Running on Empty: An Ultramarathoner's Story of Love, Loss, and a Record-Setting Run Across America, Marshall Ulrich’s self-penned recount of his 2008 North American transcontinental run, from San Francisco to New York City, reads much like the man himself; smart, complex and caring yet tough, relentless, and a bit rough around the edges. And like the man, this book is one you’ll want to know well.
The book is currently available for pre-order HERE.
Named The Endurance King, by Outside magazine, Ulrich has over the past 30 years not only completed, but set records in, some of the world’s most grueling durance events including reaching the summit of the highest points on every continent, on the first attempt, including Mt. Everest. Plus, he is the only person to have completed the Badwater Quad, a completely unaided crossing of Death Valley to the summit of Mount Whitney, and the Leadville Trail 100 and the Pikes Peak Marathon on the same weekend. With a resume like that, even the title, The Endurance King, is unfittingly small.
On September 13, 2008, then at the age of 57 he and Charlie Engle, also an uber-endurance runner, set out to run across America with their eyes set on doing it faster than any of the few who had done it before. The record was set 28 years earlier, by 28-year-old Frank Giannino. If Ulrich were to break the record he would need to run about 68 miles a day, every day, for what he called, 45 “body chastising,” “soul scalding” days.
The enormity of such an attempt and the need to finance the journey lead to the documentary movie, Running America. Whereas the movie spends much of its time with the camera pointing towards the heart of the American countryside during the summer of a presidential election and a backdrop of a national banking crisis; the book instead focuses its attention – and rightfully so - towards the heart of Ulrich. Each work, the book and the movie, can stand on their own legs but they are better when combined, each serving as companion to the other.
Unlike so many other so-called autobiographies of athletes, there isn’t a coauthor of the book. Coauthor being codeword for a professional writer hired to turn thoughts into intelligible prose because the athlete either cannot write well, doesn’t have the time to write, or both. The words on these pages are genuine Ulrich and that’s OK because that’s what I wanted to read. So what if the phrases don’t always form silky, smooth sentences of puffery and grandiose glaze? That's not the goal of the book and it's not the goal of endurance sports. Instead the pages are filled with intelligent, raw, unvarnished thoughts and acts rising like the haze off the pavement on a hot day or the grit of the road stuck in your socks. And that's OK with me too because I’d much rather meet Ulrich along the road in the middle of a run - sweaty and grimy - instead of shaking his hand at a polished book signing luncheon.
Running on Empty is similar to a classic Greek tale structured in the modern western tradition of storytelling: prologue, three acts, and epilogue. Ulrich’s prologue introduces the main cast of characters and again, unlike so many other biographies of the successful, there is no petchulant, wronged, impoverished, misunderstood or oppressed child who rebelled against society and fought the establishment to make his mark. No, what we learn is Ulrich was a normal kid in rural Colorado with an involved father and an encouraging mother who fostered his imagination for the outdoors and adventure. Whether it was doing chores around the house or stacking bales of hay, his goal was simply to outwork those around him, chiefly his brother. That no-nonsense work ethic followed him through school, to his first business and eventually to his first road race, a 5k run. 5k races became 10k races and eventually half marathons and marathons but running had not yet become the center of his life.
It’s not until he’s an adult, married to his first wife Jean, when the life altering and character forging event of his life occurs; loosing his wife to cancer and thus the beginning of his endurance career and the three act play.
Starting with more character development of Ulrich, the protagonist and the introduction of Engle, the antagonist, he first poses the overriding question asked by all endurance athletes, and that is, why? To get to the answer Ulrich moves through life competing in one ultra-long run, adventure race, or mountain climb more extreme than the one before until the plan to run across the continent is hatched – his ultimate challenge, his Ithaca.
Playing their roles in perfect script, Engles is just as interested in self-promotion as he is in the run, maybe more, and definitely less supportive of his partner Ulrich; while the executives of the corporation bankrolling the film are like the gods of Acropolis doing what they can to Ulrich from afar for their own purposes. When Engles is injured early in the run and chooses to continue on a bicycle is when the real intrigue begins and test for Ulrich ensues. And just like the original Odyssey, among the most impressive elements of the text are its non-linear plot, and that events seem to depend as much on the choices made by Engles and the support crew as on the actions of Ulrich. All the while, his wife Heather is always faithful, always in his heart, never more than a couple of miles away, there to protect him from the infighting cast going on behind his back.
All through the three acts of the run; the quest defined, the clash of the players, and climatic conflict between Ulrich and the road; men and women come into and out of his life during the run. Some are agents of good and some are agents of ill. Through it all, and when faced with adversity and certain failure, Ulrich reaches deep into his touch psyche to prevail like a determined badger who only knows to dig until he reaches home – the finish line.
Running on Empty is a powerful testament to the will and mettle of Ulrich and a well told story of an epic run fraught with intrigue and adversity. And although the book is primarily a telling of the transcontinental run, it’s upon further contemplation you come to understand that at its heart, it’s a love letter to his wife.
True to the solitary task of the endurance athlete, Ulrich had to run the miles himself. Nobody else was going to do it for him. And just like any endurance athlete he’s quick to give credit to his support crew. This book does just that. In the end, the run, the road, and the minor players were all a backdrop to a testament of a great man’s love of his sport; and his wife.
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