vegan diet, he's finished first in nearly all of ultrarunning's elite events over the course of his career. But after two decades of racing, training, speaking, and touring, Jurek felt an urgent need to discover something new about himself. He embarked on a wholly unique challenge, one that would force him to grow as a person and as an athlete: breaking the speed record for the Appalachian Trail.
North is the story of the 2,189-mile journey that nearly shattered him. When he set out in the spring of 2015, Jurek anticipated punishing terrain, forbidding weather, and inevitable injuries. He would have to run nearly 50 miles a day, every day, for almost seven weeks. He knew he would be pushing himself to the limit, that comfort and rest would be in short supply -- but he couldn't have imagined the physical and emotional toll the trip would exact, nor the rewards it would offer.
With his wife, Jenny, friends, and the kindness of strangers supporting him, Jurek ran, hiked, and stumbled his way north, one white blaze at a time. A stunning narrative of perseverance and personal transformation, North is a portrait of a man stripped bare on the most demanding and transcendent effort of his life. It will inspire runners and non-runners alike to keep striving for their personal best.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ultramarathoner Jurek (Eat & Run) shares the grueling story of his quest to run the Appalachian Trail "2,189 miles while climbing and descending a million vertical feet" faster than anyone before him. Much of the power in Jurek's writing comes from his honesty about his limitations and how his expectations have changed as he's aged: "I'm forty and I need to feel what it's like to go to the edge again and go further." As he moves north from Georgia to his destination in Maine over the course of six weeks, Jurek details the "tug-of-war between me and my younger self," as he deals with fatigue, injury, hunger, and various well-wishers he meets on the way who often slow him down. His writing evokes the terrain: he feels as "free as the grassy fields rolling beneath me out to the Blue Ridge horizon"; while running in stormy weather, he "ran into mud pits unlike anything I had ever seen." His wife, Jenny, who accompanied him for the entire journey in a black cargo van converted into a "home on wheels," contributes passages throughout. Jurek's exciting narrative presents the pain and joys of ultra-running at the end of a long and successful running career.
Customer Reviews
I wish there were more books by SJ
After reading Eat & Run, I had to check out North. Now I only wish Scott and Jenny would keep writing more of their adventures.
It’s so inspiring to learn all the things they went through, and how each one was overcome.
As a new ultra runner, I find all these experiences super valuable and would keep reading about them forever.
Very compelling read.
This might sound strange but I am 43 years old and this is the first novel that I have ever read! I was looking for something other than mindless social media to pass the time during COVID 19 quarantine and this book sounded like it would do the trick. Well, it did, and then some. Very well written and it really captures all the elements of the AT brilliantly. Now that I am finished with North, I can’t wait to dive into another book. I highly recommend North!