3,063 Miles. 52 Days. 57 Years Old

IN FALL 2008, MARSHALL ULRICH COMPLETED the mind-bending and body-breaking equivalent of 117 back-to-back marathons as he ran an average of more than 400 miles a week, and climbed 84,430 feet, in temperatures ranging from below freezing to the upper 90s. He crossed 3,063.2 miles and 12 states on foot from California to New York. See Marshall's trailer:

Yet his memoir, Running on Empty, is about more than this one contest, a single sport, or an individual athlete:

• This deeply personal story explains what drives the extreme athlete, what compels the endurance kings and queens to keep going no matter what.
• The book reveals unexpected rewards and intense competition, exploring the effects of rivalry, trash-talking, and an uncompromising will to win.
• It spotlights the history of ultrarunning, showing how this elite sport lays claim to a nearly unmatched egalitarian past.
• Running on Empty pays a surprising tribute to the power of friendship and love, which turn out to be even more important than self-reliance when you’re serious about endurance