For Nicholas Thompson, running has always been about something more than putting one foot in front of another.
He ran his first mile at age five, using it as a way to connect with his father as his family fell apart. As a young man, it was a sport that transformed, and then shook, his sense of self-worth. In his thirties, it was a way of coping with a profound medical scare.
By his early forties, Thompson had many accomplishments. He was the editor in chief of a major magazine, a devoted husband and father, and a passionate runner. But he was haunted by the recent death of his brilliant, complicated father and the crack-up that derailed his father’s life. Did the intensity and ambition he’d inherited make a personal crisis inevitable for him as well?
Then a chance offer gave him the opportunity to train for the Chicago Marathon with elite coaches. Committing himself to the sport more fully than ever before, he discovers that aging doesn’t necessarily put you on an unbroken trajectory of decline. For seven years after his father’s death, Thompson transforms his body to perform at its highest capacity, and the profound discipline and awareness he builds along the way changes every aspect of his life. Throughout the narrative, he weaves in stories of remarkable men and women who have used the sport to transcend some of the hardest moments in life.
The Running Ground is a story about fathers, sons, and the most basic and most beautiful of sports.
Praise and Press
“An endlessly surprising, revelatory, and heart-rending read.”
— Anna wintour
“This is not just an engaging memoir about running. It’s a meditation on what it takes to marshal and maintain motivation. Nick Thompson’s extraordinary strides illuminate how to unlock your potential.”
— Adam grant, New York Times bestselling author
“More than a book about running—it’s a deeply human and beautifully written story of honest introspection where Thompson illustrates how the simplest sport can help us navigate the most complex terrain of our own lives.”
— Kilian Jornet, ultramarathoner and world RECORD holder
“At its heart, The Running Ground is about fathers and sons, ambition and aging, and the quiet grace of moving ever forward. It’s an important look at how one of the simplest human actions—placing one foot in front of the other—can help us outrun our shadows, and catch what we love most.”
— Charles duhigg, pulitzer-prize winning journalist
“In The Running Ground, Nick Thompson chases something far more elusive than a finish line. With the curiosity of a journalist and the heart of a lifelong runner, he traces movement, identity, ambition, and the quiet reckoning we all face with time. Clear-eyed, deeply felt, and often surprising, it reminds us that endurance is a story that can only be written step by step.”
— Jared Beasley, author of “the endurance artist”
“Nicholas Thompson’s amazing memoir charts his awakening (and ours vicariously) through running. Here body, mind, and heart become an advanced machine that transcends age and time and generations, uniting him and us in the race of a lifetime.”
— Ken burns, documentary filmmaker
“In this pensive memoir, Atlantic CEO Thompson ruminates on the lessons he’s learned from fatherhood and distance running. . . . [Thompson] manages to weave everything into an appealing whole. It’s a satisfying self-portrait.”
— Publishers weekly
“An exemplary memoir of a life spent on the run.”
— kirkus reviews
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