In Search of Al Howie - Softcover

Beasley, Jared

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1771603380 ISBN 13: 9781771603386

Publisher: Rocky Mountain Books, 2019

Synopsis

The story of Al Howie is a remarkable and at times unbelievable adventure into the heart of the longest races in the world with one of modern history’s most eccentric ultra-marathon runners.

If you ran 2225 kilometres from Winnipeg to Ottawa, you’d be crazy. If the day after you arrived in Ottawa you showed up to a 24-hour race and started knocking back beers, you would be stupid. If you then ran the 195 kilometre, 24-hour race, won it, and ran all the way back to Winnipeg, you’d be a true freak of nature. If later, at 46 years old, you ran 7200 kilometres across Canada in the world-record time of 72 days, 10 hours, and then followed it up two weeks later by breaking another world record (which happened to be your own) in the longest certified race on Earth, you’d be a mega-distance alien. In all of this, if you were forever broke, using fake names and aliases, teetering on the edge of sanity, and doing it all in three-ounce racing flats, you’d be Al Howie.

Based on interviews with Howie himself during his final two years (he died in 2016), Jared Beasley’s book takes the reader into the incomprehensible distances of a legendary runner and the amazing and complex world of an astounding figure in modern sports history.

About this title

About the Author

Jared Beasley has spent years as an actor and director, having written numerous feature screenplays and independent shorts. Originally from the American South, he has a degree in literature and theatre from the University of Alabama and is the co-author of The Black Sheep: The Fittest / Unfittest Bar Owner In New York. Jared lives in New York, NY.

From the Back Cover

Al Howie was born in West Kilbride, Scotland in 1945. He immigrated to Canada in the early 1970s and moved to Victoria, British Columbia, in 1978. He began running at the age of 29 in order to quit a three-pack-a-day cigarette habit and over the course of his remarkable career, won more than 50 marathons and ultramarathons. Howie fought poverty and a rare case of adult-onset diabetes to break numerous records in some of the longest races of the world. He still holds the world record for running across Canada faster than any runner to ever attempt it. Al Howie died in Duncan, British Columbia, Canada, on June 21, 2016.

From the Inside Flap

"In the mid-1970s, there was almost a refugee crisis of hippies like Al looking for an out and for somewhere to fit in. A small group of these vagabonds found it in running. While it is hard to understand today, it was quite a spectacle back in the day to see someone "jogging." It was not something people did, especially on the roads and sidewalks where so-called normal people went about their lives. These early warriors were scoffed at, misunderstood and derided as freaks. 'Running is for weirdos' was a common quip of the day."

Edition details

• Publisher: Rocky Mountain Books
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1771603380
• ISBN 13: 9781771603386
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272