The American Frank Shorter had won gold and silver medals in two successive Olympic marathons, igniting a running boom. When he was my age, my dad decided to take up jogging to drop some of those excess pounds. He drank a couple of beers every evening after work, and never exercised. It goes like this: When my dad was my age, thirty-nine years old, he smoked three packs of cigarettes a day. We never talk about the story rattling around my head, the story haunting me. Gingerly, we dance around what I call my career, and what he once called my permanent vacation. We talk about the Chicago Cubs and his golf game and whether he’s added any beer cans to his collection. A female friend, upon being introduced to him, reports that my dad “still has it going on.” He and I talk on the phone at least once a week. He’s retired now, finally, from one of those vague business-type jobs-management consultant in his case-that paid him enough money to support a wife, to shepherd four kids through graduate schools, to care for his mother, and to take vacations now and then. Alive for more than seventy years, he’s spent the last thirty in a Midwestern suburb, in a four-story house overlooking a small sylvan lake.

He’s never been arrested, was never late with a bill, and he sits through five p.m. A little shorter than he used to be, which was never exactly tall. How does a ghost story start? How about with an old man? The one I’m thinking about is unexceptional on the surface. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title.

Over the 26.2 chapters that follow, Powell grapples with his past relationships, gaining insight and hard-won discipline that give him hope for the future. He moved to Boulder and began running in earnest for the first time in his life. Knocked down by a painful divorce and inspired by his father, Powell decided to change his mindset and circumstances. Running Away is the story of how one decision can alter the course of a life. It was also about the joy and relief of coming back up after hitting rock bottom. Powell’s emotional reaction to completing the race wasn’t just about the run, though. Long distance runners understand where those tears come from, even if there are others who will never understand what drives someone to run 26.2 consecutive miles in a grueling mental and physical test.

When journalist Robert Andrew Powell finished his first marathon, he cried, cradled in his father’s arms. A moving memoir about failure, acceptance, and the challenge of simply staying in the race

Running away by robert andrew powell