Adharanand Finn – författare

'Finn has written the definitive book on ultra running today. I couldn't put it down.' - Dean Karnazes'Epic ... A triumphant, emotive and moving account of the transformative force of mind over matter.' - Irish Times***Marathons are no longer enough. Pain is to be relished, not avoided. Hallucinations are normal.Ultra running defies conventional logic. Yet this most brutal and challenging sport is now one of the fastest-growing in the world. Why is this? Is it an antidote to modern life, or a symptom of a modern illness?Adharanand Finn travelled to the heart of the sport to find out - and to see if he could become an ultra runner himself. His journey took him from the deserts of Oman to the snow-capped peaks of the Rockies, and on to his ultimate goal, the 105-mile Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc.The Rise of the Ultra Runners is the electrifying, inspirational account of what he learned along the way. Through encounters with the sport's many colourful characters and his experiences of its soaring highs and crushing lows, Finn offers an unforgettable insight into what can be found at the boundaries of human endeavour.

Sunday Times Sports Book of the YearShortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year AwardWinner - Best New Writer category at the British Sports Book AwardsAfter years of watching Kenyan athletes win the world's biggest long-distance races, Runner's World contributor Adharanand Finn set out to discover what it was that made them so fast - and to see if he could keep up. Packing up his family, he moved to Iten, Kenya, the running capital of the world, and started investigating. Was it running barefoot to school, the food, the altitude, or something else? At the end of his journey he put his research to the test by running his first marathon, across the Kenyan plains.This edition includes a new chapter covering the 2012 Olympics.

Sunday Times Sports Book of the YearShortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year AwardWinner - Best New Writer at the British Sports Book AwardsAfter years of watching Kenyan athletes win the world's biggest races, from the Olympics to big city marathons, Runner's World contributor Adharanand Finn set out to discover just what it was that made them so fast - and to see if he could keep up. Packing up his family (and his running shoes), he moved from Devon to the small town of Iten, in Kenya, home to hundreds of the country's best athletes. Once there he laced up his shoes and ventured out onto the dirt tracks, running side by side with Olympic champions, young hopefuls and barefoot schoolchildren. He ate their food, slept in their training camps, interviewed their coaches, and his children went to their schools. And at the end of it all, there was his dream, to join the best of the Kenyan athletes in his first marathon, an epic race through lion country across the Kenyan plains.

Welcome to Japan, the most running-obsessed nation on earth, where: a long-distance relay race is the country's biggest annual sporting event; companies sponsor their own running teams, paying the athletes like employees; and marathon monks run a thousand marathons in a thousand days to reach spiritual enlightenment.Adharanand Finn - award-winning author of Running with the Kenyans - moved to Japan to discover more about this unique running culture and what it might teach us about the sport and about Japan. As an amateur runner about to turn forty, he also hoped find out whether the Japanese approach to training might help him keep improving. What he learned - about competition, about team work, about beating your personal bests, about form and about himself - will fascinate anyone who is keen to explore why we run, and how we might do it better.

Welcome to Japan, the most running-obsessed nation on earth, where: a long-distance relay race is the country's biggest annual sporting event; companies sponsor their own running teams, paying the athletes like employees; and marathon monks run a thousand marathons in a thousand days to reach spiritual enlightenment.Adharanand Finn - award-winning author of Running with the Kenyans - moved to Japan to discover more about this unique running culture and what it might teach us about the sport and about Japan. As an amateur runner about to turn forty, he also hoped find out whether the Japanese approach to training might help him keep improving. What he learned - about competition, about team work, about beating your personal bests, about form and about himself - will fascinate anyone who is keen to explore why we run, and how we might do it better.

'Finn has written the definitive book on ultra running today. I couldn't put it down.' - Dean Karnazes'Epic ... A triumphant, emotive and moving account of the transformative force of mind over matter.' - Irish Times***Marathons are no longer enough. Pain is to be relished, not avoided. Hallucinations are normal.Ultra running defies conventional logic. Yet this most brutal and challenging sport is now one of the fastest-growing in the world. Why is this? Is it an antidote to modern life, or a symptom of a modern illness?Adharanand Finn travelled to the heart of the sport to find out - and to see if he could become an ultra runner himself. His journey took him from the deserts of Oman to the snow-capped peaks of the Rockies, and on to his ultimate goal, the 105-mile Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc.The Rise of the Ultra Runners is the electrifying, inspirational account of what he learned along the way. Through encounters with the sport's many colourful characters and his experiences of its soaring highs and crushing lows, Finn offers an unforgettable insight into what can be found at the boundaries of human endeavour.

"Born to Run" von Christopher McDougall (2009) und "Ultra Marathon Man" von Dean Karnazes (2005) sind Sportbücher, die die globale Laufszene nachhaltig geprägt und beeinflusst haben. Sie gehören zu den Klassikern der Lauf-Literatur.Doch nun schreiben wir 2019, und es ist Zeit für ein neues Standardwerk. Für dieses zeichnet der britische Starjournalist Adharanand Finn verantwortlich. In "Der Aufstieg der Ultra-Läufer" befasst er sich mit einer am schnellsten wachsenden Sportszene. In den vergangenen beiden Dekaden ist die Zahl der Finisher bei Ultra-Rennen um 400 (!) Prozent gestiegen. Mehr Teilnehmer weckt die Begehrlichkeit von Sponsoren und Ausrüstern. Siegläufer werden zu Superstars.Ultra Running war in der Tat einmal ein Reservat für Hardcore-Sportler. Heute ist der Ultra-Laufsport eine aufstrebende globale Industrie. Aber ist der Aufstieg dieses brutalsten und herausforderndsten Sports - mit Rennen, die sich über hunderte von Kilometern erstrecken und oft in extremen Umgebungen ausgetragen werden - ein Auflehnen gegen die aktuelle Lebenseinstellung in der ersten Welt oder das Symptom einer modernen Wohlstands-Krankheit?Auch, aber nicht nur dieser Frage geht Finn nach. In "Der Aufstieg der Ultra-Läufer" reist der preisgekrönte Autor in das Zentrum der Sportart, um die Gründe für dessen Aufstieg zu untersuchen und zu erfahren, was es denn braucht, um selbst ein Ultra-Sportler zu werden. Durch Begegnungen mit den extremen und schillernden Charakteren der Ultramarathon-Welt und seinen eigenen Lauf-Erlebnissen bietet Finn einen faszinierenden Bericht über Menschen, die die Grenzen menschlicher Leistungsfähigkeiten ausloten.

Von einem, der auszog, den japanischen Laufsport zu ergründenAls der britische Journalist und passionierte Marathonläufer Adharanand Finn seinen Bruder in Japan besucht, erlebt er sie hautnah: Die einmalige Atmosphäre des Ekiden, dem traditionellen Langstrecken-Staffellauf, bei dem sich Läuferinnen und Läufer die Distanz teilen.Nachhaltig beeindruckt zieht er mit Kind und Kegel in das Land der aufgehenden Sonne. Dort sucht er Kontakt zu den gut bezahlten Profiteams von Universitäten und Konzernen, trainiert mit ambitionierten Amateuren - und trifft einen der berühmten Marathon-Mönche, die 1000 Marathons in 1000 Tagen absolviert haben. Leben und Laufen in der japanischen Gesellschaft: Wieso ist der Laufsport in Japan so populär? Wettbewerb vs. Gemeinschaftsdenken: So unterscheidet sich der Ekiden vom Marathon. Disziplin, Lauftechnik oder Ernährung? Was macht die Japaner zu erfolgreichen Langstreckenläufern? Die unglaubliche Leistung der Marathon-Mönche: die spirituelle Dimension eines Volkssports Was wir von der japanischen Laufkultur lernen können: Erfahrungsbericht aus erster HandWenn der Weg das Ziel ist: Extremsport als SelbstfindungsreiseFinn träumt von der Teilnahme am Ekiden, als gleichberechtigtes Mitglied eines japanischen Teams. Kann ihm, dem Westeuropäer, so etwas gelingen? Erst das Treffen mit einem Tendai-Buddhisten ebnet Finn den Weg zu einem neuen Verständnis. Warum laufen wir überhaupt? Was motiviert uns, immer wieder die gleichen Trails zu nehmen? Warum trotzen wir dem Schmerz und jagen Bestleistungen hinterher? Auf einmal werden Rekorde zur Nebensache, Persönlichkeitsentwicklung und spirituelles Erwachen spielen dafür eine wichtige Rolle."Ekiden. Der Weg des Läufers." ist ein Insiderbericht über die japanische Laufkultur, der nicht nur Running-Nerds, sondern auch Japan-Fans in seinen Bann ziehen wird!