‘In the Spell of the Barkley’ by Michiel Panhuysen

Yep, it’s another running book. This time about the infamous Barkley Marathons and an account of Panhuysen’s various attempts to complete it. Spolier alert: he failed to complete it. Probably not much of a spolier, very few people have ever completed the Barkley Marathons.

Although, it’s more than just a book about how a bloke kept failing, it’s a story of sporting obsession, exploring what drives people to challenge themselves at the limits of what is possible.

It’s quite nice to read a running book where the writer doesn’t actually ‘win’. If you know nothing about the Barkley Marathons this book is well worth a read, if you know a bit, probably not.