Back in 2016, I coauthored a short book (more a novella than a novel) with Phil Maffetone about a hypothetical “Million Dollar Marathon,” in which runners competed on a one-mile track, with the giant prize to anyone who could break 2 hours.
It’s fiction—I thought of it as near-future science fiction, since that is part of what I write—focused on a Tibetan refugee whose background gives him all the tools needed to make this quest possible.
Now, this weekend, the London Marathon—thanks to COVID-19—will be conducted under a protocol amazingly similar to that in our book. The best in the world, male and female will duel on ~20 laps of a 1.34-mile loop. Not a track, but not all that different from Phil’s and my setup.
The goal in London is simply to win. The elusive 2-hour barrier (which someone will eventually break) isn’t on the radar this time.
But the World Records could easily fall. And the excitement may well parallel that in the book.
If you’ve not read it, it’s available on Kindle or in print from amazon.com, and won’t set you back by even half the price of a movie in the theaters (if one is available in your neighborhood).
Note: I make no profit off the sales on this. I did my part of this on contract. Phil gets the proceeds. But it was a lot of fun, and if you’ve not read it, now’s a good time.