“A dusty road stretches into the distance like a pencil line across the arid landscape. Lions, rhino, and buffalo roam the plains on either side. But I haven’t come to Kenya to spot wildlife. I’ve come to run.”

Whether running is your recreation, your religion, or just a spectator sport, Adharanand Finn’s incredible journey to the elite training camps of Kenya will captivate and inspire you. Part travelogue, part memoir, this mesmerizing quest to uncover the secrets of the world’s greatest runners—and put them to the test—combines practical advice, a fresh look at barefoot running, and hard-won spiritual insights.

As a boy growing up in the English countryside, Adharanand Finn was a natural runner. While other kids struggled, he breezed through schoolyard races, imagining he was one of his heroes: the Kenyan long-distance runners exploding into prominence as Olympic and world champions. But as he grew up, pursued a career in journalism, married and had children, those childhood dreams slipped away—until suddenly, in his mid-thirties, Finn realized he might have only one chance left to see how far his talents could take him.

Uprooting his family of five, including three small children, Finn traveled to Iten, a small, chaotic town in the Rift Valley province of Kenya—a mecca for long-distance runners thanks to its high altitude, endless running paths, and some of the top training schools in the world. Finn would run side by side with Olympic champions, young hopefuls, and barefoot schoolchildren . . . not to mention the exotic—and sometimes dangerous—wildlife for which Kenya is famous.

Here, too, he would meet a cast of colorful characters, including his unflappable guide, Godfrey Kiprotich, a former half marathon champion; Christopher Cheboiboch, one of the fastest men ever to run the New York City Marathon; and Japhet, a poor, bucktoothed boy with unsuspected reservoirs of courage and raw speed. Amid the daily challenges of training and of raising a family abroad, Finn would learn invaluable lessons about running—and about life.

Running with the Kenyans is more than one man’s pursuit of a lifelong dream. It’s a fascinating portrait of a magical country—and an extraordinary people seemingly born to run.

" 【英】亞德哈羅南德·芬恩（Adharanand Finn）

目前任職於《衛報》，同時也是《跑者世界》雜誌的特約記者，還在《獨立報》撰寫專欄。他熱中於路跑運動，青少年時期曾是英國越野賽跑的選手，目前他和傢人住在英國德文郡埃剋賽特鎮，最近剛贏得當地的十公裏路跑賽第一名。

亞德哈羅南德·芬恩多年來觀察到肯尼亞跑者從奪冠奧運會到稱霸各大城市馬拉鬆賽，也看到全球頂級的跑步選手隻要到肯尼亞訓練幾個月，跑步速度就會更上一層樓。久未跑步訓練、體態完全變樣的他，以全世界最艱難的裏瓦馬拉鬆賽為目標，踏上尋找肯尼亞人跑步這麼快的秘密。"