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Take one unfit 39-year-old Londoner and present him with the challenge of training for, and running, the New York City Marathon. This is Russell Taylor's humorous account of his journey from its unwise inception after too many beers, through the first teetering steps on the treadmill to the big show-down in NYC. Inspired by the charity running of his friends, Russell Taylor decided to spare himself the post-event trauma of trying to extract money from reluctant sponsors by writing this book and donating the proceeds to charity instead. This account follows our intrepid runner north London gym to the mean streets of Manhattan as we discover what lurks within the breast of theendurance athlete: an unreasonable hatred of his fellow runners (except nubile females of the species), a contempt for the idiocy of stadium announcers and a strange fear of spectators inanely shouting,"Keep going,"by way of encouragement. Written with panache and self-deprecating humour, this is ideal entertainment for anyone who has ever run any distance on their own two legs.

The Looniness of the Long Distance Runner: An Unfit Londoner's Attempt to Run the New York City Marathon