Ultra
I’m a sucker for reading about long distance running or biking or walking or any long distance activity. I don’t want to do it necessarily. (Definitely not the running part.) But I find it fascinating to read about.
These are just a few of the books that I’ve read along the way.
I’m currently reading:
“Growing up in Yakima, Washington, Noé Ãlvarez worked at an apple-packing plant alongside his mother, who “slouched over a conveyor belt of fruit, shoulder to shoulder with mothers conditioned to believe this was all they could do with their lives.†A university scholarship offered escape, but as a first-generation Latino college-goer, Ãlvarez struggled to fit in.
At nineteen, he learned about a Native American/First Nations movement called the Peace and Dignity Journeys, epic marathons meant to renew cultural connections across North America. He dropped out of school and joined a group of Dené, Secwépemc, Gitxsan, Dakelh, Apache, Tohono O’odham, Seri, Purépecha, and Maya runners, all fleeing difficult beginnings. Telling their stories alongside his own, Ãlvarez writes about a four-month-long journey from Canada to Guatemala that pushed him to his limits. He writes not only of overcoming hunger, thirst, and fear―dangers included stone-throwing motorists and a mountain lion―but also of asserting Indigenous and working-class humanity in a capitalist society where oil extraction, deforestation, and substance abuse wreck communities.”
