After years of watching Kenyan athletes win the world's biggest long-distance races, the author sets out to discover what it was that made them so fast - and to see if he could keep up. He moved to Iten, Kenya, the running capital of the world, and started investigating. Was it running barefoot to school, the food, the altitude, or something else?

Tells the remarkable story of Adharanand Finn's personal quest to discover the secrets of some of the world's greatest runners, inspired by years of watching Kenyan athletes win renowned races in the Olympics and other major marathons. 'I've seldom read a better account of the exhilaration of running' "Evening Standard"