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comment by ButterflyEffect
ButterflyEffect  ·  715 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: May 11, 2022

The weather has finally beaten me down. Too warm to be snowing below like 5k feet, what snow we are getting is heavy and wet and generally bad for skiing, and the rain means no rock climbing, more wet running, and temps generally haven't broken out of the 50s yet. Feels like we've had 7 months of fall at this point with a couple of weeks of winter sprinkled in. The good news is, our snow-water equivalent is through the fucking roof compared to historic median, so hopefully that will work in our favor in the summer!

Outside of that, thinking about a convergence. Still trying to figure out when, how, and what to do about a possible long-travel trip. By which I mean, the PCT, or maybe the CDT, or going West to East (or East to West) across America. There's a lot of allure in that to me.





wasoxygen  ·  715 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Are you watching Mike Wardian’s transcon? He had done ten 50-mile days and was halfway across Nevada on Monday.

ButterflyEffect  ·  714 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yes. I follow him on Strava and it’s been amazing seeing the daily progress he’s been making. I also just finished the classic book, Ultramarathon by James Shapiro and am now trying to track down a couple of rare, out of print books from two South African runners from the 70s (or so). Any tips for finding rare, niche books? Nothing on eBay, ThriftBooks, Amazon, or other small retailers I’ve looked at so far!

wasoxygen  ·  714 days ago  ·  link  ·  

eBay is my best source, but I just pick up disposable paperbacks. Maybe you could use a saved search and get a notification when a listing appears.

Are you assembling a collection of rare running books? There are only two copies of that Shapiro book on eBay and the cheaper one is $83.

ButterflyEffect  ·  714 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, might have to just put it as a notification and maybe reach out to the local library and some Facebook groups (crazy that that might be the best bet).

What if I told you that there was, finally, a 2nd edition of Ultramathon published and you can pick it up for less than $20 (less tax and shipping) from the publisher?

https://www.echopointbooks.com/sports-recreation/ultramarathon

UPDATE: I found one of the books I'm looking for, Four Million Footsteps, through a one-person publishing company out of the UK. How fitting. The single 1st edition copy available on Amazon is $250, so you should consider the $80 for a 1st edition of Ultramarathon to be a bargain!

kleinbl00  ·  714 days ago  ·  link  ·  
ButterflyEffect  ·  604 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Update for you and wasoxygen - found that book, and the white whale, My Run Across the United States last night!!! Took 3.5 months...

wasoxygen  ·  714 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Interesting, one eBay listing says the publisher of the Shapiro book was Bantam Books, that venerable house of pulpy paperbacks.

The new edition is printed by Echo Point, an aptly named print-on-demand service for out of print titles.

With shipping, the paperback is 50¢ cheaper than on Amazon, and the up-to-10-day lead time to run off a copy gives me time to make progress in another eBay book.